The Museum of Printing and Old Romanian Book

The realization of the "House of Romance" in Târgovişte- a unique museum space in Romania - by the „Citadel of Romance” Cultural Center for UNESCO in Târgoviște , under the patronage of the European and North American Federation of UNESCO Clubs, Centers and Associations is one of the most remarkable arguments with which we promote, nationally and internationally, the Romance music as a genre of national cultural heritage, for the purpose of its inscription in the Representative List of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. The idea of establishing the „House of Romance” belongs to the president and founder of the „Citadel of Romance” Cultural Center for UNESCO in Târgoviște,mr.TeodorVasiliu, Ph.D. in History, author of the "History of the Golden Chrysanthemum" monography, a passionate researcher of the Romance genre and musical phenomenon in Târgovişte and the owner of an impressive personal collection of the Romance and the "Golden Chrysanthemum" National Festival. Through this approach, the public has the opportunity to enter the fascinating world of the Romance, which has been celebrated by great composers, singers, actors and remarkable personalities of Romania’s national culture and also by valuable artists of the international scene. The building where the „House of Romance” in Târgovişte was realized and inaugurated on October 18th, 2017, is a historical and monumental edifice itself. It belongs to the Dâmboviţa County Council and was assigned in 2017 to the „Citadel of Romance” Cultural Center for UNESCO inTârgovişte by taking into account the major public interest, also manifested in the official meetings with UNESCO and EFUCA representatives.In august 2019, the building was assigned to The National Museum Complex of The Princely Court of Târgoviște, with the purpose of establishing The „House of Romance” Museum. The choice for this building was also justified from a historical point of view, sinceit is the building where, in the year 1968, the authorities signed the „birth certificate” of the "Golden Chrysanthemum" National Romance Festival, the greatest national music event in Romania dedicated to Romance music, which offered Târgoviştethe well-deserved cultural status of being a Citadel of Romance. The public commitments expressed by the local authorities in 2017 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary edition of the "Golden Chrysanthemum" National Romance Festival, and in other official meetings, including those with the participation of the Honorary President of the World Federation of Associations, Centers and Clubs for UNESCO, mr.George Christophides, expresstheir full support for this great cultural project appreciated to the maximum by all national and international personalities who honored the inauguration event of the House of Romance in Târgoviște. Also, the patronage given to the House of Romance by the European and North American Federation of UNESCO Clubs, Centers and Associations is an expression (and also a guarantee) of the major interest with which UNESCO's distinguished representatives support the realization of „The House of Romance” in Târgovişte. This is an objective of great significance in the framework of the official initiative that the „Citadel of Romance” Cultural Center for UNESCO in Târgoviște filed at the Ministry of Culture and National Identity, together with the City Hall and the Local Council of Târgovişte and the National Commission of Romania for UNESCO, to inscribe the Romance music in UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. „The House of Romance –an embassy of culture in Târgoviște" The „Citadel of Romance” Cultural Center for UNESCO in Târgovișteand the European and North American Federation of UNESCO Clubs, Centers and Associations(EFUCA) initiated „The House of Romance – an embassy of culture in Târgoviște" project in January 2018. The project is dedicated to promoting the tangible and intangible heritage of the Dâmboviţa County, the events and objectives of great cultural, religious, scientific and tourist interest in this historical area of Romania and it is meant to contribute to the promotion of the cultural and historical heritage of theDâmboviţa County. At the "House of Romance" in Târgoviște, in partnership with numerous public institutions, we periodically organize cultural, artistic, educational and scientific events aimed at emblazoning the cultural and historical status of Târgovişte and Dâmboviţa County, and to identify new opportunities for promotingthe cultural heritage of this area of Romania inside the borders and also abroad. For this purpose, the „Citadel of Romance” Cultural Center for UNESCO in Târgoviște collaborates with the City Hall and Local Council of Târgovişte, theDâmboviţa County Council, the Prefect of Dâmboviţa County. The Center also has signed partnerships with the Archbishopric of Târgovişte, the "Valahia" University of Târgovişte, the General School Inspectorate of Dâmboviţa County, The Writers of Târgoviște Society, The Union of Professional Journalists of Romania - the "Ion HeliadeRădulescu" Branch of Dâmboviţa County, The „Queen Mary” Heroes Worshiping Association –the DâmboviţaCounty Branch, the Garrison of Târgovişte, Columna TV station and „Jurnal de Dâmboviţa” daily local newspaper. Through this project of wide public interest, the „Citadel of Romance” Cultural Center for UNESCO in Târgoviște aims to promote Romance on a national and international level in the year 2018, which is the European Year of Cultural Heritage, as declared by the European Parliament and Council. We believe that it is also our duty to honor this exceptional legacy of the municipality of Târgovişte and the county of Dâmboviţa, who have been organizing the "Golden Chrysanthemum" National Festival of Romance for 50 years, every year - an uninterrupted loyal service for half a century in Târgovişte, dedicated to the Romance music, as a genre of national cultural heritage. The "Citadel of Romance" Cultural Center for UNESCO in Târgovişte is responsible for the artistic direction of the "Golden Chrysanthemum" National Festival of Romance. The Center also organizes the events associated with the Festival, which is dedicated to this year's celebration of the Centenary of the Great Union from 1918 and the European Year of Cultural Heritage. Visiting the "House of Romance" The „House of Romance” in Târgovișteopens its doors to the "Hall of Golden Voices", dedicated to the great personalities and the great Romanian and international voices that have served the Romance music and the "Golden Chrysanthemum" National Festival of Romance in their concerts and discography. Visitors can admire the photo panels of the music stars, from traditional music to classical and pop music stars in Romania, alongside those of foreign performers who were present at the "Golden Chrysanthemum" National Festival. The showcases are dedicated to old, original documents, photos from the festival, old and new Romance discs, and other materials from private collections. "The Hall of Composers" includes novel documents, photographs and old scores which are an eloquent historical testimony of the preoccupation for creating romances in every generation of great Romanian composers, over 250 of them, renowned conductors and musicologists who contributed significantly to the evolution this musical genre, withits musical and poetic ennoblement, as well as to the 50 years in its service on the stage of the „Golden Chrysanthemum" National Festival of Romance. Also in this hall, visitors can admire numerous manuscripts of Romance music scores presented in the CreationContests of the "Golden Chrysanthemum" Festival, booklets with Romance verses from the interwar period, collections of romances edited over the past 50 years at the Union of Composers and Musicologists from Romania, as well as musical collections edited by Romanian composers. Other valuable works are: "The History of The Golden Chrysanthemum", the musical collection "100 Romances Launched at the Golden Chrysanthemum", written by TeodorVasiliu and Alina MavrodinVasiliu–the artistic Director of the „Golden Chrysanthemum" National Romance Festival. The „Hall of Composers” also hosts a very old music score written by the famous composer CiprianPorumbescu, a facsimile after the original score which is stored in the archives of the Union of Composers and Musicologists in Romania.The „Hall of Composers” brings forth the "Romance of the National Anthem", a special panel which contains the scores, lyrics and other historical documents bearing witness to the fact that the romance composed in 1836 by Anton Pann, "Din sânulmaiceimele",with the lyrics of GrigoreAlexandrescu, is at the origin of the Romanian State Anthem, "Deșteaptă-te, române!", whose lyrics were signed by Andrei Muresanu. The "Hall of Trophies" and The "Hall of Actors and Presenters" include the photos of the winners of the „Golden Chrysanthemum” Trophy and the First Prize of the festival, starting with 1968, along with photographs of over 70 great actors and TV hosts who presented and performed at the „Golden Chrysanthemum” Festival, interesting photos from concerts, speeches, documentary material from their private collections, prizes, trophies and distinctions from the history of the festival, all the festival booklets from its 50 editions so far, posters as well as many original documents belonging to the television, radio and newspaper journalists who contributed to the promotion of the Romance music and the "Golden Chrysanthemum" National Festival, so that the Romance music will reach to the public in Romania and abroad. At the „House of Romance”, visitors can also admire old musical instruments, concert clothes and other personal articles donated to the exhibition by composers, conductors and performers of Romance music and by their descendants. The "Golden Chrysanthemum Studio Hall” is designed for organizing cultural events within the Program entitled "The House of Romance –an Embassy of Culture in Târgoviște" and presents the concert piano of the "Golden Chrysanthemum" Festival, which miraculously survived the fire that destroyed, in the year 1986, the Concert Hall of the Trade Union’s Cultural House in Târgovişte, where the festival was held annually. The House of Romance in Târgovişte is also an area where visitors can watch video recordings from the "Golden Chrysanthemum" National Festival, thus entering the fascinating world of the Romanian intangible cultural heritage, in which the Romance music gave Romania its National Anthem and it has united, for over 250 years, the great spirits of the Romanian nation in the sublime concert of humanity, dedicated to the preservation of the cultural identity and the safeguarding of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage values. The building also contains other special rooms for musical auditions, event rehearsals, protocol,exhibition spaces anda laboratory for researching,preserving and restoringthe Romance music cultural heritage. One of the objectives of the "Citadel of Romance" Cultural Center for UNESCO inTârgovișteis that the events organized in the "House of Romance", as well as the artistic events organized within the National Concerts Program "Romance unites us", which take place under the patronage of Romania’s National Commission for UNESCO and under the patronage of the European and North American Federation of UNESCO Clubs, Centers and Associations, to determine a major change in the perception of the Romance music and to create a new attitude, nationally and internationally, towards this music genre of national cultural heritage.

Huntsmen Gate or Dealu Gate – as it is called - It is a medieval vestige of the 18th century, what was part of Royal Citadel fortification. It is called ”Huntsmen” or ”Dealu”, because it allowed the exit to Dealu Monastery. The great importance of this historical vestige is also given by fact that from all five medieval gates of Citadel: Huntsmen Gate - Dealu Gate, Buzău Gate, Bucharest Gate, Argeș and Câmpulung Gate, just this and Bucharest Gate are the only ones left. Huntsmen Gate or Dealu Gate represents a tourist attraction and makes the transition to other points of greatest attraction from Târgoviște City: Chindia Tower and ”Royal Court” National Museum Complex.

The National Museum of Romanian Police was set up in a building with great artistic and historical value rebuilt in neoclassical style between 1867 and 1893. It is the only museum with this profile in our country, being inaugurated on 7 July 2000. The museum halls shelter and preserve rich collections of heraldry, uniforms and equipment, documents and objects from the history of over a century and a half, of the Police and the Romanian Gendarmerie.

It was built in 1656, in the eastern side of the enclosure, near the church Sfanta Vineri, by the lady Balasa, wife of Constantin Serban. The construction is composed of four rooms (living chambers), put together on a single level, paved with bricks, covered with cross type vaults with splayed edges. According to the memorial inscription from the southern wall, the building was meant "... for the peace of the christians who fall in need..."

Acted as the dungeon of the royal court, also representing a strong defensive element. The Chindia Tower was also used as a surveillance and defence point for the court and for the city. It was provided with shooting loopholes, while the first level had an access door connected to the royal palace. In the XVI-XVII centuries it also acted as a prison. According to the archaeological researches, it was built during the first half of the XV century, probably during the reign of Vlad Dracul. Another possible founder of the tower could have been the famous Vlad Țepeș- Dracula. The architectural researches regarding the tower proved that this construction was built over the porch of the chapel constructed during the reign of Mircea cel Bătrân. „Built over the porch of the chapel church, resulted from the embedding of two semi-cylindrical arches in the western facade of the church and concluded with a third, parallel with this facade, was initially made of three levels. Over the semi-cylindrical vault of the ground floor, arranged longitudinally in relation to the church’s axis, there was, on the superior floor, a room whose walls was pierced by the four battlements with a height of 1,50 m and an exterior door oriented towards south-east, through which they made the connection from the ground level by using a mobile ladder, without existing a direct interior connection between the ground floor and the superior floor. The last room, reduced in height, having five shorter battlements, represented the surveillance, and possibly, defence balcony. Within a short period of time since the construction of this tower, with the purpose of establishing a consolidation for its elevation, the space between those three arcades was walled in”. Today, the Chindia tower does not keep its original elements, as it was reconstructed in a neogothic style in the middle of the XIX century, during the reign of Gheorghe Bibescu and of Dimitrie Știrbei. The only witness for the tower’s aspect before it was rehabilitated by the Viennese architects is now a drawing from the year 1840, made by the famous French graphician Michel Bouquet. In this drawing we can see that the pyramidal base was made of bricks.

It was known until the beginning of the last century under the name "The Little Royal Church". The church came into existence in the year 1517 (according to the memorial inscription in Slavonic from the southern frontage of the church, which mentions Clucer Manea Persanu and his soul mate Vladaia) and it's the only known monument in the Romanian Country's architecture dating from the middle of the 15th century and preserved in its original shape until today. The plan of the church belongs to the trifoliated type, of elongated shape. The spire is supported by four semicylindrical arches belonging to the first period of the halidom to whom he is organically connected. It shows analogies to the porch of the Chapel-Church which also sustains a bell tower.

The first royal house. The first stone construction from the Royal Court and from the town is the one raised by Mircea cel Batran (Mircea the Old) at the end of the 15th century, close to the south of the church built afterwards by the same ruler. Only the sides of the cellar made of rolling stone, having the dimensions of 15 x 6 m, and a long proeminence on the short side have preserved under the house from the 15th century. The access to it is made from the north side. In the beginning, this construction was protected by a double fence of wooden pillars. The royal house from the 15th century. Raised in the third-fourth decade of the 15th century and following the model of the one in Arges, it was placed very close to one of the sides of the enclosure wall. Built on a rectangular surface, which measured 32 x 29 m on the outside, the house had a cellar on the entire surface, with four parallel aisles, on which rose the ground floor whith a large hall (about 6 x 12 m) - probably the ceremony hall and the hall of the royal council - placed on the eastern side - and rooms intended for the accomodation of the regnant and his family. The royal house from the 16th century. Ruins of Petru Cercel's palace In the year 1584, the waivode Petru Cercel imagined the construction of a building inspired from the composition principles of the palaces he saw during its peregrinations along Europe. The formation of the house and the decoration of the building's frontages are new elements, but we can sense the local tradition induced by the local manufacturers. The Royal Court built by Petru Cercel, "a small, but beautiful and grand palace", situated near the south side of the first royal house, but completely separated from it, was composed of cellars, the ground floor and one other floor. The cellars, preserved until now in its incipient form, were placed on the axis of the building, having a rectangular shape plane with a 12 m side, divided into four identical sections placed around a massive pillar. Ruins of Petru Cercel's palace Initially the access was made through an underground arched proeminence of 25 m long and it was placed on the west side. The ground floor sheltered the royal common room and it was constituted of 10 rooms, from which a large one was placed cross-cut at the southern extremity. The floor contained the living chambers of the waivode and his family and it was completely separated from the ground floor. The access to it was possible only from the outside through a staircase situated on the western frontage and there was a direct connection with the great Church through a passage. The houses were covered with enamelled tiles. The palace from the 17th century Matei Basarab finished in 1654 the reconstruction of the royal houses, raising a floor above the house from the 15th century and connecting it with the new one by a passage linkage, resulting a real palace, uniform from the architectonical point of view. Destroyed in 1659, the palace is restored by Constantin Brancoveanu. The vaults and the floors will be renewed and the rooms will be decorated with timber work and paintings. A loggia with access staircase from the garden was built on the east frontage of the Petru Cercel's house and also a second one towards west, on a porch made by Matei Basarab, changing also the orientation of the cellar's access on the side of the great royal church.

In the first phase, the ensemble was defended towards the town at the beginning of the 15th century by a large defence entrenchment of 20 m width and 250 m long, afterwards doubled on the inside by a stone wall. In 1584, along with the new structures which tripled the surface of the complex, Petru Cercel builds an eclosure wall provided on the outside with counterforts of triangular plane. After 1640, Matei Basarab doubles it externally with another one, punctured with five entrance towers and provided with guard rooms.

The entrance, which is still used now, lies under the bell tower built at the end of the 16th century (1584) and then reconstructed in the age of Matei Basarab and Constantin Brancoveanu. The bell tower has the same constructional features as the inside wall of the enclosure (raised by Petru Cercel), to whom he is related organically, not only as a structure, but from its settlement point of view, compared to the frontage wall. The building of the tower was determined by the existence of the church, which didn't have the possibility of accommodating a tower bell in its own steeples.