Yo, Yo, Yo my fellow steemians. Today we start a new journey through the beautiful countrysides of Romania, that country placed between the West and the East, with otoman influences and deutch aspirations.
What I propose to do?
Show places of once great beauty and architecture, left to decay for reasons that, in the end of the day, are so shallow that would make Donald Trump blush!
The story behind the ideea
There were always rich people around these areas, we called them "boieri", you call them "barons, counts". Some of them were filthy rich. I mean so rich they were able to own big masses of land so they could become even richer. In our folklore culture, they were seen, as they are today, as "slave traders", inhuman behaviour individuals, possessing low cultural spirit and scientifical knowledge.
Not in all the cases.
Only rich people have the power to leave behind monuments of architecture and exhibits of local craftsmanship while usually, poor people tend to destroy it. There's a round wheel going around: rich people get rich, rich people build impressive monuments, rich people behave badly with their working hands, the working hands slit the throats of the bosses in a rage frenzy while they proceed to vandalise and destroy what the aristocracy built. The irony here is that the working hands never realise that they've built those great things and one revolution later, they bring it down or re-purpose it for more popular use.
Nicolau Mansion
So was the case of the Nicolau Mansion.
Now totally forgotten with the exception of a few investigators like myself, the mansion transformed in the communist regime, from one of the greatest houses in the area, a proof of the great 18th century architecture in the area, into hospital for mental ilnesses. Probably that's why it looks a little like the sanatory depicted in "One flew over the cuckoo's nest".
Of course, that was one of the latest repurposes the building had. Over the time it went from Workers Club (a very popular franchise with HQ in Moscow 😛) to the hospital and finally being part of the local, socialist farming area. Of course, the 10.000m2 that the complex came with, taken over from the former owner in 1948 by the communists, were used for the State Agriculture.
Little is known about its older history, the one closer to its youth when the building and everything around it flourished. I tried researching a little bit more in-depth about this monument (that the local authorities have a plan to transform in Aqualand - go figure!) but the Mayorship and the local administration don't pick up the phone or answer to the emails they receive, apparently.
Local legends and old people's mouths say that the place has been cursed after the year of 1927. There was some kind of accident in the courtyard of the mansion (proof being a crucifix built on the spot) that killed, on 23rd of December, miss Angela Nicolau.
I feel sorry for this place. I imagine it in the 18th century, being the pride of the county, with carts and people coming and going, with a central market around it and the aristocrats, supervising their crops, their people and tending to the place. The sentiment I have for forgotten buildings that once stood proudly in the countryside is one of melancholy. Seeing the refinery behind it, taking it's view to the mountains, the remorse I feel for what our people did to its own origins and identity during communism is hard to forget and forgive.
Still searching for the history of the place and I really hope I'll be able to do another post about this and bring really fresh info about its glory days.
