excerpts from ‘’Jurnal de familie’’, manuscript, Pia Brînzeu
A world in a chest
St. Mary’s monument

19 March 1961. Turmoil in the house. A director from the Ministry visited the hospital where my father works and declared ...

Reformed Church on Timotei Cipariu Street

16 December 1989. It's Saturday morning. I am called to a department meeting to welcome the American lecturer who has arrived unexpectedly in Timisoara...

The range of palaces in Mocioni square

July 4, 1937. The mother is seventeen years old. She is preparing to go to Innsbruck to spend the holidays with her grandmother. She packs ...

The report houses from Plevnei square / Ghe. Doja park

May 3, 1920. Aloysia Cecilia Katharina Gombocz Bayer deRogacz, my great-grandmother, stands at the window looking out onto the main street of Jimbolia.

The Orthodox Church from Elisabetin

December 24, 1957. Although this year there are more candles and fireworks, more lounges and big marshmallow rings on the tree, the tree is not...

The Roman Catholic church in Balcescu Square

May 20, 1957  It’s Sunday. Mother urges me to hurry up. “We’ll be late”, she tells me worried, although the

The house of the architect László Székely

May 12, 1960. I'm studying for my history thesis. I sit concentrated at a small dining room table, crammed between books and notebooks because ...

The house of the Mühle family

September 9, 1938.. My mother begins an intimate diary entitled "From the life of a young girl who lived in the 20th century". She introduces herself:

Banat Sanatorium (Dr. Diel)

June 25, 1924. Grandma Netti's in the bathroom. She's getting ready for a visit to the family of Dr. Arnold Josephi, Grandpa's friend, and not

Zsigmond Ormós House

July 30, 1942 Hot summer day. Even the birds avoid the heat, hiding among the cool walnut leaves. Suddenly ...

The Șari Neni bar

February 20, 1932. Grandma Netti watches the sun through the window as it slowly, slowly melts the snow that lies like a furry cage over ...

The Politehnica Student Restaurant

20 September 1994. I'm alone in the kitchen. I'm getting ready to cook something. I don't have any ideas in my head and I'm just...

The organ workshop of the Wegenstein family / ISIM building

May 12, 1842. My great-grandfather's father, Johann Ludwig Diel, has a German edition of Shakespeare's plays in front of him. He signs it and ...

The home of the family of the lawyer Titus Olariu

15 March 1944. Schniffi, the mother's puppy, is anxious. Mother knows from his signs that an alarm is coming to announce the bombing ...

The Institute for the Deaf / Ghe. Atanasiu High School

4 May 2013. I decide to tidy up the last cupboard left untouched after my grandmother's death three and a half decades ago...

The bishops' bridge / Bishop Andrei Șaguna bridge

April 1, 2008 As an April Fool's joke, I woke up in the morning obsessed with the letter K. I discovered that when you want to, you can link...

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