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Racari
Map
Photo and artist: Adrian Gheorghe
This map shows the time line for settlement in the Racari area, from the stone age to modern times.
Photo and artwork: Adrian Gheorghe 27th August 2007
Old Racari
Amalia Roth, one of the women of the village of Racarii de Sus, told this story to Dr Gheorghe:
It seems that in the Middle Ages, there was a small village, to north of today's Racarii de Jos and Racarii de Sus protected by forests against turkish enemies, at a distance less than one kilometre north from today's Racarii de Jos, just between the hills, covered by ancient forests.
There are said to be small houses underground, and an old church, said Amelia Roth, all covered by ruins and vegetation, difficult to get there, and little to see above ground. Amelia said that there is a very old abandoned cemetery and people found there a hughe snake, and that there are legends about ghosts there.
Another Alexis team member, Enache "Chiriac" Gheorghe from Racarii de Sus tells this legend of old Racari:
In ancient times people lived there, in the north, between hills covered by ancient forests, to protect them against all kinds of enemies, in particular the Turkish army. Only from about 1900 did they leave this old village, and create the nuclei of the two Racari, Racarii de Jos (lower Racari) and Racarii de Sus (upper Racari).
Until 1950 all burials from both villages were still in the cemetery from old Racari, even Enache's father is there, in the old cemetery.
The legend told by Enache Gheorghe says that in olden times, perhaps between 1700 and 1800, the people from old Racari lived there in the old village, in small houses, underground, covered with earth and vegetation.
One day, a few Turkish enemies found the village, and one of them entered one of the small houses, underground, where a single widow lived alone. The woman killed the Turkish man and found on his body a lot of gold coins, taken from other people during raids in the area.
After that, the woman was afraid for the crime she had committed, and decided to use all these gold coins to build a church in the valley, where today Rocarii de Jos is.
However all the transport of building materials, coming from the north, and passing through the forest near old Racari was stopped just there, between the hills, because of a lot of problems.
The people said that this was a sign from God to build the church there in that place, a long distance from the villages of today.
Today in old Racari there are only a few ruins and the old ruined church.
The name Racari derives from the small river which passes through the village, in which live Raci, or crayfish, so the name Racari was named after the crayfish which live in the river.
Astacus astacus, the European crayfish, noble crayfish or broad-fingered crayfish, is the most common species of crayfish in Europe. Like other crayfish, The European crayfish is restricted to freshwater, living only in unpolluted streams, rivers and lakes.
A view of the old church and its cemetery on the opposite slope, looking from the hills of Racarii de Sus, to the east, over the main valley to the north of Racarii de Jos.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
This shows the dome of the roof of the church, made of bricks, from the inside, and clearly shows how the bricks were put together to form the dome.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
This shows part of the inside of the church, covered with vegetation, and in an advanced stage of disrepair.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
This cross from the old cemetery around the old church shows a rare image, a person from old times in his national dress, folk dress, but taken at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The image has been printed on glass or stone by first coating the glass or stone with light sensitive chemicals, and then the image is projected onto it from a modified photographic enlarger. The exposed stone, glass (or ceramic) is then developed and fixed, and the image encased under a protective clear coating of some kind. This one has been done using sepia tones, which is still one of the best ways of preserving a black and white silver based image for the longest possible time.
There are many such photographs in Romanian cemeteries, put on crosses, most of which were made during the late 19th century (when the process first became available) and the early 20th century.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
This shows part of the inside walls of the old church with a fragment of ancient text, written in an old language, called "Chirilica", a part of Russian influence in this area centuries ago.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
This image shows fragments of frescoes from the right side of the main room, inside, at the old church of Racari.
They seem to be fragments of the vestments of saints, very old, and not the way such paintings are done now.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
This view is from the entrance of the old church looking out, and shows a corner of the roof of the front of the old church.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Another section of the partly demolished roof of the old church.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
The door of the old church, on which there is an inscription containing the date 1874.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
A general view of the old church, taken from the bottom of the valley up the hill. In the foreground is the new cemetery from Racarii de Jos, above that is the old cemetery, although it is not visible in this photo because it is so overgrown with vegetation, and, in the distance towards the top of the hill, also covered by vegetation, the old church.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
A cross from the old cemetery. Most of them are dated about 1900.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
The main entrance to the old Racari church.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
A photo showing the new fossiliferous site at old Racari, on the left side of the main valley, across rom the hill on which the old church stands.
a photo fo new fossiliferous site at old RACARI,in the left part of main valley,cross-over the old church hill
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
This is an old cross near the old church, from the old cemetery in old Racari, covered by vegetation. Most crosses from there are around the year 1900.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
This shows the ruins of the church in old Racari, where Dr Gheorghe found a text written on front door with year "1874".
The church is placed on a hill, to the east of the main valley starting from Racarii de Sus, and leading to the north, at a distance of about 500 metres from today's village. It is covered by vegetation, around it is an old cemetery and further down the slope is a new cemetery.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
This is a sample of a fossil freshwater shell, found on left side of the main valley at old Racari, a newly discovered site of fossils from Romanian II (over 3 500 000 years ago). It seems that the entire Oltenia area was a huge lake in ancient times, and we are walking today on the floor of the ancient lake.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
This shows two fragments of old pottery, found around the old church, in the valley, with a lot of small pieces of bricks around them. Perhaps there were a few old buildings there, but this will need to be confirmed by further searching.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Racarii de Sus
In 1880, in Racarii de Sus, the people decided to build a church and a cemetery (up till then, they had to go to Racarii de Jos for church services and to bury their dead, because Racarii de Jos was built first, and after this, on the hills, was built Racarii de Sus.)
The place for the future church was chosen in the middle of Racarii de Sus, and they brought to the site stones taken from the Jiu River, and materials for the buildings, but in 1907 an uprising of poor men stopped the building of the church, and the money for its construction was lost.
Then World War I intervened, which put a stop to all thought of building a church.
During all this time, the villagers used the church in Racarii de Jos, but there were two earthquakes in 1924 and 1942, the last of which finally destroyed this church forever.
Marinica Popesc, the owner of a huge amount of land in Racarii de Sus decided to give a part of his land for a church and cemetery for his village.
Three men were chosen, an old man, a middle aged man, and a young man.
Each man was required to plant, in three different places, a cutting of a grape vine, for wine. The planter of the first grape vine to blossom could choose the place where the church was to be built.
The young boy's grape vine was the first to blossom.
He had planted his grape vine near the school fence, and looking around, said that he could see from there a lot of churches - today can be seen from this point six churches, Filiaşi, Gura-Motrului, Bilta, Bralostita, Scaesti and Racarii de Jos, all to the south of this point.
Building of the new church was begun in 1939, and by 1940 the roof was in place, but once again war intervened. However the church was finished about 1941. Russian troops were stationed in the area, but they did not destroy the new church.
The first priest was Marcu Gigiu, and the peinture (painting of the outside wall of the church with religious scenes, a unique Romanian art form) of the church was made by Petre Listeava.
All this information was gained from a very old teacher from Gosea village, who is now dead, in a document found in the church in use today with the collaboration of the present Priest of the church, Father Laurentiu.
A spring, built in 1963, at the northern outskirts of Racarii de Sus.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
A view of Racarii De Sus in winter, of the street, looking to the east from Gheorghe Enache's house. The electricity poles are of precast reinforced concrete, and are used throughout this area of Oltenia.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
The same street, but looking to the west, from Enache's house. Electricity and telephone lines are carried by poles above the ground. A snowplough is used to create a path when a lot of snow falls, as in this hard winter, about -20 degrees Celsius.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Two members of the Phoenix team: Gheorghe Enache, at the front of his house, in Racarii De Sus, and his daughter, Cornelia Anca, one of the main people involved in all the projects. She is of great value in providing ideas and enthusiasm and knowledge for the goals of both the Alexis and Phoenix Projects.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Dr Adrian Gheorghe, the prime motivation for the Alexis and Phoenix projects, with Gheorghe Enache, in the middle of the road, at the front of Enache's house, in Racarii De Sus, in winter.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Gheorghe Enache and Cornelia Anca, at the Enache house in Racarii De Sus. Fine dry snow had fallen in very cold conditions without much wind before the sun came out for this photo.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Winter sport games in Racarii De Sus, with chidren from the village, at a temperature of about -7°C and no wind.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
This is a view of the Cerat neolithical village from the Alexis project, looking from east to west, from the west border of Racarii De Sus, in winter. The site is covered in this photo by 30 cm of snow, with an air temperature of -7°C. No discoveries of artefacts are possible under these conditions!
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Cornelia Anca leaving Racarii De Sus, to our car, which is on the main road, to the south, at the west border of the village.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
A last view of Racarii De Sus in winter, looking from the main road between Craiova and Filiaşi, to the east, to the village, at the west border of it. You can see in this photo the church and many houses of the village.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
The legend of the Devil's Road.
Era intr-o zi de vara, senina si placuta a anului 1997.
Fratele meu, Enache Florian, mergea cu masina pe drumul european E70. La vreo 200 metrii de intersectia cu satul Racarii de Sus (privind din sosea, era undeva in dreptul bisericii satului ), se opreste cu masina pe partea dreapta, in afara partii carosabile pentru a purta o discutie cu proprietarul masinii. La scurt timp masina este lovita cu putere de o alta si este aruncata in santul de pe marginea drumului.
Soferul vinovat de producerea accidentului a sustinut cu tarie ca nu a vazut masina trasa pe partea dreapta.
Ciudat este faptul ca pe acea portiune de drum vizibilitatea este maxima.
Scris de Cornelia Anca.
It was a lovely summer day in 1997.
My brother, Enache Florian, was travelling by car on the European Road E70. At about 200 metres from the intersection with the village of Racarii de Sus (as you look from the road, it looks like being on the same line with the church), he stopped the car on the right side of the road, away from the road on the verge. A few minutes later the car was hit hard by another car and thrown into the ditch at the edge of the road.
The driver who caused the accident claimed vigorously that he didn't see the vehicle on the right edge of the road.
It is a strange fact that on that part of the road, the visibility is excellent.
Written by Cornelia Anca.
Translated by Alex Gheorghe, The Alexis Project Young Team, Ploiesti.
Dr Gheorghe writes:
Between Racarii de Sus and Racarii de Jos, there is a well made, straight section of main road about two kilometres long.
Over the years there have been a lot of car accidents on this stretch of road, many more than other roads with much worse conditions, with many people dead and injured. This section of road is in good condition, with high visibility, and the weather preceding the accidents was usually fine and sunny.
The priest from Racarii de Sus's church said to Enache Gheorghe that in an old book kept in the church, it states that the "death road" is shaped like a cross from north to south and east to west, where devils meet often and take, from time to time, the lives of people from the cars which use the road. So this part of the road is called the "devil's cross road".
On 12.12.2006, at about 18.30 in the evening, a winter night here, I was driving my car from Craiova (from my company job) to Filiaşi (at home). It was not very cold, there was good visibility, the cars were driving at a reasonable pace, about 50 km/h, and when I was entering Racarii de Sus, on both sides of this road, the devils' road, were many, many lights reflected from the guide posts which bordered the road.
There was no water or ice on the road and the visibility was normal... But, at about 50 m after you enter Racarii de Sus, coming from Craiova, in a place on the right side of the road, a car, in a restricted speed zone of 50 km/h, was killed a young woman (about 27 years age) who was walking off the road, behind a special marker-band for walkers, in a well lit area. Only her child, a girl about 6 years age is alive, her mother is dead, for no good reason...
Amalia Roth told me that in the last few months, here, on devil's road were killed four men, two young boys on the road, another one who was off the road, in front of his house and the woman I just told you about.
After I left the scene of accident and got away from there, after another 100 metres I found, on the right side of the road, another crashed car, off the road with many people around it, helping the driver to escape...
Because Oltenia Museum has the ability to verify the scientific importance of this information and because the specialists of Oltenia Museum have made contributions to this site, the copyrights to it are part of Oltenia Museum property.
If you have any photographs or information which would be useful for this site please contact Don Hitchcock
This page last modified Sunday, 13th July, 2008 03:57pm
A last view of Racarii De Sus in winter, looking from the main road between Craiova and Filiaşi, to the east, to the village, at the west border of it. You can see in this photo the church and many houses of the village.