<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Today we will take you to a journey along fairy-tale
<\/p>\n Gheorghe Popa is the mayor of the Paunesti commune. He
<\/p>\n Gheorghe Popa: <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The wells with counterweight are 100 years old,
<\/p>\n The say the first well was the property of parish
<\/p>\n Gheorghe Popa: <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We cleaned them, every now and then. We
<\/p>\n However, the mayor of Paunesti, Gheorghe Popa, was
<\/p>\n At present, the commune is connected
<\/p>\n Apart from the need to have water, another explanation
<\/p>\n Lots of foreigners arrive in the region, filming those
<\/p>\n Gheorghe Popa:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The commune of Paunesti is a big,
<\/p>\n We also found out that in the old days, as part of the
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Icons of tradition in Romania’s villages<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":136715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42520],"tags":[43307,43304,43303,43305,43306],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-136714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inside-romania","tag-bucket","tag-counterweight","tag-stone","tag-well","tag-wooden"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\npaths. Our stopover is a commune that was first documented in 1551. The place
\nwas officially registered as the Paunesti clearing. Back in the day, the locals
\nwere free peasants or freeholders, razesi<\/em>, in Romanian, living in the
\nsurrounding villages. We’re in the Paunesti commune of today, in the
\nnorth-eastern part of Vrancea county, close to the border with Bacau county, on
\nthe left bank of Carecna river. There is a place here, which is a one-of-a kind
\nspot countrywide: the center of the commune, where there are 30 stone-built wells with counterweight. The perimeter where the wells can be found is no larger than 2,500 square
\nmeters. Wells with counterweight and carved, wooden buckets. The wells once used to
\nmake the pride of the locality, since they were dug so that people can have
\nwater, in a commune which is spread on several hills, and where the aquifer is
\nusually deep. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\ntold us the tale of the wells with counterweight.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nin the commune of Paunesti and are made by the well-to-do people in the
\nlocality. Two or three affluent families got together and had the wells built
\nin the center. People would come in the ox-drawn or horse-drawn carts they got
\ntogether and used wooden cisterns to transport the water back to their home, in
\norder to use it. There used to be many more such fountains, but now only around
\n30 of them were left. We have a project, we want to preserve them, and right
\nnow we are waiting. We approached the minister, he even had a fact-finding visit,
\nthen the development minister Ion Stefan, he also sent us a state secretary
\nwith the Ministry of Culture, we try to preserve them. We have a bituminizing
\nproject for the alleys between them which is the feasibility study stage. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nclerk Ioni\u0163\u0103 Chiriac. And also according to the legends of the place, back in
\nthe day people got up at day-clean, driving their ox-drawn cart to the wells.
\nThey no less than waited in line, taking water for the animals, but also for
\nthemselves. Then the vineyards appeared and people took water back with them to
\nsprinkle their vineyards. The mayor of Paunesti also told us that each well
\nbears the name of the one who built it, so everybody knew they went to Duman
\nfor their water supply, or to Ichim. According to the locals, the wells are
\ninherited from parents, so, for instance, the Berbece’s Well is today the best
\nwell-kept of them all, since the inheritors in the family were supplicated by
\ntheir ancestors to take good care of the well.<\/p>\n
\nmaintain them, we lime-coat them, we set them in order. Some of the people made
\nlids, but to do that, a great sum of money is needed. The people, and let me
\njust give you some of the names of the people of yesteryear: \u0162abura\u015fi,
\nBerbecii, Duma, Murgoci, Ifrim, those were the names of the people who made them. And then the
\nwells were used by everybody. Wooden cisterns
\nwere used to bring water home until 86-88, so people could fill their water
\ntanks. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nunhappy with the fact that the people still drank the water from the wells,
\neven though the water was not so safe. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nto the water supply facility. On each well we had notifications written saying
\nthe water was not drinkable, but people still use it for the animals.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nthe locals gave for the construction of the wells was that according to a
\ntradition of the place, a well or a water source had to be built or repaired 40
\ndays after someone died. Nearby those sources of water, roadside crosses were
\nplaced, as well as crosses or icons. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nunique pieces, but the official approval is still expected so that the
\nproject for the museum restoration of the wells can take off. At any rate, the area is beautiful and
\nwelcoming. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nbeautiful commune, with lots of hills, with the Carecna river valley, many
\nchalets have been built there, recently, on the either side, on one side we
\nhave the Carecna river valley, on the other side the Mohorata commune. The
\nlandscape is very beautiful.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nreligious feasts observed in the commune, each and every man in the village
\ngathered around the wells for the consecration of the waters. <\/p>\n