By Rod Hofer, Tour Leader
As our time in Romania draws to an end, I believe the tour went exceedingly well. Everybody was impressed with Chris, our local guide with religious and secular knowledge. Even when the established plan for activities became disrupted, new activities were well received. For instance, our plan to visit the Hutterite codices had to be abandoned because the library is closed for a complete inventory of holdings. But the pastor of the Reformed church next to where the Hutterite colony at Alwinz had been located knew the curator of the church records at the Archbishopry in Alba Iulia with documents that mention the Hutterites. The Archbishopry building houses a stove that was made by the Hutterites. The Hutterites were noted for their pottery and this stove has a ceramic exterior. I have attached a photo. This excited a lot of people. The two women in the photo are direct descendants of the main potter at Alwinz who may have produced the tiles for this stove.
In this stove, you did find something of a ‘thing’ that the Hutterites left for posterity, no?