Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
roma in eastern europe
Numbering 12 million, the Roma people constitute a bigger
European nation than the Czechs, Hungarians, or the Dutch.
The term “Gypsies,” which used to be the common name for this
group, is now considered both derogatory and inaccurate. It was
derived from “Egypt”—the place that medieval Roma were mis-
takenly thought to have come from. In the absence of written
records, the solution to the puzzle of Roma ancestry had to wait
for 19th-century advances in the science of linguistics.
The Roma are descended from several low north-Indian
castes (one of which may have given the Roma their name). A
thousand years ago the Roma began to migrate through Persia
and Armenia into the Ottoman Empire, which later stretched
across much of southeastern Europe. Known for their itiner-
ant lifestyle, expertise in horse trading, skilled artisanship,
and flexibility regarding private property, the Roma were both
sought out and suspected in medieval Europe. In a similar way,
gadjos
(non-Roma) and their customs came to be distrusted
by the Roma.
The Industrial Revolution removed the Roma's few tradi-
tional means of earning a livelihood, making their wandering
lifestyle difficult to sustain. In the 1940s Hitler sent hundreds of
thousands of Roma to the gas chambers. After the war, com-
munist governments in Eastern Europe implemented a policy of
forced assimilation: Roma were required to speak the country's
major language, settle in
gadjo
towns, and work in new industrial
jobs. Today, few Roma can speak their own language well. Rather
than producing well-adjusted citizens, the policy eroded time-
honored Roma values and shattered the cohesiveness of their
effect that makes the stage look deeper than it really is, I wouldn't
bother with the tour unless you can snare a spot on an English one.
The theater is used only once a year for an actual performance,
with attendance limited to Baroque theater enthusiasts. You can
call 380-704-721 to establish English-language tour times and
reserve a space; but as with the castle tour, you will likely do best
by visiting the ticket office in person (180 Kč, tours daily May-Oct
only; English departures at 10:00, 11:00, 13:00, 14:00, and 15:00;
buy theater tour tickets at castle ticket office).
Castle Gardens
—This 2,300-foot-long garden crowns the
castle complex. It was laid out in the 17th century, when the
noble family would light it with 22,000 oil lamps, torches, and
candles for special occasions. The lower part is geometrical and
symmetrical—French-style. The upper is rougher—English-style
(free, May-Sept daily 8:00-19:00, April and Oct daily 8:00-17:00,
closed Nov-March).
