Cârțișoara, Badea Cârțan museum

GPS Coordinates:
45.72608 N, 24.57468 E

According to the legend Cârțișoara, on both sides of the stream was founded hundreds of years ago, when two sheperds descended the mountains and founded Oprea and Streza villages. Gheorghe Cârțan, aka 'nenea Cârțan' (1849-1911) was born in Oprea in a family with seven children. The traveler was highly respected by the upper classes in Bucharest. As a sheperd's child he was far away from the problems of the world, and became the symbol of the Romanian national self-awareness.

He went to Vienna to ask for justice to the Romanians from Transilvania. He traveled to Rome, to mother Rome, to bring a brass girdle to Traian's pole. He also went to France and Spain searching for the Latin ancestors. He served as volunteer in the independence war, and brough Romanian books to Transilvania, travelling on the mountain paths well known by him. His saying was: Every Romanian should see Bucharest and Rome, because those who do not know there ancestors are like orphans.

There is a separate 'Badea Cârțan' room in the village museum furnished in 1968. Besides Cârțan's photos and books there is a XIX century house, with specific furniture to the area, a collection of pictures of saints, old photos, folkwear, dowry chests, and pottery. There are also two orthodox churches built in 1806 and 1818. The reformed church today is used by Adventists, while the Catholic Church is abandoned. The transfagarasan road starts from Cârțișoara.

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