COSMIC DREAMS ON THE SERBAN VODA WAY

-text and photos (2012-2016) Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
design Florin Alexandru Stancu-

It is great to look for
Historical places.
The heavenly bodies always help us to find
Wonderful traces.

It seems that from this intersection,
the monarchical road named after his founder,
the “voievod” and “domnitor” of Wallachia in between 1601 and 1611,
Radu Serban
(who followed Mihai Viteazul the Brave,
the first unifier of the three Romanian medieval countries
- Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldova -,
and continued the fight against the Ottoman Empire and its Tatar allies)
had its original beginning,
and started toward north,
toward the Dambovita River.

For a while,
this was even the most important street in Bucharest just because going south,
on the opposite direction,
the road went to the Danube River,
the natural border between Wallachia and the Ottoman Empire.

Obviously, I preferred to photographically hunt the old buildings here,
although the primordial view of the Serban Voda Way
had been completely changed in time.

I made my first halt in the first place where I felt astral infusion,
the Alexie Church (made around 1800)
and its external starry painting.

Then, another segment of the street…

…and the second halt near the Slobozia Church
(founded in the 1630s to commemorate a battle for the Wallachian Throne)
and its sun crosses.

A school made in 1864 and named after the poet Ienachita Vacarescu
(1740-1794, who composed in a love poem an interesting metaphor
about his girlfriend:
“Your face that give beams
to the Sun, and lightens him…” -
my translation)
inspired me to make a tour around it
and to find a fine small square named Concordia.

I tried to compare the Serban Voda Way
with some of the most famous Occidental streets:
totally another atmosphere,
completely another charm.

Unfortunately, its last segment is brutally stopped
by a block of flats made by the communist regime
(indefatigable destroyer of the monarchical past)
in the 1980s.

However, I made my last halt (before the end of the street)
near the Saint Spiridon Cathedral
(the largest church in Bucharest, made in the 1850s)
and its solar models.

Perhaps only saying that the Serban Voda Way
passed over the Dambovita River toward the historical centre
is not enough,
so I decided to open a photo-parenthesis
with 3 consecutive sunsets over that zone of Bucharest
(current aspect, of course).

2016-09-11…

2016-09-12…

2016-09-13…

Returning to the story…

Because after that I felt a sweet tiredness,
I decided to make a longer halt on the Serban Voda Way
and to rest myself in the house of a trader from the 18th century.

There, during the nighttime, I dreamed
the star Sirius near the Alexie Church,
the planets Jupiter and Venus near the Slobozia Church,
and the Moon near Saint Spiridon’s New Church.