Romania is a land of a thousand faces.
The crossing point between the Occident and the Orient,
and a melting pot of different cultures.
Is also a country unlike any other in Europe.
With over half of the Carpathian mountain range weaving through it,
Romania is the custodian of Europe's greatest surviving mixed forests
and two-thirds of its apex predators.
As well as native Romanians, it is home to Hungarian,
Saxon,
Roma,
Serbian,
Greek and many more divers peoples
united by the borders of a nation
that stretches to the mouth of the Danube.
However, Romania's natural and built heritage
is under threat from reckless development
and a race to modernize which often destroys
the very things that could ensure prosperity for generations to come.
Welcome back to our ongoing odyssey of Romania's great historic regions.
The snows have now melted and we're back in the saddle
for the last two episodes of this mammoth road trip
commencing with Bucovina, the land of the beech trees.
To get there I have driven up past Toplița,
visited in episode one,
and I'm currently trying to take a shortcut across the hills
on what quickly turned out to be yet another series of dirt roads.
Well, it's been over six months since you saw us last
and it's now May, and there's still snow on the mountains.
This has been a ridiculously long winter.
Anyway, we're back on the road and well, I say road...
In fact, this looked like a main road on the map
and it's actually a pitted dirt track for the next 20 km.
However, welcome to the penultimate episode of Flavours of Romania:
Bucovina.
And we're gonna be driving up here into the mountains,
and hopefully there might be some lunch waiting for us at the other end.
Riding towards Vatra Dornei,
our first port of call is a small trout farm in the hills near Coverca.
Here, the countryside is still largely unspoilt by modern housing
and dotted with traditional wooden homes.
Hello!
- Hi! Andrei? - Andrei.
- Ana. - Ana.
Nice to meet you.
That's obviously the smoker.
Yeah, here Andrei smokes our trouts.
This is ready to eat.
You can also taste it hot or cold.
- It's nice hot, isn't it? - Yeah.
Hot smoked trout.
With a little bread or... How do you eat it?
- Butter. - Bread and butter with some lemon.
Yeah, lemon also.
Tell me about this.
- This is a... - Flavouring process.
Yeah, and it's special for this forest area.
Someone must've invented that, though, at some point.
Someone must've gone into the forest and said,
well, I've got some trout at home, I wonder what it tastes like
if I bind it in a pine tennis racket.
The original story started in Putna Valley
during the King's time.
The King used to come to this area
and the local ranger wanted to offer him a special gift,
so he smoked some huchen,
back then you could still find it in the rivers,
and he wrapped it into a cobză, like this one.
Of course.
Except that in Putna Valley this is done without this little tail.
You added the tail to make it look more like a fish.
But you would put the fish inside this for how many days or hours?
- For one, two days. - Two days. OK.
Would you like to taste some with a fir tree flavour?
Absolutely.
This one was done the day before yesterday.
- It's so different. - Yeah?
It tastes really moist as well.
And that is just kept outside at this kind of temperature.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
Here, in Bucovina, we usually eat the trout with sour cream.
Today we'll cook trout with sour cream and we'll add in the sour cream some...
And some little mushrooms?
We'll add some little mushrooms.
I'm gonna just get out of the way and let you get on.
Yeah? Thank you.
- Sorrel. - Sorrel.
That's the nicest trout I've ever eat.
- Thank you. - You should have a restaurant.
Yeah.
I hope that's on the plans for the future.
- A locally gastro point. - Gastro point.
- I shall give you a glowing review.
Thank you.
After lunch, it was time to head towards our stop for the evening,
a glamping and adventure outfit in the village of Satu Mare,
that offers rafting trips on the Bistrița river.
Arriving just before dusk I grabbed a spare yurt
in preparation for the following day's activities.
The site also boast a cute little restaurant
with accommodation upstairs for those who prefer sleeping indoors.
Early the next day,
we make our way down to the boat yard to get kitted out.
To add a bit more excitement, I opted for a kayak,
the plan being to escort the raft on its journey downriver.
Extra extra large
that no way reflects on my manly physique, you must understand.
Perfect.
You're looking like a lemon.
He's looking like a lemon.
If this helps you.
To the confession with me.
- It turned into a wedding march. - We are gathered here today...
...for the union between these two...
- Lemons. - Lemons.
The first stretch was a gentle paddle into the gorge
passing beneath a series of bridges
before the current started gathering pace
and the soft gurgle of the river
was replaced by the distant roar of the rapids.
To the right and forward!
Straight forward!
Back on terra firma
I grabbed a quick coffee with guide and instructor Adrian Dumitrache.
High five, mate!
Thank you for that, Adrian. That was a lot of fun.
You're very welcome. You did very well. It was a very nice effort.
I'm a bit rusty, but it wasn't too big, the water was about average, wasn't it?
- Just a bit above average. - I guess it gets big, though.
It gets. You can have like one meter higher than it was now.
We have that point where we can measure it.
You saw that big rock just before the waves?
And that sometimes it goes over it and that's the maximum level.
So for people who want to come and learn to kayak, for example,
and do sort of moderate things like I did today,
would you be able to give them lessons,
could they come and train, and learn?
This is exactly what we do together with a team.
We take them from the beginning.
This is the best place for the beginners to learn
because it's a very good part of the river in the beginning
where the water is shallow, so they can learn from zero.
Leaving the lowlands behind
we make for another of Romania's most scenic drives:
The Transrarău which snakes up and over the top
of one Bucovina's most panoramic mountains.
The road takes you through pretty villages,
beside a small stream
before it climbs skyward around hairpin bends
and through dimly lit forests,
occasionally flaring into rich greens
when pierced by slanting rays of sunlight.
Near the top, the temperature drops noticeably
until I passed stubborn snow drifts,
the last vestiges of winter, clinging to the shadows.
I'm on my way to Hai La Saivan, an award winning eco-lodge
run by friends Raluca and Jorg Riommi,
located not far from the foot of the mountain,
just the other side of Câmpulung Moldovenesc.
The only obstacle being a deep river
which was not an option for the bike.
Fortunately,
their guide Beni had a safe place to stash it for the night.
- Hey! - Welcome!
- Charlie. - Beni.
- Nice to meet you, Beni. - Nice to meet you also.
So how far away to Hai La Saivan?
- Ten minutes. - Ten minutes. OK.
And there's a river.
We need to cross a river.
- This is gonna stay here in that case. - I think so.
Armed with more appropriate transport we set off for Hai La Saivan,
turning left on a dirt road
that quickly became suitable only for four-wheel drives.
- You arrived! - Raluca.
- How are you? - Lovely to see you.
- Lovely to see you, too. - How's all being going?
It's been good.
In the Covid time I think it was even better
because people were searching for these kind of houses.
Now we're understanding actually where we stand.
It's been a lot of work also because there was nothing here.
It was like there,
where is the sheepfold, where are the cows,
it was just the hill, it was really nothing.
- So you had no existing buildings here. - Nothing.
You didn't build these from scratch.
You brought these houses from other places.
This is actually made out of two barns. That one is an old barn.
The first one was the little one, the white one.
- The really cute small one over there. - Yes.
And then we brought the last one. It was like grandpa's house.
- And where did you find these houses? - In the village.
In the beginning was really hard to get them
because people were just cutting them and throw...
- Burning them. - Burning them.
That's how we get that one, like wood for fire.
Really? Someone was using that for fire?
Yeah. He just said, "Do you need some wood to burn?"
And we were like, yeah, whatever.
And they showed us the house
and my husband that is Italian, Jorg, he was like, "Oh my God.
Like in Italy you raise them, you build them, you rebuild them..."
In Italy, people would appreciate the value of a house like that.
It would become a destination, wouldn't it?
- Yes. - So, Ralu,
you grow up in a village near here, haven't you?
Yeah, very close, in Vama.
It was amazing because I never thought I'm gonna come back,
and actually Jorg, my husband, brought me back to this place,
to Vama, back to my family because I thought I could live in the city.
Normally husbands would do anything not to have to be close to their in-laws.
Exactly. Have an exception.
- That is a huge tick in the box. - Yes.
And it's so nice that your parents are so involved with the business as well.
Yeah. If it wouldn't be for them, I couldn't actually run it.
How does that affect their life,
'cause obviously before your Mom was doing other things,
your Dad was just keeping the animals here...
I think it's better for them. My father didn't go down from the hill.
He liked it so much here,
he said, "I have everything here. Why do I need to go down?"
You know, your Mom is catering, isn't she?
She's doing the food for the guests.
My Mom is the best cook in the world. Not because she's my Mom.
She's a professional chef.
The central part of being here I think is obviously the view and just relaxing,
but I mean there are walks and lots of other things to do around.
We have Moara Dracului which is an amazing well.
- That's Devil's Mill, isn't it? - Yes.
It's a very beautiful attraction and it's not so known by people.
OK. That's top of the list,
but also getting your Mom to cook us some pizza for lunch would be great.
That should be top of the list.
- That is the top of the list. - It's really good.
The big day!
Hello! How are you?
- I'm good. - I can't believe...
- Good to see you, Charlie! - Good to see you, Jorg!
I cannot believe we're making a pizza without you.
We're having all the ingredients here.
But I trust you. I trust your skills because we did it a couple of times.
I know, but I'm in very capable hands as well with Raluca's Mom.
- Ciao, Jorg! - This was what I wanted to say.
I was talking earlier with Raluca
about how you worked here for months and months,
you know, as your office.
How was it running a PR agency basically in Bucharest
from a small farm in the hills, in the mountains?
Now, technology allows to do it.
I think you can work pretty much from everywhere
when you have a good connection.
For two months and a half I literally didn't get down from the mountain.
I remember Raluca was going once a week downstairs
to buy the things that we cannot produce there like toilet paper, for instance.
What do you mean you don't produce your own toilet paper?
We are in the making. We will do that also.
- Bio. - Bio.
Oh my God.
So movies with flea on, yeah?
This is the thing about interconnectivity.
You're in Milan, and we're in Bucovina eating Italian pizza.
And you should eat sarmale.
And talking to you as if you were next door. I love that.
- Exactly. - Jorg, great to see you, buddy.
I'll see you very soon.
Grabbing a slice of eponymously named pizza
I set off with Beni to visit the Devil's Mill.
So if we carried on up this trail where will we end up?
We end at Rarău.
- How long would that take? - Three hours from here.
Just three hours to get all around? I guess you'd have to be quite fit.
I think so.
My question is though, why is it called the Devil's Mill?
That's a good question. Because I don't know.
- You don't know. - I have no idea.
That's interesting
'cause I asked Raluca and she didn't know either.
So I think to invent some mythology.
Romanians are very good at inventing mythology.
So let's say that there was a hermit who lived here,
in a cave, and the Devil would tempt him regularly
with promises of money, and beautiful girls,
and influence, and power, and he always said no
and carried on saying no, and the Devil got so angry in the end,
he struck the rock with his pitchfork and he blew it apart,
and created this gorge, destroyed the hermit's cave,
and the river just pulled down through the rift and the rocks here,
and afterwards it was known as the Devil's Gorge.
- Maybe that's what happened. - Or the Devil's Cauldron.
There we are. We have new mythology.
If someone's watching this
actually knows why is called the Devil's Cauldron.
Feel free to write us and let us know.
As we saw with other regions on our travels,
Bucovina also has its share of ethnic minorities
that have relocated here over the centuries.
I'm on my way to the little village of Pleșa
which is almost entirely populated by Polish Romanians
in order to sample another culturally diverse flavour of Romania.
- Hello! - Hello! Welcome to our place!
Thank you.
Here we speak Polish, but also Romanian.
Why here?
We left Poland, I mean our ancestors arrived here,
sixteen families in search of a better living.
They were deforestation and salt mining specialists.
This is a traditional Polish dish, isn't it?
Yes, it's a traditional Polish recipe.
It's called colțunași in Romanian.
These are made from products anyone has had at home.
- Potatoes, eggs, bacon... - șuncă, yeah.
...cottage cheese, sheep's cheese, sour cream, homemade butter.
Homemade butter with normal butter?
- It's homemade with dandelion flavour. - OK.
The butter's got the dandelions beside it
because it's flavoured with dandelions,
because the cows eat a lot of dandelions at this time of year
or Bășina Porcului as we call them in Romania.
Literally pig's farts.
Charming name for a flower!
Regardless of the flower's name, its aroma is extraordinary.
Okay.
Please.
We mix the sheep's cheese with potatoes.
We add some pepper.
Very good!
And now we are kneading.
How are relations with the other villagers?
You know, with the Romanian people here?
I can use the word "brother".
We were welcomed like that. We consider ourselves brothers.
We are friends, we understand well.
The language is the only thing we change,
because at home we speak Polish, and with them, we speak Romanian.
We shall now prepare the cottage cheese.
We shall add an egg, some sugar.
How the traditions differ from Romanian village?
There are many traditions we respect,
but the most beautiful one is St. Andrei's.
That is when spells are cast.
Girls tie up the road, hoping that their chosen one will stumble.
Their prepare colțunași
in which they put little tickets with the boys' names
and put them to a boil.
But until then,
they bring water into their mouths nine times
which they put it in while kneading the colțunași.
And they have to pick one.
Yes.
Then they put the colțunași to a boil,
and the one that surfaces, that's the chosen one.
But now girls are smarter,
the one colțunaș is smaller, so that it boils quicker.
What if they don't like the ticket they take?
If they take it and it's a guy they really don't like,
can they put it back in and choose another one?
She can't. There's another possibility.
She puts all the tickets on a zolitor.
A zolitor is a device for manual laundry.
And she brings them to the dog.
But mind you, the dog must be very hungry.
She leaves them there and lets the dog chooses a ticket.
And the dog took three colțunași.
Right.
The dog chooses the future husband.
That's an interesting selection process.
I like that.
We make the colțunași in different shapes.
It depends on the filling. We recognize them as they boil.
The sweet ones in a bowl, and the others in another bowl.
I've made this one sun-shaped, and these are filled with salty cheese.
This takes a bit of practice and skill.
That's why the grandmothers are so good at it,
'cause they've had a lifetime to perfect it.
The finger is a little bigger, it comes out different. It's perfect.
We put the colțunași to boil.
Now the colțunași are ready.
We say poftă bună in Romanian and smacznego in Polish.
- Smacznego. - Smacznego.
I'm gonna be a big fun of the savoury version
because it's liberally coated in pork fat and bacon.
Fantastic.
- Delicious. - Delicious.
A short ride due north and we reach Horodnic de Jos,
home to what is probably
the largest collection of vintage motorbikes in the country,
not something I could possibly drive past
without stopping to investigate,
with the help of eccentric owner and entrepreneur Sandu Scheul.
- Hello! - Hello!
Charlie. Nice to meet you.
That is quite a collection you have.
- Here I have 240 motorcycles. - Two hundred forty bikes.
All work. This is a communist motorcycle from Czechoslovakia.
Czech Republic.
Why motorcycles?
My father bought a little motorcycle. It is there.
I like very much and I'm an engineer in meat industry.
I like very much mechanics.
- So is a passion restoring bikes. - Yes.
- And you started collected them. - Yes.
I have my company Killer, meat company.
You have a meat company called Killer.
A meat company called Killer. It does what it says on the tin.
That's hilarious.
This is the first electric car in Romania.
It is very, very nice
because the president of Mexico gave it as a present to Nadia Comăneci.
- It works, yeah? - Yes.
- Come. - I'm too big. I'm gonna let you go.
- I'll watch. - No, come. It's very good.
- Cinderella it's her name. - My God.
This is just ridiculous.
It looks like is straight out of this sort of steampunk time
of London Circuit 1905, and yet it's an electric car.
Oh my God!
You have a Nazi German machine gun bike.
- And this is desert version, isn't it? - Zündapp.
- OK. From the war. - Yeah.
So this was probably used in the war to kill people.
Zündapp Sahara.
Monet. That's presumably French.
Donald.
Of course, is perfect for the traffic in Paris.
- And here I have ten Harley-Davidson. - What a collection!
- This is the American IronHorse. - IronHorse.
Softail. Love that bike.
Road one of those across America from Los Angeles to Miami.
Really, really nice bike.
I have a proposition for you.
We're going to see an atelier, okay, for ceramics.
It's not far. I don't think. It's about 15 minutes.
So how about we do a swap?
I leave you my bike, my Harley-Davidson,
and I take a traditional Romanian bike?
I am very glad to drive your Harley-Davidson,
and you drive my Mobra.
- Your Mobra. - Yes?
That's a much smaller bike, though, so you have to go slowly.
- Yes. - Alright.
- Let's have a go. - Thank you very much.
The town of Margina is only eight km away
but it felt like hours rather than minutes...
If you believe, as I do, that life is all about the journey,
then I recommend buying a Mobra.
It's a noisy little time machine that sharpens your senses
and forces you to live entirely in the present.
I found out it was an experience riding that bike.
It's got two neutrals, right?
It's got a neutral between one and two,
and then between three and four also there's another neutral.
But it is very, very little.
I know, it's only little. And I like it, it's cute!
It is a little Harley-Davidson, a Romanian little Harley-Davidson.
- Very small little Harley-Davidson. - Yes.
And it sounded a bit like a lawn mower when I was going around, of course,
but it's really fun and it's a piece of history as well.
When people see the Mobra, wow! Mobra is the star.
I know, more than my bike.
They were actually waving to me on the Mobra, you know,
ignoring him completely.
- Do you want to change the motorcycle? - No, I'm not gonna swap.
I've got too far to go and I couldn't quite get the speed.
I'm a bit heavy for a bike like that, to be honest.
Charlie, thank you for your visit at my exhibition.
No, it's my pleasure. Thank you for showing us your beautiful museum.
And you're riding that back now, are you?
- Yes. - OK.
Farewell!
- Goodbye! - Goodbye! Safe trip.
Well, that was a blast from the past
and a little bit hairy for me because I didn't actually have any mirrors,
so you constantly having to look over your shoulder
to make sure there's not a truck bearing down on you
when you're doing 35 miles an hour.
However, I've got safely to the town of Margina.
In season one, we went to Horezu and we saw a center
where everyone was making pottery and ceramics.
But up here in Margina, they do it slightly differently.
It's known as black ceramics.
What that involves I'm not quite sure, but we're about to find out.
Meantime, I think I'm gonna have a quick coffee after that.
- Hi, Charlie! - Hello!
This is extremely elegant. This is the black ceramics, isn't it?
Original black ceramics.
This is the old workshop of my family.
And in this moment it's a restaurant with traditional food.
We have five generations of potters in our family.
This job is transmitted from father to son.
All the boys started from seven, maybe eight years old.
And this is very rare.
Well, of course, 'cause normally somebody at some point says,
well, I like to be a professional tennis player for example,
- ...do something different. - It's true.
- But in our family is a tradition. - You're carrying the torch now, are you?
- Yeah. - Exactly.
I've never seen anything quite like this before.
Is that 'cause it's... it seems a local clay that is different.
The clay is from our village.
The black pottery is unique in Romania
because the black colour is natural, it's not painted.
- So that isn't a glaze. - No, it's unglazed.
- Our pottery becomes black in the oven. - It's so beautiful! It's metallic-looking.
- It's metallic, yeah. - Why is that?
The secret is in the burning without oxygen.
We're burning it first with pine wood, seven hours, maybe eight,
till 700 degrees. At that moment, we hermetically close the kiln
and we make the oxygen reduction.
- So you starved it of oxygen. - Yeah.
And that accounts for the sort of metallic appearance of the clay.
- This fire gives this... - It almost burn it.
- So it's actually carbon. - Yeah, the carbon is the colour.
Would you give me a demonstration? I know you've got a wheel prepared.
- Of course. - May I have a look at how you do it?
I have to prepare the clay.
- It looks like you're preparing bread. - Absolutely.
- So what are you making? - I'm gonna make a jug.
- Already? - Yep.
I can see how's that could go badly wrong.
There seem to be a lot of people making ceramics here in this town.
We have three families now who make ceramics
but in the past there were 60 families.
We're almost done.
That didn't seem to take very log at all.
- And that's it. - This is...
You make it look extremely easy.
So you don't normally put a glaze on it
'cause it looks beautiful in its original form.
- We don't glaze our pottery. - No.
- It's so beautiful black and is original. - I know. Why bother? Exactly.
The historic landscape of Bucovina
has been shaped by its geo-political position
between the Occident and the Orient, and the efforts of Stephen the Great,
who repeatedly repelled the Ottoman invaders
and preserved the region's Christian identity.
To understand more
about the man who was later elevated to the status of a saint
we are heading to Putna,
the first and most important monastic center
in what was once the Principality of Moldavia.
Our story begins in the densely forested Vițău Valley outside town
with a hermit monk named Daniel Sihastrul
who carved himself a stone refuge where he lived and meditated
becoming famous for his prophesies and spiritual guidance.
To find out more I arranged to meet local priest Father Protosinghel.
Saint Daniel, the hermit, came here about 20 years
before the building the foundation of our monastery
and he stayed here 20 years...
- In there. Prayed here. - Right here.
He shaped it, he made it more appropriate for his needs.
- Fit for habitation. - For habitation, but no only.
Because he would receive many people here,
he would give them confessions, advices, counselling and something like that.
That is how Stephen the Great came here in the first place
to receive counsel from Saint Daniel,
to hear from him which is the will of God.
And Saint Daniel told him
you should go there to build a monastery for your tomb.
And Saint Stephen the Great wasn't convinced that it was God's will.
And he insisted, are you sure that that is the place?
And Saint Daniel told him, I know so because God showed me,
I heard coming from there singing chants from angels,
and he showed him again that place,
and Saint Stephen could see lights coming from there.
- This is the legend. - OK.
So we need to know which is God's will,
we need to familiarize with it
and that's why we go to certain people to ask them,
to let them guide us, you know?
- Well, thank you for guiding me. - You're very welcome.
To Putna Monastery we will go from here to there.
Thank you, Father.
God help us.
You're very welcome.
Five minutes the other side of Putna and we reach the monastery itself;
Final resting place of Stephen the Great
and most recently the starting point for the Via Transilvanica.
At the urging of Daniil Sihastrul, Stephen built here in 1466,
allegedly having fired an arrow from an adjacent hill
and starting construction at the point where it fell.
Curiously, there is evidence of a previous church
beneath the existing building,
either just by coincidence
or perhaps proof of the spiritual resonance of this location.
And this is the final resting place
of probably Romania's greatest historical hero and saint
Ștefan cel Mare.
And during his lifetime, he designed his own tomb out of white marble,
but he omitted one detail: The date of his death
which was to be filled in later.
As you can see, no one ever did.
It was said that on hearing the news, the entire nation cried
and it's probably because in some sense
they didn't want to accept the finality of it
that they refused to add the final detail to his tomb
and kept it blank,
the idea being that he in some sense transcended death
and watches over the Romanian people from heaven.
Decades ago, most of the homes in the main street in Putna
were beautifully handcrafted wooden buildings.
Now almost entirely replaced with modern domiciles.
Just one small oasis of heritage
still exists amid the sea of concrete, bricks and mortar.
Thanks to the efforts of the local people, and a French expat named Pascal Garnier
this complex of historic houses, which includes a family museum,
is in the process of being lovingly restored
using time-honoured techniques to ensure an authentic finish.
This sort of neighbourhood gathering,
where everyone chips in with their respective skills,
is known as a clacă,
and one of the oldest, most inspiring and endangered traditions in Romania.
Pascal. Hello!
- Hello. Welcome. - How are you?
- Very well, thanks. - Very well?
You know, I've got to ask this question.
I'm sure everybody does, but what is a Frenchman doing here in Putna?
Maybe love. I think love for this type of houses and love for a woman.
Love for a Romanian woman, I know. It's the same story I keep hearing.
- I know that. - Absolutely.
- So what are doing at the moment? - This is the final stage done inside...
when the clay is spread on the floor.
The walls are already prepared and we finished what we had to do there.
Now we're taking care of the lower part
and we're preparing the material for the last layer,
a sort of a wear layer,
and we're using a special clay mixed with horse dung.
In the dung, there are horse-digested straws,
and so it makes a sort of a long-time coating.
And it's also mixed with sand.
This is the recipe from the people that have been doing it for many years.
A gentleman of about 70 years old gave me the recipe.
It's so encouraging to see
that all of this house has been built using traditional skills
and that there are enough people that remember how to do these things
and actually are passing them on.
We're doing the most simple part.
Those who worked the most at this house's foundation
worked on it 140 years ago.
It was then when the wood was cut and processed by hand.
Now we have modern tools and it's going much faster.
The hardest part for us was with the clay.
After each stage of work you need to wait for the clay to dry
and to prepare the structure.
The second stage is the smearing.
We use yellow clay mixed with straws and water.
It's trampled underfoot and then thrown against the walls.
So this is the final stage of the floor going down.
It's very important that the first layer has cracks in it.
Then the next layer is better fixed.
It traps air presumably and that's an insulator... pockets of air.
Really interesting. It looks great.
I wouldn't say it smells great.
After one week it will be dry and without smell.
We have to paint the walls
maybe two, three months after that
and you have a smell of fresh.
More clay!
Charlie, do you want to try?
I can give it a go.
Thank you very much.
I was a plaster at one point. Painting, decorating and plastering.
It's very important to be a very good composition.
It's a bit too...
I need to clean it because I'm getting a few...
There are a few problems here.
Some water, please!
- OK, there we go. - It's easier...
It's a bit dry.
- You can do this. - OK.
Starting to look okay.
And after that we will follow some...
Smooth it off with some...
- And after that it's... - Patted down literally.
Right. I am going to leave it to the professionals.
Thank you so much.
There are no professionals here, only volunteers.
They've had a bit more practice. Let's put it like that.
That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
Let's go. Thank you so much.
I'm gonna give you a really pooey hand shake.
No problem. Yeah.
It's very moving to see a community coming together to help each other
which is the definition of a clacă.
And it doesn't exist much any more in Romania.
Most people don't help their neighbours.
Some people don't even know who their neighbours are.
And communities don't come together in the way that they used to do.
Maybe we can take a lesson from this.
I think everybody worldwide should take a lesson from this.
That actually the community spirit of helping each other,
not only to put a lot of good hard work out there,
but it comes back.
What you give you receive.
I think this is the essential point of the claca.
That you help people, and then when you need help they are there for you
when your house falls down or it burns, or you need to build a new one.
They'll be there
and they'll be rolling up their sleeves to get involved.
The wooden shingles for which the houses of Bucovina used to be famous
are sadly now seldom seen.
Rising costs, fewer artisans and cheaper alternatives
mean the cultural landscape is changing.
However, there are still a few custodians of the art,
like the thatchers of the Danube Delta, they are far and few between.
I have tracked down one of them to the outskirts of Bilca.
- Hello. - Hello.
- Iosif. - Charlie. Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you. It's good to have you here.
I've noticed in the ten years since I've been coming to Bucovina
there are fewer and fewer case tradiționale.
For that reason we have thought to save a few.
Right now we have about 70 houses in various stages of rescue.
Some of them are already bought, others purchased, dismantled and stored,
others are already at their owners.
We promote them on social media.
They buy them for either a donation or a small sum of money,
at most 2,000 or 1,000 euros.
We have special teams for dismantling and rebuilding it with clay,
with a wood stove, with a bathroom,
we provide them with minimal comfort for the 21st century,
so that they may be preserved and not be destroyed.
Do you think there's any possibility to convince people and the authorities
to save the few traditional houses that still exist here?
We think so. This little house is the first one we've rescued.
That's what we want to rescue and rebuild them
so that the future generation is not just told that a house can be rescued,
but to show them live,
so that they can touch a latch, to open a wooden door,
to see a wooden floor and not a very modern parquet.
Because we believe it's possible, that's why we started these things.
It's hard work, not simple.
The messages we get from people are positive,
they also want to rescue houses like that.
We hope to rescue more in the near future.
The problem is that the shingle is very expensive.
It's true.
It's 3,000 euros more expensive with shingle than with metal,
a metal-like shingle.
How long would this survive on the roof?
There are houses in our village that have 80, 100 years old.
A hundred years?!
They've lasted for a hundred years.
We have here a workshop for shingle. We can't say it's a factory,
because they work by hand, there's nothing mechanical.
Let's go inside to show you part of the shingle finishing process
and then the preparation for drying.
After it was cracked that is where it was cut by the knife,
it's levelled, and this is the guiding part,
so that the entire surface is the same.
Here it's a little bit thicker. We put it on this chair.
I keep it here with my foot
and I level it for the same thickness.
What are you doing there?
That's a really good way of getting rid of ticks and lice by the way.
It seems to me that as fewer and fewer people
know how to do this or want to learn
the price goes up and up
until it becomes prohibitive for most people except very rich
to put traditional tiles on their roof.
And this is a disaster because it means in the future
we're gonna completely loose this important part of Romania's heritage.
Indeed. There are no longer craftsmen.
The old ones die.
The young ones don't want to learn such a craft.
And that's why there are no such workshops.
When we started moving those houses
we encountered a lack of shingles.
Where do we get it?
I said let's set up a workshop to make shingle,
let it be open daily.
Anyone could see how it's done.
He must sit here and make shingle,
he must plane the shingle,
to feel the love of working and to be able to produce.
In the near future, we'd like to inspire as many people as we can,
young people and entrepreneurs who want to open such a workshop,
so that we can produce in many places,
thus the price would be cheaper
and the houses would be covered with shingle
and not with other cheaper materials.
Greatly inspired by Iosef's dedication
I am now on my way to meet another community
equally committed to maintaining their heritage
in the face of a rapidly modernizing world.
In the hills and villages around Brodina
resides a people who claim common ancestry with the Dacians.
There are numerous hypotheses about the origin of the Hutsuls.
However, they are generally considered to be
descendants of the White Croats,
a Slavic tribe that once inhabited the area.
I'm paying them a visit to find out
how their cultural idiosyncrasies differ from fellow Romanians.
First stop the Hutsul Museum in Brodina.
So, Paul, I've tried looking on the Internet
for information about Hutsul.
Some people say you're from Galicia, some people say Ukraine.
What's the real story?
I shall begin with what our great ethnologist Simion Florea Marian claimed
that the Hutsuls would be Slavized Dacians throughout history,
and not Romanized.
He claims that the Hutsuls are the descendants of the Dacians.
They established their households on the highest peaks of the mountains
- and they still live here today. - I notice you're holding an axe.
Should I be worried?
No, because it's a defensive weapon.
The baltag is the most representative element of the Hutsul.
Men wore it to important events throughout their lives.
By the ornament on the tail of the baltag,
you could tell the material condition of the Hutsul.
How wealthy he was.
The wealthier he was, the more ornate the pattern on its tail.
It has solar and apotropaic symbols for the person wearing it.
Even today it's the most representative element
of the Hutsul man,
representing the power and wealth
of the people from the northern part of Suceava county.
So this one here...
This guy was considerably richer than you.
Yes, he was richer, but we still keep the tradition
and I'm about this rich.
I have not reached this size. Yet.
I noticed this one has got some notches on the blade
so it was probably used.
It's a little bit worrying, you know.
Being a defensive weapon, they certainly didn't fight,
but it was definitely dropped, hence the mark on the blade.
Your axe doesn't look like it's seen a lot of action,
but this guy has clearly been put to some sort of use.
May he rest in peace.
Back outside, Paul's mum Elena was waiting for us,
dressed in traditional costume.
So in time honoured style
I absconded with her on the motorbike.
Thanks.
This is a traditional Hutsul house.
Yes, it's an authentic Hutsul house,
but the truly authentic Hutsul households are on the mountain.
You'll see that the horse and the violin is always by the Hutsul's side,
because music accompanies him both in happiness and in sadness,
and also during work and parties.
- Songs are composed on the spot. - Do you sing?
Yes. My grandmother taught me and I still sing,
and I've taught my children as well. I've brought a luthier with me today
because the Hutsul also makes violins.
And he'll show you how beautiful Hutsuls sing.
- Bravo! - Yes.
What was the song about?
It's a bride's song.
When she's marrying, she speaks to the beech forest.
In fact, Bucovina is also called Buchenland
due to its vast beech forests. And the forest says that the leaf opens up
and at that time a noise, a sough of sadness can be heard.
And the bride says, ”I also cry because I have to get married,
and my cry is the same as yours.”
And the forest asks her, ”Why are you crying,
because I make that noise when my leaves open,”
and she answers,
”I cry because I leave behind the beautiful life at my mother's house.”
Thank you for giving me such an insight into what may be
the last real vestige
of the Dacian civilization surviving today.
- Thank you so much. - You're welcome.
Located a few miles north of Suceava
is the impressive Dragomirna Monastery,
but en route I recommend visiting a beautiful stretch of oak forest
called Pădurea Crujana
that once served as hunting ground for Ceaușescu,
later redesignated as a national park.
There are some leafy backroads ideal for mountain biking
and you can also visit the dictator's former hunting lodge,
the beneficiary of an unfortunate makeover in recent years.
After stretching my legs, I set off down another wooded trail,
crossing a small stream and up through the forest
until we emerge close to Dragomirna.
It's stone ramparts rising defiantly from the surrounding fields.
On first glance, this monastery is very different
from the archetypal wooden churches and monastic buildings
characteristic of Bucovina's spiritual landscape.
Its imposing walls,
constructed in 1627 to defend against the Turks,
give it the feel of a military fortress
rather than a place of peace and contemplation.
To learn more, I met up with sister and monastery guide Filofteia Bălan.
Tell me a little bit about the history of the monastery.
The history of the Dragomirna monastery begins in 1602.
Then, Metropolitan Anastasie Crimca,
together with the boyars Luca and Simion Stroici
built a small church which is today in the cemetery of the monastery.
Later, after the disintegration of the Union of Michael the Brave,
Anastasie Crimca begins the construction of the large church
together with the great founder Luca Stroici.
Between the years 1605 -1609
he will build the great Dragomirna monastery.
He said that it is among the highest monastery churches
in the whole of Romania.
If we look at the height of the church up to the base of the Holy Cross,
it is approximately 42 meters.
Relative to this height,
its width is 9.5 meters, so it is very narrow.
And precisely this difference in proportions,
that it is tall and narrow, gives it this slenderness, suppleness.
It is a powerful launch to heaven,
just as from the heart of man when he truly prays,
the prayer ascends to God.
Also, Dragomirna is special
because of the stone embroidery of the tower.
If the other churches from the 16th century
are famous for their exterior painting,
Dragomirna brings another decorative system
consisting of artistic stone carving.
The church tower, as Iorga called it "jewel in stone",
includes a great variety and wealth of floral and geometric motifs.
Among the distinct architectural elements at Dragomirna,
we note the torsada, this belt woven in three
that encircles the church in the middle, and we will note the fact
that it appears predominantly in the interior architecture as well.
It is an architectural element of Oriental influence.
Being a bishop's foundation, this architectural element
was given a religious interpretation as a symbol of the Holy Trinity,
God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
and at the same time it also has the meaning
of the three Christian virtues:
Faith, hope and love,
virtues that must intertwine permanently the life of the Christian.
The morning after, I am back on the road
heading for a town that until a few years ago
was little known outside the region.
That is until it was elevated to international acclaim
by the culinary skills of a local woman
who together with her husband invented a soup
now recognized and reproduced across the globe.
I have come here to Rădăuți to meet her and get the official recipe
for world famous ciorba rădăuțeană from its source.
We weren't originally intended to stop in Rădăuți,
but when I saw the sign,
I realized that this was the home of ciorba rădăuțeană,
we made a bit of a detour
and I'm privileged to be with the lady who actually invented the recipe.
- Congratulation. - Thank you.
Please.
For the ciorba rădăuțeană we need chicken breast, but with bones,
so that the soup is concentrated, and good.
Vegetables: Bell pepper, celery, carrot, onion, parsley.
After we boil the meat with the vegetables
and the meat is cooked, we take it out.
We strain the soup and prepare what we have to put in the soup:
Eggs, sour cream, some flour, vinegar, garlic and salt.
One thing I didn't realize is that ciorba rădăuțeană has been voted
in the top ten soups of the world, and it's number seven.
This is an amazing thing for Romania
and it was created by this woman.
She used to give it to her kids when they were growing up.
I honestly for me I feel like I'm in the presence of Elvis,
gastronomically speaking.
We add the eggs yolks, the flour,
the garlic, a pinch of salt.
We mix everything together.
Now we put everything into the soup.
After the soup and the liaison boil,
we let it boil,
and after we add the vinegar.
We don't add it together with the sour cream.
We cut the chicken breast into chunks and put it in the soup.
And it's done.
- That's it? - Yes.
So in a nut shell, you boil the vegetables with the chicken
to create a stock for a couple of hours.
You can use the bones, you can use the whole chicken,
you know, cut into chunks.
You then take the chicken out and you remove the vegetables.
You take the best bits of the chicken and then you put it back in
and you add the sauce to go with it
to make it sour, to give it the colour and the flavour.
And that's it. It's a very simple recipe. One you can do at home.
- Shall we go eat? - Yes, of course.
- We're ready. - Enjoy!
Perfect.
Were you surprised
when your recipe became one of the top ten soups in the world?
I was very surprised. I didn't expect it.
- I really didn't expect it. - I believe you.
On the one hand, I was happy that, together with the soup,
the town of Rădăuți is known all over the world.
Wherever the ciorba rădăuțeană goes, the Rădăuți town goes with it.
And that makes me very happy.
And that's why you chose to name the soup after the town
rather than after yourself.
I couldn't give it my name.
If it were Cornelia soup, I could have done the homologation.
That's why I couldn't do that because it's the name of the town.
It's beautiful and it's an incredible thing you've done for the town
because now millions of people know about Rădăuți through your ciorba.
Eat it with joy and I hope you like it.
That is exquisite.
I'm actually a little bit of a loss for words.
The sourness, it's tart, it's beautiful, it's smooth,
you can taste the chicken, the cream, the garlic,
but just the right amount, I mean, it's perfect.
Thank you so much.
- Thank you so much. - You're welcome.
And I'm happy you like it.
It's my favourite ciorba.
Bravo! Congratulation!
And it's a huge honour to meet you.
Undoubtedly the most iconic images of Bucovina
are of its UNESCO World Heritage painted monasteries.
Their exterior walls
decorated with elaborate 15th and 16th century frescoes
featuring scenes from the Bible
and the subsequent the history of the church.
These dramatic and often brutal images,
especially where depicting the suffering of the saints,
were created to inspire and educate the local populace
who in many cases were unable to read or write.
Principle among these is the church of Voroneț,
famed for its vibrant blues,
using a natural pigment that remains a secret to this day.
I was fortunate enough to get a personal tour
from Mother Superior Gabriela.
- Welcome! - Thank you so much for having us.
Welcome to our monastery. I was waiting for you for a long time.
- Really? - Yes, to come to Voroneț.
- Well, serendipity. - Yes, wonderful.
And you're dressed in blue.
I did that deliberately because I know this is the blue monastery.
Next week we will celebrate on the 26th of May
535 years since started to build this church.
And it was built in three months and three weeks.
After the prayer destination of this place because it is a monastery,
the second destination of Voroneț it is to be a touristic place.
There are pilgrims coming, but also just tourists who love the culture
and want to see this wonderful treasure.
That was the original idea of the murals, wasn't it, to teach people.
And so all the tourists coming to see can be inspired by the images.
Everybody can understand a lot
because the paintings, the images are speaking directly.
This is the highest moment of the exterior painting of Voroneț,
the Last Judgment representation. Because of this wonderful composition,
Voroneț church was compared to the Sistine Chapel.
It's good for us because it's the only church from the entire world
compared to the Sistine Chapel.
- That's quite impressive. - The value comes from the painter.
Michelangelo. His composition, his vision.
Here, our Moldavian painters
gave the value of the theological composition.
It's extremely visceral
with the river of fire, with the demons and the dragon
and then getting smaller and smaller
as you get closer to the light at the top with the figure of God sitting...
- Is it God or is it Jesus? - It is Jesus because He is the judge.
Actually, the judgment will be depending of our acts
and that means the main place of this composition it's in the middle.
If we cross two lines,
the intersection will be to the balance moment
because our life will be put on the balance,
and depending of the balance position will be God's answer.
Close to God or following the river of fire down.
And what we can see, if we are closer to God
actually we don't have any problems with the proprieties of the fire.
So it's a fire that either cleanses you or condemns you
depending on how you lived your life.
Yes. And if you are not in the communion with God,
if we take distance from the source of love which is God,
okay, this fire will be the hell.
The interior of Voroneț is equally spectacular,
but among its many wonders,
the most sacred is the tomb of Daniel the Hermit
in whose honour the church was built.
Stories tell how the saint advised Stephen the Great
to persevere in his fight against the Ottomans
and having achieved victory had Voroneț constructed
and dedicated in the name of St. George.
This is the treasure of Voroneț.
When we started the monastery to be resurrect after 206 years
we were asking in our mind what we will do.
We will take his example, that means together monastic life,
that means the meal without meat,
that means also midnight prayers.
And we kissed the stone at the beginning and at the end of each service
because we take the power.
Or first Mother Superior, she had a special relationship with this tomb
because she used to say, I am not the Superior of the monastery.
The real Superior of the Voroneț monastery is Daniel the Hermit.
There's a lot of power here.
For example, it is a painter of the frescoes today
and he comes on Sundays during the summer service
when we're celebrating this church because he used to say,
I can't describe in words what do I feel like holy energy from the tomb.
- Emanating from his tomb. - Yes.
With our time in Bucovina almost at an end
there is one last place that's a must see if you visit this region.
However, it's not somewhere you can reach by bike.
I'm on a forest road 20 minutes from Dorna Candrenilor
heading up into the Căliman National Park
in search of one of Romania's most epic rock formations:
The mysterious 12 Apostles.
A bizarre cluster of stone pillars
rising from the trees like the fingertips of a giant
clawing at the sky.
Well, we've reached a new pinnacle for Flavours of Romania,
and it's in Bucovina.
I think this is one of the most beautiful places I've seen so far.
And you have 360-degree views in all directions
probably for over a hundred kilometers.
It's understandable why this is called the 12 Apostles,
it has a distinctly spiritual feeling and atmosphere.
I'm sure that at some point in history or prehistory
this was a sacred site for somebody
and a fitting place to end our journey around Bucovina.
In our final action-packed feature-length episode
we will be venturing deep under the Apuseni hills
in search of Roman gold
and climbing high in Retezat Mountains to visit an enclave of nomadic shepherds.
We'll be checking out the fair city of Cluj,
learning how to make palinka with wheat,
visiting Saxon citadels and Gothic castles,
flying like an eagle
and playing out the sunset with Subcarpați
one of Romania's most talented bands.
All this and more than you could possibly imagine,
only in Flavours of Romania.