ABOUT THE LONG ROAD
TO THE DAMBOVITA LIBRARY

Text and photos Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Final photos Valentin Grigore
Design Florin Alexandru Stancu



In 2019 August a miniature of Dracula’s Tower Chindia in Targoviste
(made in the 15th century),
made me wonder if it influenced, five centuries later,
the architecture of a nearby communist industrial citadels in that county
(abandoned or partly modernized by foreign investors today).

So that I chose a few samples.

In Targoviste (former Capital City of Wallachia or the Romanian Land)…











In Doicesti…































In Fieni…









Then I saw in Targoviste something which resisted under any regime:
Romanian “voievods”, Ottoman pressures, leadership from Phanar,
Russian administration, independence, democracy, nationalist dictatorship,
communism, post-communism.



Something profoundly spiritual,
with a changing material support…


















Something stronger then
the pass of time.



















I speak about the library tradition in the Dambovita County
(probably the oldest in the Romanian state of Wallachia),
which started from the 16th century
at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Wallachia,
continued with valuable particular collections of books
and, since 1943, is represented by the Dambovita County Library
(which has a new seat since 1986
and is named after Ion Heliade Radulescu,
an exceptional man of letters,
who was born in Targoviste and became the first president
of the Academy of the Romanian united states in the 19th century).

Today this library makes more than a usual activity,
having branches in the Republic of Moldova (also a Romanian state)
and in the Romanian community who lives and works in Spain,
and accepting in the last years a partnership with
the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy (SARM).

Regarding its astronomical component,
now the seat of the Dambovita Library hosts
local and national events organized by SARM,
and is enriched by a permanent exhibition of astrophotography
with pictures including images taken by NASA, ESA
and especially the president of SARM, Valentin Grigore,
donated also by SARM.































Just because the real transformation of the human being
begins with the acceptation of the sky on earth.



Finally for this project I chose two significant pictures
by… Valentin Grigore:
one with Venus and Jupiter over Targoviste’s industrial zone
and one with the Moon near Tower Chindia.



An industrial tower
Can show very much power,
But it will never outrun
A historical tower.



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© 2019 SARM
(Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy)