Period train for pilgrims in Bucovina

Chairman of the Romanian north-eastern County Council (CJ) of Suceava Gheorghe Flutur on Thursday inaugurated the route to be covered by a period train drawn by the oldest steam engine in Romania as part of the Pilgrim to Bucovina programme.

The train, which is made up of four carriages, built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is in perfect repair, starting on Monday, August 8, will cover the route between Suceava and Cacica-Putna and back, offering an unusual alternative of transport for the tourists and pilgrims that will be in the area on the Christian feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos.

The chairman of the Suceava CJ made it clear that the period train would run on a regular basis to Vatra Moldovitei, Cacica and Putna as part of the Pilgrim to Bucovina project and, if it is successful, it may stay in the area hoping to turn into an attraction for tourists.

Pilgrim to Bucovina is a tourist programme initiated by the Suceava CJ, financed from European money, which includes a pilgrimage over July 15-August 15 from Vienna to Bucovina during the Christian religious feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, also supported by Austrian authorities.

The project was launched on July 15 in Vienna, when a group of cyclists left for Bucovina, intending to reach the destinations of Basilica Minor at Cacica, the Putna Monastery and the Hagigadar Church in Suceava, all three of them being dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos, which is observed on August 15.

Gheorghe Flutur said he was confident in the success of this project and hoped it would be corroborated this autumn with the European Cultural Routes programme, one of these routes being to the Bucovina monasteries that have frescoes on their outside walls.

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