Prince Charles receives Doctor Honoris Causa title in Cluj Napoca

Charles, the Prince of Wales, received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the Babes Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca.

Roxana Vasile, 30.05.2017, 13:40

I’ve been asked what brings me so often to Romania. The
answer is simple: you, my Romanian friends. Prince Charles uttered these
extremely sincere words in the central city of Cluj-Napoca on Monday. He
travelled to this city to receive the title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the prestigious
local Babes Bolyai University, the oldest in Romania. The distinction was
bestowed on him in recognition of his special contribution to promoting the
Romanian cultural heritage, the country’s multicultural historical values and
the Romanian cultural and natural environment abroad and to strengthening
cooperation between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
and Romania.

His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales began his speech in
Romanian upon receiving the title:

Mr. Rector, ladies and gentlemen, I am deeply
moved and very grateful for the great honour that you are bestowing on me this
afternoon.

As Prince Charles himself said, it is 20 years
since he made his first visit to Transylvania. Enticed by the beauty of the
region in the centre of the country and by its people, Prince Charles has
repeatedly visited those places ever since. In 2006, he bought an old cottage
built in 1758, a former Saxon family property, in the central village of
Viscri, Brasov County. He owns other properties in Romania, too. The reasons
why he had made that decision were laid down in the speech he made upon
receiving the title of Doctor Honoris Causa, a real eulogy of Transylvania.

Prince Charles recalled the way in which
natural diversity is preserved in this part of Europe, people’s harmonious way
of living in traditional communities and the manner in which they preserve
their legacy. The locals have the ability to both innovate and change, without
impairing the environment, prince Charles said. We, the rest of the world,
have something to learn from the cultivated areas of Transylvania. They hold as
much a spiritual as well as a social, economic and ecological significance. […] The essence is that in those landscapes the human being
still lives in harmony with nature, Prince Charles concluded. In his view, all those things make
Transylvanian Romanians really special the world over.