Tom Haines in Romania: Exploring the Outer Edges of the EU

Romania officially joined the European Union this year, and the Boston Globe’s Tom Haines used the occasion to kick off a four-part series to see how the changes will affect the citizens of many of the nations that have recently been welcomed into the EU. Part one begins in the fog-shrouded foothills of the Carpathian range. “[W]ith a wash of midmorning sun, only faint wisps of white lingered above the village of Voronet and a stone church adorned with frescoes in rich red, gold, and blue,” Haines writes. “The Orthodox images of Adam plowing, of the Last Judgment, and more were not sheltered inside a sanctuary, but exposed, vulnerable, on outside walls.”

He continues:

When they were painted on wet plaster five centuries ago, a time when Turks attacked from the south, the murals on this and other churches nearby were meant to teach tales of Christian saints and soldiers to illiterate masses. In the centuries since, they have weathered not only sleet and snow, heat and sunlight, but also the strong hand of Austro-Hungarian rule, the chaos of World War II battles, and a forced silence that ended with the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu’s conspiratorial communist regime in 1989.

During this winter of change, the open-air frescoes, unique in Europe, witness not the struggle of empires, but the uncertainty of individual lives.

A narrated slideshow with photos by Alessandro Gori accompanies Haines’s piece. The final three parts of the series will be posted throughout 2007.

Photo of the Monastery of Sucevita by Alessandro Gori.

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