Petro Aqua Association organized between July 2–5, 2019, in Alba Iulia, Ciugud and Petroșani, a series of events within the project “A Clean Mureș for Future Generations – Desire to Adhere to UNESCO Heritage Values“, financially supported by the Alba Iulia City Hall, the Ciugud Commune City Hall and the Alba County Council.
On the first day, a round table was organized, together with the local public administration and the eight project partners, in the presence of UNESCO expert Ioana Otilia Baskerville, the president of the International Rafting Association of Germany, representatives of the Commission for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage of the Ministry of Culture, the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Alba Iulia, the National Museum of the Union and civil society figures from Alba Iulia, Sibiu, Cluj-Napoca, Oradea, Cluj and Bucharest.
The event also included the launch on the very shallow waters of the Mureș River, in the Ciugud area, of a mini-raft expedition in which children from the “St. Vasile cel Mare” Social Settlement, the “St. Parascheva” Day Center, the “Ion Agârbiceanu” Middle School in Alba Iulia, as well as children from other areas, participants in this event. They lived a unique experience alongside the helmsmen from Ciugud, on the route between the children’s playground, arranged near the “Teodora Golf” in Teleac and the Pier in Drâmbar.
The National Museum of the Union was visited, where the hosts presented museum artifacts related to the antiquity of rafting in our area and a special event held in the Union Hall: the launch of the book “Testimonies of the practice of rafting in Transylvania from antiquity, the Middle Ages and the modern period – the role of the city of Alba Iulia in the history of rafting”. The book is addressed to experts in the field of intangible values, but also to those interested in the secrets of the local rafting and a noble profession practiced by the Dacians for over two thousand years. The launch of the book, in a bilingual edition, Romanian-English, was thought out, conceived, labored over and collected from authors of great cultural-historical standing and was published for those interested in the secrets of rafting, but also to complete the file for the accession of the Romanian rafting to the list of intangible cultural heritage.
The presentation of the book was made with an exacerbated sensitivity and a sparkling professionalism, worthy of the most remarkable oratories of the great Romanian thinkers of the interwar period, by Father Prof. Dr. Florin Croitoru and thanks to the place where this launch took place, the monumentality and spiritual value of the Union Hall (the hall in which the act of the Union of Romania was signed on December 1, 1918), which is only opened to a few exceptional events.
The completion and publication of this book-document was a special occasion for the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Alba Iulia, the City Hall of Alba Iulia, the Alba County Council and the National Museum of the Union to award, at the launch in the Union Hall, diplomas of merit to the hardworking authors.
The launch event ended with an itinerant visit offered by the hosts to the guests to the museum of collections of very old icons and church objects “Musiekon” in Alba Iulia.
On the third day, the activity took place in a remarkable atmosphere offered by the City Hall of Ciugud Commune, in the conference room of the city hall at the Senior Center. Here, under the coordination of Mr. Dorin Iancu (member of the Petro Aqua NGO), Ms. Ioana Otilia Baskerville (UNESCO expert) and Mr. Frank Thiel (IATR president), a videoconference was held with Romanian specialists and representatives of the International Rafting Association from countries that wish to join Romania to the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
On the fourth day, the interested guests went to the Bolii Cave, a site of first-rate historical and cultural interest in Hunedoara County. They visited the suspension bridges, a traveling exhibition of stone carvings with and about old Miner and Dacian motifs, set up in the vicinity of the cave, as well as the fascinating stories of the place related to the First World War. All this was done under the guidance of the president of Petro Aqua, Imre Szuhanek.
The volunteers of this association from Petroșani take care of the events that take place at the cave – those of a historical-religious nature, care, lighting, trail layout and guiding of this fascinating cave located under a Dacian fortress.
Photos Serb Ionel and Imre Szuhanek
