Buzescu is a commune in

Teleorman County Teleorman County () is a county (județ) of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in the historical region Muntenia, with its capital city at Alexandria. The name ''Teleorman'' is of Cumanic (Turkic) origin. It literally means ''crazy forest'' ( ...

Muntenia Muntenia (, also known in English as Greater Wallachia) is a historical region of Romania, part of Wallachia (also, sometimes considered Wallachia proper, as ''Muntenia'', ''Țara Românească'', and the seldom used ''Valahia'' are synonyms in ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

. It is composed of a single village, Buzescu. It is well known for its wealthy

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council * Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

inhabitants and their extravagant Romani

palaces A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

. At the 2002 census, 77% of inhabitants were ethnic

Romanians The Romanians ( ro, români, ; dated exonym '' Vlachs'') are a Romance-speaking ethnic group. Sharing a common Romanian culture and ancestry, and speaking the Romanian language, they live primarily in Romania and Moldova. The 2011 Roman ...

and 22.9%

. However, more recent estimates place the number at around 35% Roma. The town runs along a single street filled with various Romani

mansions A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property la ...

. Most Romanians live outside the town in the surrounding rural area. The Romani usually only occupy a portion of their houses due to the cost of

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

. The Romani citizens abide by their own code of honor that emphasizes silence called ''omerta''. In terms of religious affiliation, 94.9% identified as

Romanian Orthodox The Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC; ro, Biserica Ortodoxă Română, ), or Patriarchate of Romania, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox Christian churches, and one of the nine patriarchate ...

and 4.7% as

Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, a ...

History

Following the abolition of

slavery in Romania Slavery existed on the territory of present-day Romania from the founding of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia in 13th–14th century, until it was abolished in stages during the 1840s and 1850s before the independence of the United ...

in the 1860s, the first recently freed Roma families settled in this part of Romania to work as

metal smiths A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typical ...

. Because of this profession they became known as the

Kalderash The Kalderash are a subgroup of the Romani people. They were traditionally coppersmiths and metal workers and speak a number of Romani dialects grouped together under the term Kalderash Romani, a sub-group of Vlax Romani. The Kalderash of the ...

clan. Nowadays, the town has changed much with the new extravagant mansions of wealthy Roma that contrast with the rural cottages of Romanian peasants in the countryside. The Kalderash Roma of the town are said to have made their wealth trading scrap metal in a previously unregulated market. However, since

joined the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

more regulations have been put on this trade and only a handful of Buzescu’s families are extremely wealthy.

Tourism and culture

Buzescu’s unique

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

attracts many western tourists interested in the

Romani culture The Romani people are a distinct ethnic and cultural group of peoples living all across the globe, who share a family of languages and sometimes a traditional nomadic mode of life. Though their exact origins are unclear, central India is a not ...

. Each building represents the family that lives in it through the use of certain colors in combination with lines or elements of oriental architecture. The size of the building represents the wealth and social standing of its owner. In addition, the Kalderash Roma of Buzescu adhere strictly to cultural clothing practices. Each cultural costume has a certain significance. The colors of the costume worn by women and girls, the number of skirts, and the color and ornamentation of the shirts, all are significant in the Kalderash Romani culture. Tourists have the opportunity to understand the significance of each color in relation to the age of the person wearing that particular object plus the knowledge about Romani family life and customs. Jewellery, especially made of gold, accompany the traditional outfit, individualizing each person.

References

* {{Authority control Communes in Teleorman County Localities in Muntenia Romani communities in Romania Romani-related controversies Kalderash