Arad Free Tours

Apartamentele nobililor pot fi închiriate, la Arad!

Apartamentele nobililor pot fi închiriate, la Arad!

Our friends and partners at GB Apartments have prepared a nice surprise for everyone visiting Arad: a stay in one of the city’s most important historical monuments, the Bohuș Palace.

Built at the request of Baron Bohuș and designed by the renowned architect Lajos Szantay, the palace is a faithful creation of the Secession architectural style, combining sober and imposing ornaments. Located in the heart of the city, right next to the Arad’s State Theatre, Bohuș Palace comes with a few deluxe apartments designed and rented by GB Apartments.

Business&Family Suites

These two deluxe apartments feature generous spaces of almost two hundred square meters. The Business Suite is composed of a spacious 22 sqm bedroom with queen size bed, balcony overlooking Vasile Goldis street, a 35 sqm spacious living room with fixed sofa for relaxing moments after a day of intense business and a desk to have the space for preparing important presentations.

On the other hand, the Family Suite is composed of a 25 sqm bedroom with a queen-size bed, balcony overlooking Vasile Goldis Street, a 24 sqm room with single bed and private balcony for when traveling with family. The Apartment is organized to cater for both the parents intimacy and that of their child. At the same time, toys can be provided to help shape a “homely” atmosphere for the younger one.

In both of the suites, the furniture is original from the Secession period, refurbished with care!

Bohuș Panoramic

Maybe the most beautiful part of the whole building, the Bohus Palace Panoramic, situated on the principal corner of the building, offers to everyone staying here an unforgetable memory. The unique apartment has a total area of almost 260 square meters offers a beautiful panorama over the central bulevard of the city. It is divided in four suites – Executive, Academic, Eclectic and Grand Suite, each decorated differently, to flatter the most demanding or younger tastes and make very visit an affordable luxury.

The Academic Suit is decorated with modern accents in vibrant colors, being designed to accomodate two people. The Eclectiv Suit can accomodate two persons and is decorated with a perfect blend of the old and the new. The Executive Suit, also intended for hosting two people, is decorated in warm and modern green shades with historical and timeless accents given by the decoration items. The most imposing in this part of the building, The Grand Suite can acommodate either two or three people. Decoration elements in warm colors and refurbished furnish set the timeless charm of this apartment, turning every visit into a memorable experience.

All the apartments in the building are pet-free and smoke free, having special places and terraces designated for smoking.

Can you imagine how cool it would be to live – at least for a few days – in the rooms where the nobles used to live a hundred years ago?! Well, with a little help from our friends, you won’t have to imagine, as you can make it come true – the apartments in the Bohuș Palace can be rented via GB Apartments’ website – www.gbapartments.ro

 

Un muzeu arădean, unic în România

Un muzeu arădean, unic în România

Arad Confectionery has a rich history, something known by very few people. This shows that Arad has excelled in all areas. The old guild of pastry cooks had around 17 master confectioners in the interwar period, including Konizdofler, Drifi, Suciu, Malka, Klementz, Ramniceanu, Orban and others.

I wonder how many of you know that in Arad we have the only museum of confectionery in the country. Myself, I’ve recently learnt about it and I was amazed hearing this news, and when I heard that it was opened in 2006, I wondered where sat this news until now. I got the answer – in Sanicolau. More exactly, on the Nicolaus Lenau Street 3, in the house of Ioan Gui (n.1939), one of the old confectioners of the city. The museum is located in two rooms of his house, and the exhibits were collected by him in over 30 years, some of the technical equipment being recovered from scrap iron deposits.

As soon as Mr. Gui, a warm and welcoming figure, invites us into the first room of the museum, our gaze moves towards a serving table made during the early 1900, covered with green marble. After that, our attention is attracted by a full window with chocolate shapes for cake, sweet burnt sugar. Young men comprise a burning lust for sweets, while those who have experienced the times when those forms went through confectioners grabbed a slight melancholy and longing for those days of natural products, clean, healthy, without replacement, powders, synthetic materials – using a more contemporary term – bio.

Near this window full of melancholy, our gaze is kidnapped by a grinder poppy machine, fairly large size. The machine dates from the ’20s, using manpower to work. This grinders poppy machine has its origins in the Francis Wild confectionery, located along King Ferdinand Avenue, number 9 (today, Revolutiei Boulevard). On the left side of the poppy grinding machine, before entering into the second room of the museum, we see a mixer dating from the 30s, which is operated by a belt connected to an electric motor.

In the second room, we can observe an ice cream machine, manually operated. At the time, the ice for the ice cream was brought in the winter, from the river, put in the confectionary’s cellars, on straw and in the spring it was removed to make ice cream. That was until in Arad was set up an ice factory named “Flora” in the 50s. After that, it began to supply the city with the required ice. Also, from the manual machines category, we see the candy making machine, too, and with different arms of different designs for small candies. These candies were made of caramel, which boils at 145 degrees, pour on a specially designed table, and after it cooled a little, it was gathered, cut to the right size and it was passed through this machine. Another type of candy is the fondant ones, which once was put on the Christmas tree.

The new generation of machines came when the electric current appeared. Since an electric motor was very expensive, one feed more machines, as in other areas. We observe a powder sugar making machine roller. A very powerful machine at the time, rising the technical equipment of the Arad Confectioneries to the European level. This machine helped to create rolled sheets of chocolate or marzipan and it was manufactured in Dresden (Germany), the manufacturer company having branches in New York and Paris.

The old machine made in Dresden (Germany)

The walls of the museum are full of images of the life times of glory of the pastry cooks and Confectioneries from Arad. Among these we find images and pictures of the oldest Pastry Shop in Arad, meetings with master bakers, culinary art exhibitions and more. Our gaze stops in front of another window full of forms for chocolates, different topics and religious holidays such as Easter, Christmas, New Year and others. These chocolate patterns were fabricated in Dresden, in a particular metal, which does not stick to liquid chocolate. In the next window we find forms for corn shaped marzipan, Easter eggs, peaches and others. In the museum, we also see a scale used in confectioneries from Arad, manufactured in Arad by the Garai Company.

On a working table, we see grinding machines for different materials, manufactured in Hungary, Germany and Austria. Interesting things in the museum are the two presentation boxes, which were used in presentations when a larger cafeteria was invited to a culinary show. So, because they didn’t want to interrupt their production, they were sending a “commercial traveller” with samples of their products to be presented.

In Germany there have been machines that beat the egg whites and the yolks separately in the 20s. A confectionery owner from Arad, seeing this kind of machine in a German magazine, showed it to an engineer from the Carload factory (ASTRA in Arad) what he had in mind, and the engineer built him one in the Astra factory from Arad. The machine worked with electricity and had a production of 3 to 4 thousand eggs a day.

The machine made at ASTRA Arad by an engineer, after some german projects

One of the confectioners from Arad settled during the Second World War in Canada, where, with other confectioners he opened a confectionary. He is constantly sending images and information from the branch to Mr.Gui, this master being a proof of the master’s talent from Arad.

Like any other confectionary master had his notebook with his own recepies, one of them, Emil Frederic, published in the 1920s a recepies book with the cakes he prepared in his own confectionery. This book is the first book of this kind to be published in Romanian. The book, among other special magazines, is found in Mr. Gui’s collection. Another beautiful book is a German one, edited in 1904 and in 1914 by a confectioner from Lipova (Arad County), who opened a confectionary in Arad later on, on the Marasesti street.

Mr Gui declared that he works on a book, having the subject “The art in the confectionary”, which was started in 1978 and started again in 2011.

In the end, I come with two proposals – first of all, for the people from Arad: please visit Mr Gui! The second one, for the mayor and his team: I advise you to open your eyes and realize the value of this unique museum in the country and make every effort possible to move it in a central area of the city, to be approachable not only to the citizens of Arad, but also to the tourists that are passing by. As the city of Arad aspires to the great title of European Cultural Capital in the year 2021, such rare things – in this case, unique – are a plus, this is why this museum does not have to be ignored and it does not have to be left where it currently is placed, but it has to be brought in the attention of the citizens of Arad.

Povestea arhitectului Ludovic Szantay

Architect Ludovic Szantay's story

Lajos Szantay, or better known as Ludovic Szantay, was born in Arad on 20th of February 1872 as son of Lajos and Theresa Szantay. He was an architect, builder and contractor who made a large number of buildings in Arad, most of them being built in Secession style, an architectural style which participates today in shaping the cultural image of the city. His family was a family of artisans, his father being a carpenter, which made him to have the culture of work “flowing in his veins”.

Szantay attended the Faculty of Architecture at the Polytechnic in Zurich between 1890 and 1895 and after those years, he followed his military service in Arad (1895-1896). The next year he went to Budapest, where he worked for three years in the office of the manufacturer Geza Majorossy and for one year in the design office of the architect Anton Hofhauser.

Shortly after being declared a member of the Hungarian Society of Decorative Art, a sad event makes Szantay return to Arad. In 1902, on the second day of November, the architect’s mother loses her life, thing which made him to return permanently to his hometown, where he opened an architecture and construction office. From that moment on, he took part “actively in the urban development of the city and its beautification until 26th July 1914, when the First World War broke out”, as the architect himself noted in a memorandum in 1957. In 1907 he marries Barbara Vilma Csank Rozalia, born in 1883. He worked as an architect in his own office until the beginning of the war, because then, like other young men, he was enlisted in the army. Szantay has been serving the army starting July 1914, until January 1919. Because he maintained order in the city in the postwar period, the architect was appointed as a lieutenant in the gendarmerie. Both before and after the war, Szantay was a member of the city’s municipal committee, being one of the members which examined every single architectural project of those who wanted to build something in Arad. In the same period, he was proposed (by the Principal of the Arts and Crafts School in the city) to teach lessons about technical drawing to 20 workers enrolled in a course of construction, this course aiming the improvement and enrichment of those workers knowledge in construction. Szantay mentioned in the same document written in 1957 that he did this thing pro bono (for free).

 

photo@arhitectura-1906.ro

He kept designing buildings and tombstones (in the Eternitatea Cemetery and in the Jewish Cemetery in Arad) until the 30’s. In the same period he obtained his Romanian Citizenship[i], this thing pushing him to take the decision to change his name from Lajos Szantay to Ludovic Szantay. Also, since 1933, he joined the Romanian Corporation of Architects.

Szantay and her daughter Theresa, in the 1930’s

After the Communist Party took the power in Romania[ii], the fame of Szantay was ignored, all his estate being confiscated (a specific action of the communist regime). Even if he would have been allowed to work as an architect, because of his age he wouldn’t have been able to get back on his feet after the state took everything he owned.

His wife dies and his daughter Anna, born in 1905, goes on a hunger strike, probably hoping to get the attention of the communists and trying to make them realize that denigrating Szantay’s contribution brought to the beauty of the city isn’t a good thing. She dies shortly after, in agony. The story says that in the last years of his life, his family had to warm up by the fire made with the architectural projects of the head of the family.

In July 1957, the architect wrote a short autobiography (describing himself as sick and old), attaching to this a list of his projects and some photographs. The document was made in order to be sent to the Romanian Architects Union, which was supposed to give him a monthly pension. Because of this document, from the autumn of the same year, he received monthly a pension which varied between 400 and 500 lei. However, the pension didn’t always arrive on time. Three years later, in the summer of 1960, Szantay made up another document just like the other one, this time adding some sketch and a few new projects to the list. This second file was intended to be sent to the same Romanian Architects Union, in order to give him a pension of merit. The request was finally validated by the Council of Ministers of the Popular Republic of Romania on 26th November 1960. Because he fit with the terms of a national ordinance written in 1959, the Romanian State had to provide him a monthly pension worth 2000 lei. Sadly, he passed away in the spring of 1961, not being able to enjoy this financial aid. The only family member who was still alive when the architect died was his daughter Theresa, born in 1915.

After the Romanian Revolution in 1989, somewhere in the downtown of the city, a street was named Ludovic Szantay. Also a commemorative plaque placed on his palace on Horia Street remembers us of Szantay.

Szantay made more than 20 significant buildings in the city and also six houses with two floors, 18 houses with one floor and eight buildings with only one lever (ground floor). Also in the first half of the 20th Century, Szantay created “41 buildings with one or two floors in Arad and 14 buildings in the Region”, as noted in the same document he wrote in 1957. In the same document he mentions the intention to build a movie theater with a capacity of one thousand people at the intersection of the Central Avenue with the Crisan Street, project which wasn’t built because of the First World War.


Some of the most significant buildings designed by Ludovic Szantay are:

Kohn Palace was built in 1905; the palace is located on the Diecezanei (Diocese’s) Street no.9 and was built at the order of Josef Kohn. With an impressive floral hardware, the building fits in the geometric period of the Viennese Secession. As an interesting fact, the palace was built only after Szantay sent a second architectural plane, the first being denied by the municipality.

The Red Church is a remarkable monument belonging to the Neo gothic architectural style. The name comes from the external finishes, the building being clad in red bricks. The church was built between 1904 and 1906, after Szantay’s project won an international architecture contest. The construction of the building was also a team work between Szantay and his father, who made the carpentry of the church. At the moment of the inauguration, the church had three bells, weighting a ton and a half each, but two of them were melted during the First World War to mace ammunition.

The architect Szantay in 1906, at the inauguration of the Red Church

The Railway Station (pictured below) is one of the most impressive buildings in Arad, dominates the Railway Station’s Square and was built in 1910 after a project of a Hungarian architect, but improved by Szantay.

 

The Cultural Palace (pictured below) was from the day of its inauguration one of the most representative buildings of Arad, was built between 1911 and 1913. This building perfectly combines the Neoclassical and Baroque styles with elements of Italian Renaissance and architectural elements from the Corvin Castle in Hunedoara (Romania). It was decided at the time that the building plan be chosen through an international competition in which 27 architectural projects were received, but none of those were found right by the sponsors, so they decided to ask Szantay to design the building. The Palace was inaugurated on October 25th, 1913 and had for almost 100 years one of the best acoustics in Europe.

The Szantay Palace is one of the most characteristic secession buildings in Arad, due to the specific joinery, decorative wrought iron components and bodywork. Built between 1905 and 1911, the Szantay Palace was the residence of architect Szantay for a period in his life and one of the floors hosted the Musical Conservatory of Arad[iii] at the initiative of the architect.

The Bohus Palace (pictured below) was built in the early 20th Century by the order of Ludovic Bohus, the head of the family at that time. It was the first building in Arad built on a concrete foundation and the first one in the city to have central heating. The palace was also the first one to have an elevator and hosted one of the earliest Cinemas in the city – Cinema Studio (on the ground floor).

At the same floor had his tailor shop a tailor named Manase Ghinga, which made clothes for famous Romanian people like Stefan Banica Senior[iv], Dan Spataru[v], Ilie Nastase[vi] and Nicu Constantin[vii].

Other buildings and monuments made by Szantay: Uzina Textila Arad (Textile Factory Arad; 1923 – 1924); Grain and goods warehouse for the Central Railway Station (1925); Andrenyi Warehouse (1930); Dermatology and venereal Hospital; Former headquarters of the Chamber of Labor (1922); Lloyd Palace (1910-1911); House 80 Revolutiei Boulevard; House 90 Revolutiei Boulevard; Simay public bath house; The Palace of Arad-Cenad Bank[viii]; The Orthodox Diocesan Palace (1908); The Reformed Church on Eminescu Street[ix] (1926); The Lutheran Diocese Palace (1904-1906); House Feher; House Zoltan Szabo Baracka; Tombstones: Peter Cornett, Ludovic Papay, Nicolae Doca, Francisca Sugar Faludi (in the Eternitatea Cemetery) and the Seidner Family (in the Jewish cemetery).


NOTES

[i] Until 1918, Arad and the whole Transylvania was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire;

[ii] The Communist Party of Romania took the power in the country in November 1946 after an electoral fraud;

[iii] Arad had the sixth Musical Conservatory in Europe and the first in the Country, founded in 1833;

[iv] Stefan Banica Senior –  1933 to 1995, a Romanian actor and singer;

[v] Dan Spataru – 1939 to 2004, a Romanian singer;

[vi] Ilie Nastase – born 1946, former world No.1 professional tennis player;

[vii] Nicu Constantin – 1938 to 2009, a Romanian actor;

[viii] The Palace of Arad-Cenad Bank – currently the Romanian National Bank’s Palace. The project is also assigned to Jozsef Hubert, an architect from Budapest, but Szantay included it in the list annexed to his autobiography sent in 1957 for his retirement. However, the building wasn’t on the list he sent in 1960;

[ix] The Reformed Church on Eminescu Street – only some changes and extensions of the building;

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  1. arhitectura-1906.ro – web site of the “Arhitectura” Magazine
  2. miscarea-aradeana.ro – web site of the Miscarea Aradeană NGO
  3. wikipedia.org – The Free Encyclopedia

Aradul și Marea Unire din 1918

Arad and the Great Union of Romania, in 1918

The 1st of December is a very important day for the Romanian nation. On December 1st, 1918, in Alba Iulia, delegations from around the country gathered to declare the Union of Transylvania with Romania. Although Alba Iulia is considered The city of the Great Unification, Arad played a very important role in achieving the union.

There have been other attempts to create a single country, uniting all the Romanian provinces (1600 – Mihai Viteazul; 1859 – Alexandru Ioan Cuza), but in 1918, the idea of a great union came to Vasile Goldis, a teacher and politician from Arad.

On November 2nd, 1918, the Central Romanian National Council (CRNC), a political organ of the Romanians in Transylvania, starts working. It consisted of 12 members, of which four were from Arad. CRNC was based in Arad, in Stefan Cicio-Pop’s house, one of the members of the Council who were living in Arad. The fight for Union was held in Arad. Between 13th-15th November, in Arad took place negotiations with the Hungarian Government delegations, which wished Transylvania to remain a Hungarian province. The Council refused and on 20th November announced the convening of the Great National Assembly in Alba Iulia. The city of Alba Iulia was chosen because of the important historical events which took place there.

As a result of the struggle waged by the Council, on a Sunday, exactly 95 years ago, it was held the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia, in which took place 1.228 deputies who voted unanimously the “Decision of Alba Iulia” the Union of Transylvania with the Romanian Kingdom!

We mention the following persons who lived in Arad and had major contributions to the Great Union:

Stefan Cicio-Pop (1865 – 1934) – lawyer, politician, member of the Parliament in Budapest, State Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, President of the Chamber of Deputies;
Vasile Goldis (1862 – 1939) – teacher, journalist, politician, member of the Romanian Academy;
Ioan Suciu (1862 – 1939) – lawyer, politician;
Ioan Flueras (1882 – 1953) – notary, politician;
Ioan Ignatie Papp (1848 – 1925) – Archbishop of Arad;

Bibliography

wikipedia.org

ROZ, Alexandru – Aradenii-corifei ai Marii Uniri, Editura Mirton Timisoara, Arad, 1995

Primăvara și Mărțișoarele românești

Primăvara și Mărțișoarele românești

Martisor is a Romanian celebration at the beginning of spring, on March the 1st. According to the old calendar this date was also considered as the beginning of the new year. It also means life and continuity, that’s why it is symbolically correlated to women and fertility. This tradition is authentic in Romania and Moldova, but alike (still not identical) customs can be found in Bulgaria, called Martenitsa, and similar onel in Albania, Greece and Italy.

Initially, the Martisor string used to be called the Year’s Rope, made by black and white wool threads, representing the 365 days of the year. The Year’s Rope was the link between summer and winter, black and white representing the opposition but also the unity of the contraries: light and dark, warm and cold, life and death. White is the symbol of purity, the sum of all the colours, the light, while Black is the colour of origins, of distinction, of fecundation and fertility, the colour of fertile soil. White is the sky, the Father, while black is the mother of all, Mother Earth.

Right now, the colours used to make the Martisoare are Red and White. According to ancient Roman tradition, the ides of March was the perfect time to embark on military campaigns. In this context, it is believed that the red string of Martisor signifies vitality, while the white one is the symbol of victory. Red is the colour of fire, blood, and a symbol of life, associated with the passion of women. Meanwhile, white is the colour of snow, clouds, and the wisdom of men. In this interpretation, the thread of a Martisor represents the union of the feminine and the masculine principles, the vital forces which give birth to the eternal cycle of the nature.

George Cosbuc, a romanian poet, stated that Martisor is a symbol of fire and light, and of the Sun. Not only the colours, but also the traditional silver coin hung from the thread are associated with the sun. White, the colour of silver, is also a symbol of power and strength. The round form of the coin is also reminiscent of the Sun, while silver is associated with the Moon. These are just a few of the reasons why the Martisor is a sacred amulet.

In Daco-Romanian folklore, seasons are attributed symbolic colours: spring is red, summer is green or yellow, autumn is black, and winter is white. This is why one can also say that the Martisor thread, knitted in white and red, is a symbol of passing, from the cold white winter, to the lively spring, associated with fire and life.

In modern times, the Martisor has lost its talisman properties and became a symbol of appreciation, respect, friendship or love.

ro_RORomână