September 5: The Day of the Munich Olympics Massacre That Changed the World

September 5 is remembered in this historical roundup as the date of the terrorist attack at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, an event presented as having changed the world. The article also uses the date to recall two important Romanian cultural figures, writer Alexandru Vlahuță and painter Arthur Verona.

Alexandru Vlahuță was born on September 5, 1858, in Pleșești, in what is now Vaslui County. One of his best-known books was “Picturesque Romania,” described by Dumitru Micu as “a commented geographical atlas, traversed by a warm love of country.” In the final years of his life, Vlahuță lived at Dragosloveni in Vrancea County, where his third wife opened a memorial house that still exists.

The Dragosloveni home became a meeting place for writers. Vlahuță was regularly visited by friends including I.L. Caragiale, Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea, Octavian Goga, Gala Galaction, historian Nicolae Iorga and painter Nicolae Grigorescu. The article portrays the house as a home of friendship, where Vlahuță welcomed visitors from Bucharest from its porch and his wife, Ruxandra, served as an unfailingly gracious host.

Arthur Verona was born in Brăila in 1867. He came from a family with Albanian and Dalmatian roots and initially studied at the Vienna Military Academy, intending to become an officer in the Austrian army. Even during his military career, he exhibited his first work, “Night Patrol,” in Vienna and took part in the Secessionists’ Salon in Munich. He abandoned military life in 1894 to devote himself entirely to painting, later studying at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts and the Académie Julian in Paris. After exhibiting in Paris in 1899 and 1900, he returned to Romania and helped found the Tinerimea artistică society in 1901.

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a commented geographical atlas, traversed by a warm love of country