A Trip To Bukovina 2017

As most towns and villages we have seen on our trip, Satu Mare has quite a number of Christian cemeteries for the various denominations that can be found in these parts: Catholic, Romanian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox (aka Unified) and various Protestant churches. Each need their own cemetery as a matter of course. This way, each can argue that the respective “infidels” are buried outside the confines of the respective grave yard.

For the Jews of Satu Mare, there exist two cemeteries, situated on either side of Strada 9 Mai 1877 (incidentally, on May 9th, 1877, Romania gained independence from the Osman Empire); a small street lined by the walls of the Neolog (on the southern side of the street, GPS co-ordinates 47.790786,22.891955) and the Orthodox (on the northern side, GPS 47.791839,22.893718) cemeteries.
Strangely, Google did not permit me to add the two locations.

An elderly lady approached us and asked us in Hungarian, if we had come to see the grave yards. She knocked on the gates of a small house and raised a friendly man who had not only keys to the cemeteries but also indexes of the persons buried there. His card says Hebrew Cemetery Administrator for Satu Mare county and he takes care of the place and he will happily refurbish a headstone or re-color the letters, if asked to, for a small fee. His name is Ioan Bojani and he may be reached at +40-754-610-448 or at yahoo.com (his address begins with bojani.ioan …)

Here we are. 4 grown ups with 3 picky eaters. At least in a country full of the loveliest meat dishes. So there we where in this traditional Romanian restaurant and at first sight it seemed not very encouraging: Polenta with meat, salads with meat… but in the end we found lots on the menu: harvest pie, some kind of round bread, filled with cheese and herbs and fried in oil, vegetables and bean soup (served in a bread), Polenta in all varieties, pickled vegetables and cabbage salad, salad with cheese.. well, we could not finish it…

Near the center of Satu Mare / Szatmár stand two synagogues side by side. The larger one, completed in 1892, by the designs of the Oradean architect Nándor Bach seats some 900 people. It is built in Moorish-Byzantine style. This is the Satmar Shul.

The other was added a little later, in 1920. It is smaller, Art Deco by design, also Orthodox and is in use today on Shabbes and Yontev. A little over a hundred Jews live in the county nowadays, so the minyan is precarious. Anybody happening to visit: help is welcome.

There was a third large synagogue in the town, just a few hundred meters further east; it was Neolog and was knocked down in 1964. The Ceausescu regime erected a grand new police station on the site. (See the post on the Szatmár Jewish cemeteries.)

See https://www.jewishcomunity.ro/en/index.php

When travelling through these villages, one thing is interesting: every little village has at least 3 churches. And we saw so far at least two graveyards per village. Sometimes close, sometimes far apart. And they seem to be in use. Quite impressive.

In this catholic bishop church in Satu Mare, quite a lot of people came for the 7.a.m service.

These are my drawings from 2.august in satu mare and the orthodox nun monestery

It is hot these days. 36 degrees the weather app on my phone told me. Which means: only driving in a car with air conditioners is possible. Sightseeing during the day? No way! Even little walks to the supermarket or something let us sweat as can be. So we rested and ate and suddenly 8.30! We saw nothing so far! We are in this beautiful city Satu Mare and we have seen nothing! And it is nearly sunset! But no worries, we found most, what we wanted to see. Others are also hot, sleep and enjoy the day only after dark….

Somewhat similar to the Jewish Reform movement that evolved in Germany during the 19th century, the Neolog movement evolved in Hungary.

Oradea being part of the kingdom of Hungary until the accords of Trianon after WWI, has a magnificent Neolog Synagogue right in the center of the city. Nowadays, of course, not much is left of Oradea’s Jewry. (There is, however, a small Orthodox minyan in town and I hope to get to know them an bit on the way back.)

The building now serves as a museum and is open to the public every afternoon from 12pm to 7pm, except on Mondays. It is, thus, open on Shabbes, which some might find befitting a Neolog place.

I liked drawing towards the end of my studies. I basically gave it up with my kids, due lack of time. I took my drawing things along and tried a first picture. I liked it. So maybe there will be more…

Oradea, aka Nagyvarád, aka Großwardein, aka Groisverdain; i.e. גרויסווארדיין.
A small city of nearly 200.000 inhabitants, capital of Bihor county.
A place of history. Hungarian, over most past centuries; Romanian, since World War I left the Austro-Hungarian Empire in shambles.
A bilingual city with a bilingual population: Romanian and Hungarian. Not Yiddish; the Jews were sent to Auschwitz in 1944. (Nevertheless, when I ask around in my Shul back home in Vienna, I notice how many of my friends and acquaintances have roots in this town, or in other places in Bihor county, such as Szatmár / Satu Mare.)

A small river flows through the town. There are bicycle lanes along the river banks. Most houses I have seen north of the river are ancient one-storey buildings from before WWI, some rather derelict, some beautifully renovated. It is said, that the real-estate bubble, that shook countries such as Spain in the early 21st century, also had and has it’s grip on Romania. Here and there, we found sights that reminded us of this fact.

It was a long day. Hot. Worries, will we get the next train? Traveling through Hungary means: plane landscape, huge fields. We took 6 trains and two busses. And no, we are not in Interrail age any more.
The guy, we met at the border (there you have to change into a bus in between) told us, Oradea is a nice place. And indeed: what we saw, is really beautiful. And it will be even more in a few years, because quite a lot of houses are being renovated. Art Deco or Jugendstil, as we call it, at its best!

And yes, we also can recommend Hotel stokker and it's restaurant. Great food and great waiter!

As I studied landscape planning in my youth, I still look at places in a different manner. And I was intrigued by the design of this place. The lamps, the furniture, the waiting huts for the tram are all done in an contemporary Art Deco design. Look at these lamps, also holding the wires for the tram:
Really something! I can only say: I love Oradea!

When viewed from aboard a train.

(Which shows how a point of view defines the view.)

Our trip will take us from Oradea to Satu Mare, where the Szatmár Chassidim originated; on to Sighetu Marmaţiei (birth place of Elie Wiesel, as well as Moshe Teitelbaum, who later became the Satmarer Rebbe) and Borsa and Radauti, where we will spend some time exploring the nearby towns of Putna, Suceava and, hopefully, Czernovits, the old capital of Bukovina.

We then plan to return to Oradea on a somewhat more southern route via Cluj. This is the route my father told me they took back in the 1930s.

This town in north-western Romania will be where we spend our first night. Continue reading First Stop: Oradea