The Golden Apple Award for the Town of Targu Jiu

FIJET granted the Romanian town of Targu Jiu the Golden Apple Award and the title of Unique Tourist and Cultural Destination.

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Roxana Vasile, 15.10.2014, 13:35

The town of Targu Jiu is now a tourist destination of excellence on the map of the World Federation of Travel Journalists and Writers- FIJET, from which it received the Golden Apple Award, the equivalent of the Oscar in the tourism industry. This town in southwestern Romania is famous for the sculptures of the reputed Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi. Considered the most outstanding sculptor of the 20th century and one of the most valuable of all times, Constantin Brancusi created in Targu Jiu his only open air sculpture ensemble, which is unique both in Romania and the world, to honor the memory of those who died in the town during WW I. Built between 1937 and 1938, the sculpture ensemble includes the Table of Silence, the Gate of the Kiss and the Endless Column, the latter being the most photographed of his works. It is made up of modules in the shape of an hourglass placed on top of each other and is 29-meter high. In an exclusive interview to Radio Romania International the FIJET president Tijani Haddad, said:

“Our federation has a committee which decides on granting the Golden Apple Award, and the committee received nominations from 5 countries. This year the committee chose only three destinations, and it gave its approval for FIJET to award the Golden Apple Award to the town of Constantin Brancusi. We saw a film and studied the documents, and I believe that this town truly deserves the distinction”.

The ensemble Constantin Brancusi created in Targu Jiu, a genuine magnet for tourists, is a magical, spiritual place, say the local authorities and invite tourists who want to visit the area to also explore other attractions such as Tismana, Polovragi and Lainici monasteries. The Targu Jiu area is a mountainous one with glacial lakes, caves, of which some were declared natural monuments, and narrow gorges carved out in the mountains by fast flowing rivers. The region is also a destination for adventure tourism lovers.

Since 1971 the Golden Apple Award has been granted each year, to various towns and tourist attractions. The award granted this year to the town of Targu Jiu is the 5th received by Romania, which consequently ranks first, alongside Belgium and Spain, in the classification of most popular tourist destinations. In the past the “Golden Apple” Award was granted to Marginimea Sibiului, a region in central Romania known for its unique ethnographic, cultural, architectural and historical heritage, to the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, included on the UNESCO heritage list, to the Orthodox churches with exterior frescoes of Bukovina and to the Blue Air airlines, for the strongest development reported by an air company in the south east of Europe.