C O N T E X T 1 4 9 : M A Y 2 0 1 7 33 DENNIS RODWELL The Romani palaces of Soroca Dubbed by some as the Romani capital of Moldova, the city of Soroca is home to an extraordinary assemblage of flamboyant ‘palaces’ displaying pride, status and individuality. The Romani or Roma, a traditionally nomadic ethnic group originating from northern India sometime after the 6th century, are notable for their vibrant cultural traditions and craft skills, and for their social self-sufficiency and independent lifestyles. Early Roma migrations westwards into the Anatolian peninsular pre-date that of Turkic peoples from central Asia; via Egypt, they acquired the often pejorative exonym of gypsy. Today’s widely dispersed Roma communities are found mostly in Europe and the Americas.1 Largely considered to act and behave outside conventional sociocultural norms, they are sometimes ignored and excluded, frequently misunderstood, and asserted by some to be Europe’s most persecuted minority. At the same time, their distinctive traditions are very much alive. In recent decades I have interacted with a number of the longer-established communities across eastern Europe and beyond, including in Bulgaria (in connection with Plovdiv’s successful bid to be European Capital of Culture in 2019, to which the city’s Roma community is scheduled to make an important contribution), Hungary, Romania (including at Bonțida, in association with the IHBC-supported conservation training programme at Banffy Castle), Slovakia andTurkey; and most recently in Soroca, north-east Moldova, a town lying on the western bank of the river Nistru (Dniester) at the border with Ukraine. Dubbed by some as the ‘Romani capital of Moldova’, and by others (less persuasively) the ‘gypsy capital of the world’, Soroca’s most visible distinction lies in the assemblage of flamboyant ‘palaces’ that line the town’s ‘Roma Hill’. Although the Roma community (or clan) in the town has a long history, and played a tolerated (and important) role in trade and exchange across the former USSR, the practice of constructing large-scale town mansions dates from the 1980s and accelerated in the 1990s. From an architectural and urban perspective, Roma communities in neighbouring Romania demonstrate relatively consistent rhythms, alignments and stylistic idioms. Soroca, on the other hand, flaunts a remarkable array of imported historical styles that translate into what might be described as a common language: epitomised by display, and evidencing pride, status and individuality. Clockwise from the left: a palace inspired by St Peter’s, Rome; another inspired by the Pantheon, Rome, its pediment incorporating a standardissue Soviet school clock; Artur Cerari,‘the Roma baron of Moldova’ (photo: Vlad Moldovan, all other photos by Dennis Rodwell); statuary at the Pantheonesque palace. References 1 Screened at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival and available today as a DVD, the French documentary filmLatcho Drom (meaning ‘safe journey’) evokes – primarily through music – the Romani people’s journey from north-west India to Spain.
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