Practical Info

The best way to travel to Suceava is by PLANE. Suceava has a small international airport with LOW-COST (Wizz Air, RyanAir) DIRECT FLIGHTS to/from the following European cities: Rome (Ciampino), Rome (Fiumicino), Milano (Bergamo), Bologna, Treviso, London (Luton), Manchester, Brussels (Charleroi), Vienna, Dortmund, Memmingen, and Dublin. NOT ALL OF THESE FLIGHTS OPERATE DAILY, SOME MAY BE OFFERED TWICE OR THREE TIMES A WEEK. CHECK AND BOOK EARLY!!

 

Info about the Suceava International Airport: https://www.aeroportsuceava.ro/en/.

 

The Suceava airport is connected to Bucharest with daily flights scheduled, so booking a route via Bucharest may be a more convenient option in some cases. If that is the case, FIRST CHECK THE ROMANIAN NATIONAL AIRLINE (TAROM) website for connections between many European cities/several non-European cities/New York City and Suceava via Bucharest. TAROM is a traditional high-cost airline, but it is usually cheaper than other major airlines like Air France or KLM. TAROM is a member of Sky Team.

 

How to book and order online with TAROM: https://www.tarom.ro/en

 

Contact us (tudor@texmar.ro) if you need to arrange transfer from the Suceava Airport. We can organise transfer in groups, or advise on booking a taxi.

CONFERENCE HOTEL

All participants who have received a participation bursary have been booked at the Continental Hotel (https://continental-suceava.continentalhotels.ro/).

CHECK-IN PROCEDURE: Just go to the Reception and show an ID. Your rooms are pre-allocated and you will get the key fairly quickly. On the first day (22 February), we will be waiting for you in the bar area from 1-6 pm to hand over the conference materials. This area leads directly to the HORA conference room, and will serve as the DOINA room (the arts space) during the conference.

This is a medium comfort (3 stars) hotel with a nice history: it was built in the 70s during the communist regime in its pro-Western phase. The trend at that time was to create architectural ensembles that convey local traditions as opposed to the typical monolithic communist architecture. Hence, its first name was ‘Arcasul’ (‘The Archer’) presumably based on a moderately gruesome legend: One of Stephen the Great’s archers-in-training could shoot further than the king himself, and when he did this in a public contest with the ruler present, winning the contest, his head was cut off at the spot where his arrow fell. Subsequently, Stephen the Great built the Putna Monastery there. Stephen the Great is buried at that monastery. The ‘Arcasul’ hotel was a high-comfort hotel during communism, but for a long time afterwards it wasn’t successful on the market. It is now part of the Romanian hotel chain, Continental, which will hopefully restore it to its former glory. By booking there, we will be supporting a Romanian company and thus the Romanian economy.

A nicety: Spot your country’s flag above the entrance 😊

AIRPORT/ TRAIN STATION TRANSFERS

The best way to travel from the Airport or the Train Station to the Hotel is by Taxi. We recommend using the Bolt or Uber apps which both work in Suceava. The yellow taxis do not take cards, so the easiest way to take a taxi when first time in Romania is to use Bolt or Uber. That way you can pay online and don’t need to speak Romanian 😊.

If you encounter any problems, call the Hotel Reception at +40-372-304-904. Note that both the Airport and the main Train Station are quite far from the Hotel. However, a trip from the Airport should not cost more than RON 70 (EUR 14), and a trip from the train station should not cost more than RON 25 (EUR 5).

If you have difficulties arranging transfers from further afield/ other cities, please send an email to tudor@texmar.ro and we will help you.

PAYING FOR STUFF

You can use bank cards or phones for payments in most shops, bars, and restaurants. Theoretically you can buy local bus tickets on the bus with a card, but sometimes the card reader doesn’t work.

In emergencies call 112. They speak most major European languages.

BRIEF HISTORY

 

Suceava is the capital city of Suceava county located in the north-eastern part of Romania. The area was inhabited since the Paleolithic, before Dacian tribes emerged and Celtic (Anartes, Taurisci) and Germanic (Bastarnae) tribes settled here in antiquity. It escaped Roman conquest but saw a period of successive waves of migratory invasions (Goths, Gepids, Huns, Slavs, Magyars, Pechenegs, and Cumans) before it became part of the Principality of Moldavia between app. 1350-1775. It was the capital of mediaeval Moldavia between 1388 and 1564. Suceava was incorporated in the Duchy of Bucovina within the Austrian Empire from 1775 to 1918. After WW1 it became a medium-sized city in modern Romania. Heavily industrialised during Communist rule, and de-industrialised in post-Communist Romania, its economy relies on trade and tourism. Its population is estimated at app. 150,000 inhabitants.

 

CULTURE

 

A cosmopolitan city

 

Suceava county has always been cosmopolitan. Tribes of various origins shared its resources in antiquity. Apart from Romanians, people of Polish, Ukrainian, and Hungarian ethnicity lived here in the Middle Ages, and the mediaeval city was visited by Italians, Germans, Slavs, Slovaks, and many other. As an Austrian city, Suceava had a mixed population of Romanians (majority), Jews, Germans, Polish, Ukrainians, Hungarians, Armenians, and Slovaks. The best way to learn more about Suceava’s cosmopolitan background is by visiting the National Museum of Bucovina: https://muzeulbucovinei.ro/en/home-english/ .

 

Mediaeval Suceava

 

Suceava was the capital of mediaeval Moldavia between 1388 and 1564. The Suceava mediaeval fortress provides an anchoring point for most of the mediaeval history of this part of Romania. Mediaeval Moldavia stretched from the Carpathians to the west to the eastern borders of the contemporary Republic of Moldova and south to the Black Sea on its shores that are today a part of Ukraine. During the reign of Stephen the Great (1457 – 1504) Moldova managed to slow down the expansion of the Ottoman Empire and was sufficiently strong to be able to interfere in the neighbouring provinces of Walachia and Transylvania to achieve its own political aims. Stephen the Great famously built a monastery after each battle he had fought. Many of these monasteries are in Suceava county, and some are famous for their specific architecture and paintings on the exterior walls (especially the Voronet monastery). The city of Suceava itself hosts a number of medieval monasteries (but not built by Stephen the Great).

 

Suceava mediaeval fortress: https://muzeulbucovinei.ro/obiective-culturale/cetatea-de-scaun-a-sucevei/

Voronet Monastery: https://www.manastireavoronet.ro/prezentare-generala-manastirea-voronet/

 

Folklore and Dracula

 

Suceava has a wealth of folklore traditions, with folklore material professionally collected since late nineteenth century. A neighbouring county, Bistrita-Nasaud, contains the city of Bistritz, made famous by Bram Stoker’s Dracula as the city from where Jonathan Harker took the coach to Dracula castle in the mountains. He was picked up by Dracula himself at Borgo Pass (Pasul Bargaului, more widely known as Pasul Tihuta/ Tihuta Pass) on the border between the Suceava and Bistrita-Nasaud counties. Fans will be disappointed to learn that no mediaeval castle exists in the area, but might be relieved to find out that Hotel Castel Dracula offers an interesting impression of the same (https://www.lonelyplanet.com/romania/bargau-valley/attractions/hotel-castel-dracula/a/poi-sig/1290589/1326189).

 

The following research article on Suceava county folklore and Dracula offers useful scholarly information:

Balinisteanu, T. (2016). Romanian folklore and literary representations of vampires, Folklore, 127 (2). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0015587X.2016.1155358

 

The Princely Inn (formerly a mediaeval inn, now an ethnographic museum) displays traditional dress and crafts from the area: https://www.facebook.com/Muzeul-Etnografic-Hanul-Domnesc-Suceava-107993637591137/

 

The Bucovina Village Museum hosts full size reconstructions of traditional houses from the area: https://www.facebook.com/MuzeulSatuluiBucovineanSuceava/

 

NIGHTLIFE

Restaurants we think you might like (most restaurants in Suceava offer both Romanian traditional food and international menus)

Bistro ZoNa (Italian feel): https://www.bistrozona.ro/

Restaurant Taco Loco (Mexican feel): https://tacolocosv.ro/menu.php

 

Bars we think you might like:

Rainbow (Cuban feel, affordable, students and young people): https://www.instagram.com/rainbowpub40/?igshid=px6t6y4vxwnr

Art Rock Café (a ‘domesticated’ bikers’ club, slightly expensive, wide range of drinks): https://www.facebook.com/artrockcafe.ro/