The road that unites
As of this autumn Via Transilvanica, the Romanian El Camino, can also be visited on Street View
Ana-Maria Cononovici, 07.11.2023, 14:00
Street View is a popular service provided by Google Maps, available in more than 85 countries, including the Arctic and Antarctica. In Street View, people can see 360° images from many places around the world. The service is also available in Google Earth and in the Google Maps app for mobile phones. The Street View service has been available in Romania since 2010, when the first images from the most important cities were published on Google Maps. Nationwide Street View coverage was achieved in 2012, when images were taken from 40,000 km of roads, 39 cities and hundreds of tourist attractions. But if this whole story seems history by now, we can tell you that from this autumn Via Transilvanica, the Romanian El Camino, can also be visited on Street View for a trial period, a road that unites.
Elisabeta Moraru, a Country Manager of Google Romania, told us the story of choosing this route for exploration: We are here because Street View exists. There are places that you can see here and then go visit: the Bruckenthal National Museum in Sibiu is there, Bran Castle, Alba Iulia Citadel, these are emblematic places for us and for the tourism we hope to generate. Street View also means innovation for us. There are few places in Europe where we have images from the underground, and this year we have had the joy of doing an event in the Turda Saltmine. We attended the launch of the images from the Danube Delta, we had the honor of doing the launch right from Mr. Patzaichin’s location and we were not allowed to enter by car, because it is a Nature Reserve and we innovated, we used the cart, that’s why it’s called ‘Cart View.
To take the panoramic images on Via Transilvanica, they used a tricycle dedicated to such projects, of the recumbent bike type, equipped with an installation on which the panoramic camera is mounted. The whole shooting process lasted about a month and unfolded between August and September 2023.
The head of the European Commission’s Representation in Bucharest, Ramona Chiriac, praised the project for the awards it won and not only: Early this summer, we promoted two projects from Romania: Via Transilvanica and Călăuzele apelor (Pathfinders of the Waters). They were included on the list of 30 projects from 91 countries that won the prize for Cultural Heritage. These awards have been granted since 2002, they are a project of the European Union, through Europa Nostra and through which we aim to identify and promote the best practices for the preservation of the cultural heritage. And an even greater piece of news was that Via Transilvanica has recently won the EU Public Choice Award, this means that 27 thousand European citizens voted for this project which was in competition with another 29. Congratulations to the people from Tășuleasa Social, for all these distinctions, for the work and passion they show, as well as for the promotion of this Romanian El Camino.
Alin Uşeriu, from Tășuleasa Social, told us the following: I’m very glad to be here! I lived in Germany for over ten years and, I hope things have changed in the meantime, but all the time I lived there I did not see any positive article or show about Romania. And I set out to do something about it. This is how Tășuleasa Social was born. 18 years have passed, and I think we have reached the second very important milestone: namely to make a project in Romanian society that is not based on fears, on catastrophes. We had some unforeseen funds and we took andesite milestones and marked the Via Transilvanica and it came like a Tsunami over us and in four and a half years we managed to lay 400 tons of andesite milestones.
Next, work must be done on preserving and expanding a national infrastructure. Because it is a project offered to Romania, as Alin Uşeriu said, and he invited his brother, Tibi Uşeriu, to express his joy for the growth of the project: I would like to go back in time, say five years ago. I remember very well where we were with this route: we were on a path, we were trying to push the weeds aside and we were wondering if we should take this way or that way. And I see today that there are people talking about this project, also the people from Street View, and this is impressive: its amazing to see things in perspective, where we were five years ago and where we are today! I’m happy about this Google Street View initiative because technology is moving forward and I think it’s a great invitation for those who are not very keen on walking, but know a lot about the technical side, and they can see on Street View how cool it is in the digital world, and then say ‘I would like to go see what it looks like in reality! I think it is an extraordinary invitation and will certainly add value to this project!
Ana Pădurariu, with the Google team, has given us details about this hike of hikes: What we did beyond communicating about Romania on Google Street View, was to communicate about Romania with all our colleagues from around the world. This summer we began photographing the route, we actually have 900 kilometers of the over 1,400 kilometers of Via Transilvanica, which we put on Street View. Maybe you are wondering how we chose what to photograph and here I will tell you that the people from Tășuleasa Social guided us, so that we could cover the seven regions into which the route is divided: Bucovina, Ţinutul de Sus (Upper Lands), Terra Siculorum (towards Sovata), Terra Saxonia (in Copșa Mică), Terra Dacia, Terra Banatica and Terra Romana.
The Via Transilvanica route starts from Bucovina, from Putna, crosses Transylvania and ends in Drobeta-Turnu Severin, on the banks of the Danube River, and a first tour of Via Transilvanica can also be made on Google Street View. (LS)
