Transylvania to the Black Sea Part 2 Great Continental Railway Journeys

'I'm embarking on a new railway adventure

'that will take me across the heart of Europe.'

I'll be using this, my Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide,

dated 1913, which opened up an exotic world of foreign travel

for the British tourist.

'It told travellers where to go,

'what to see and how to navigate

'the thousands of miles of tracks to cross the Continent.

'Now, a century later, I'm using my copy

'to reveal an era of great optimism and energy,

'but also of high tension.'

I want to rediscover that lost Europe that in 1913

couldn't know that its way of life would shortly be swept aside

by the advent of war.

'I'm continuing a journey through Romania.

'I began amidst the unspoilt beauty of Transylvania,

'and have travelled south as far as Ploiesti.

'Now I'm bound for Bucharest, the capital,

'before continuing to the port of Constanta, on the Black Sea coast.

'Along the way, a Romanian hero is brought to life by a maestro.'

George Enescu, a Stradivarius - it's overwhelming.

'I meet a defender of the nation's heritage...'

You are the man who saved this church and so many other buildings.

'..before testing my head for heights.'

Whoa! This is scary.

I've got the shakes.

My next stop will be Bucharest.

Bradshaw's tells me that it's "The capital of Romania,

"often swept by strong winds, a very unsettled climate.

"The trade of the city continually increases.

"Improvements have swept away most of the old, squalid, Oriental

"districts, and occasionally the city

"is mentioned as a smaller Paris."

I shall be very interested to see it because during the communist period,

President Ceaucescu also did a lot of sweeping away.

For early 20th-century tourists, alighting in the capital of

this new kingdom would have been exciting,

even daunting,

although the seasoned European traveller might be reassured

by some familiar touches.

The very first reminder of Paris is the name of this station,

Gara de Nord, and it's not just the name - it was built in 1872 at

a time when French cultural and architectural influences

were very strong.

And then, just imagine all the French people who were arriving

by train at the station, bringing with them all their influences.

'The city of Bucharest flourished during the reign of

'King Carol I, between 1866 and 1914.'

New boulevards were created in the style of Haussmann's Paris.

Most of its major buildings were designed by French or

French-trained architects.

The city has its own Arc de Triomphe.

At the time of my guide book, King Carol's Romania was gaining

in confidence and seeking greater influence.

Two Balkan wars gave Romania bargaining power.

In 1912, a group of Balkan countries took advantage of Turkey's

weakness to seize most of its remaining territory in Europe.

But Bulgaria's jealous neighbours thought that it had gained

too much and a second Balkan War broke out in 1913.

Romania contrived to host the peace conference,

here in Bucharest later that year,

and gained a city on the Black Sea and another on the Danube and

an increase in population of a quarter of a million.

But if any of the delegates came to this late-19th century

Gothic-themed restaurant to celebrate,

their rejoicing would have been very short-lived because events in

the Balkans precipitated World War I.

And that brought untold suffering to all of Europe.

Romania had become a significant player in the region.

Her allegiance would be eagerly courted by both sides during

the conflict to come.

Early 20th-century Bucharest was a cosmopolitan city, where art,

architecture and music flourished.

George Enescu, Romania's greatest musician and composer,

was hugely popular in his home country and across Europe.

The Cantacuzino Palace holds a museum dedicated to him.

And I feel privileged to be shown around by Romania's most

celebrated violinist, Alexandru Tomescu.

Maestro, here is George Enescu.

What kind of an inspiration has he been to you?

George Enescu is a complete artist for me.

He was not just a great composer, a great violinist,

maybe one of the greatest of the century,

not just a great teacher,

who could memorise a piece just sight-reading it for the

first time and then he would put it beside him and then would be

able to reproduce every single note.

But besides all of these artistical qualities, he was very

intensely preoccupied with the fate of the young composers of Romania.

He established an award for the young composers.

He did so much for this country.

Born in 1881, George Enescu was a prodigy,

admitted to the Vienna Conservatory at the tender age of seven.

In later life, he gained international acclaim for his

orchestral compositions, including his Romanian Rhapsodies.

Well, Alexandru, what violin have you brought today?

The very best violin, from Romania.

It's a Stradivarius, built in 1702, during his golden age.

It was purchased by Romanian state back in 1955 and may be the

best ever investment that the Romanian state made.

It's a true beauty.

It is priceless. It is one of the few remaining ones.

No amount of money, regardless how big, can replace it.

Would it be possible to hear something by Enescu on

-a Stradivarius?

-Not only possible, it will be a great joy for me.

HE PLAYS

Alexandru Tomescu, George Enescu, a Stradivarius - it's overwhelming.

-Thank you so much.

-A great pleasure.

And a further privilege - that's not all I'll hear of his music.

The Enescu Philharmonic is rehearsing for

a performance in the Athenaeum,

offering me an insight into their work.

ORCHESTRA PLAYS

The visitor to Bucharest a century ago

could have come to the Athenaeum and seen

Romanian history represented in the round.

And perhaps through Enescu's second Romanian Rhapsody,

I've glimpsed the Romanian soul as well.

MUSIC CONTINUES

I'm staying in the elegant Continental Hotel,

mentioned in my Bradshaw's Guide.

And, overall, I've been surprised how many

old buildings have survived in Bucharest.

I like to think of these historic structures all across Europe

as being like silent, outraged spectators

to the events of the 20th century.

Two world wars and the depravities of Nazism and fascism and communism,

waiting patiently for sanity to be restored.

If you choose your route carefully, Bradshaw's 1913 Bucharest

is much in evidence.

But take a turn off that route and the brutalist tower blocks

tell the story of Bucharest and Romania

in the latter half of the 20th century.

Bradshaw's had prepared me for

the cupula-shaped church towers of Bucharest.

But this is the architecture of tyranny,

the sort that flattens everything that gets in its way.

It was built in the 1980s on the orders of a megalomaniac -

President Ceausescu.

It was intended to be a monument that would last 500 years.

But he was shot before the decade had ended.

Backed by the Soviet Union, the communists had

seized power shortly after the Second World War.

Between 1965 and 1989, Romania endured the despotic regime of

Nicolae Ceausescu, which scarred the nation.

Despite economic mismanagement resulting in widespread poverty,

Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, pursued grandiose projects,

such as the building of the Palace Of The Parliament in Bucharest.

At 365,000 square metres, it is the second largest

administrative building in the world after the Pentagon.

I'm meeting Adrian Iordachescu, whose father emerged a hero

as a result of this extravagant project.

-Hello, Adrian.

-Glad to meet you.

Very good to see you. Well, here we are,

virtually in the shadow of the Palace Of The Parliament.

What was in this area before?

A pretty nice quarter, with old houses.

Very quiet. There were a lot of churches, small streets.

What happened to those houses and those churches in this quarter?

Totally demolished.

The property was not, uh, the major concern of the regime.

More than 40,000 residents were given

just days to vacate their homes.

And one fifth of Bucharest was flattened to make way

for Ceausescu's vanity project.

Did anything survive?

Yes, a couple of churches were saved by my father.

My father is a civil engineer, and he had that great idea

to relocate buildings.

What do you think is the most important thing that was saved?

Probably Mihai Voda church -

it's one of the most important buildings, which was relocated.

To save the 16th-century Mihai Voda church from demolition,

Adrian's father, Eugen, came up with an ingenious method of moving it.

The building was cut from its foundation at ground level,

raised, supported by hydraulic jacks,

before being transported on railway bogeys along train tracks.

To the amazement of crowds,

the church was moved in one piece,

289 metres away from Ceausescu's bulldozers.

It took two weeks for the church to reach its new location.

So, Adrian, it is a beautiful church,

and this is where it ended up after its 289-metre journey.

But now it's hemmed in by blocks of flats.

A couple of years ago, the chief architect and the mayor

asked my father to think of a solution

to relocate the building on the initial site.

-Can we go inside?

-Sure.

When I see the church, I'm struck by its simple beauty.

And now I fully appreciate the audacity of the operation.

And to my delight, Eugen Iordachescu is here to meet me.

My father. That's the man I told you about.

What a great honour to meet you, sir. This is fantastic.

-Thank you very much.

-You are the man who saved this church,

and so many other buildings.

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

Are you a religious man? Was that an important part of your motivation?

Congratulations. What you've done here is really almost incredible.

I'm leaving the capital, to continue my journey eastwards.

I'll soon be arriving in Constanta which, the guidebook tells me,

"..is on a steep tongue of land running into the Black Sea.

"It's acquired importance as the sea harbour of Romania,

"with the outer works of the harbour completed in 1903."

I imagine there's been a lot of development still,

because Constanta remains, for Romanian products,

the gateway to the world.

I'm excited to glimpse the mighty Danube,

which, like me, is wending its way towards the Black Sea.

I shall explore Constanta tomorrow.

The city of Constanta stands on the western coast of the Black Sea,

in the Dobruja region, whose control returned to Romania in 1878,

after war between Russia and Turkey.

The country thus regained a sea port,

and access to international trade routes.

Looking around, I see faded grandeur.

Especially evident at Constanta Casino,

where I'm meeting historian Cosbin Yoniza.

-Hello, Cosbin.

-Hi, Michael. Very nice to meet you.

This is obviously a splendid building. A casino.

When was it built and why was it built?

It was built just before the First World War, in 1909-1910.

And it was a building meant to bring the elite of the city together.

Constanta used to be a city of fishermen,

but then, after this region became part of the kingdom of Romania,

you have a great splendour in the city.

I'm very interested in the origins of the First World War.

Does Constanta play any part in the political developments?

Constanta has a very important role in the build-up

to the First World War.

It's actually the place where the visit of Tsar Nicholas II,

with his imperial family, happened on 14th June, 1914,

when he visited the royal family of Romania.

-Are we able to go inside?

-Sure.

In 1914, Europe sensed that war was brewing.

Tensions were high between opposing alliances.

The Russian imperial visit, which drew huge crowds,

and concluded with a gala in this casino,

was more than a courtesy call by a neighbouring monarch.

Cosbin, it was clearly once an extremely grand building,

and I dare say a suitable place to receive the Tsar of Russia.

What was the political purpose of the visit?

It was very important because in Europe at that moment,

you have two main alliances.

You have Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy on one side,

and then on the other side you have France, Russia and Great Britain.

Romania was part of the first bloc,

together with Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.

And the others were trying to pull Romania out of this alliance

and to bring it to their side.

More things happened apart from the imperial visit.

You have also the foreign minister of Russia visiting Romania,

and this has a very important political message.

He was here in Constanta as well during the visit, but he stayed more in Bucharest

and they were able to talk further on, on the political, er...

..ideas connecting the two countries.

With the ostentatious welcome for the Russian Tsar,

Romania was claiming her place at the top diplomatic table,

and was being courted because of her strategic location.

'In 1916, Romania eventually entered the First World War,

'on the side of France, Britain and Russia.'

To the south of the Casino lies the port of Constanta

which, during the 1860s, was open to international trade

with a railway built by a British company.

King Carol further modernised and improved the port

to accommodate large cargo ships.

Bradshaw's remarks that grain is Romania's chief export.

I want to find out whether that's still the case,

from Antonio Stoye, who works for a freight company here.

Antonio, I'm very struck by these very beautiful buildings.

When were they put up?

So they were built more than 100 years ago.

They started in 1904 with the first silo,

then the second one followed in 1911 and the third one in 1914.

All together, they are 100,000 tonnes capacity.

This is all about grain. Where was it going from and to?

Mainly from inland Romania,

the cargo was going further on the Black Sea.

In Turkey, North Africa and, today, it's going also to Far East.

The port of Constanta has undergone further expansion recently.

Handling nearly 20 million tonnes of cereal a year,

it's emerging as Europe's biggest grain transport hub,

and is on course to become the largest grain terminal

in the Black Sea region.

Enormous floating cranes transfer cargo

from river barges to seagoing ships.

The crane is controlled from a small operator cabin 100ft up.

WHISPERING: Don't look down, don't look down.

Ah.

Made it to the top, and what a view.

The control centre.

Yes, here we are, on top of the world.

I'm looking down into the grain storage area of the ship.

It is, er, it is a vast cavity, isn't it?

Yeah, indeed.

Wow.

Now the, er, the fairground ride really does begin.

Ah, the whole crane is spinning around, wow.

This is... Whoa! This is scary.

This is moving in every conceivable direction.

I'm glad he wasn't driving it when we came up the ladder.

I've got the shakes.

If you look down, you will see that

-now he is grabbing from the barge.

-Oh, yeah.

Much more shaking as we grab. The wires come up, the grab is rising...

We're swinging round towards the ship.

Ahhh... We're now over the ship.

This vessel could hold up to 86,000 tonnes of grain,

and is bound for Belgium.

That's your first 26 tonnes, operated in Constanta.

Ah.

Oh-ho-ho!

If I was terrified before, I think this takes the biscuit.

I'm peering through an open space here, down to the enormous grab,

which must be 70 or 80ft beneath me.

When I think of the responsibility of these operators,

I mean, it's really terrifying!

This thriving venture in Constanta

signals Romania's ambitions for the future.

100 years ago, the railway traveller in Romania

would have noticed its poverty,

but I've been taken aback to discover that it was a major oil producer,

whose king had a castle full of the latest electrical gadgets.

Similarly today, I am surprised that in

one of Europe's least developed economies,

there's an enormous and growing port here at Constanta.

Transylvania was joined to Romania only after the First World War,

and so it's still a youngish country

that had a very unlucky 20th century.

Romania has now driven a stake into its communist past,

and I hope that this friendly nation will seize the new opportunities.

'Next time...

LOUD BANG

'..I enter a war zone with the Red Cross...'

Hurry, go!

A most extraordinary turn of events!

'..put my faith in St Bernard...'

Michael Portillo's the name.

Last seen somewhere in the Alps.

'..and salute the bravery of a Swiss pioneering pilot.'

Only when you go up in a small plane like this

do you realise what a formidable

obstacle the Alps would have been

a century ago.