"The Fulling Mills of Brasov"
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The varnishing of the exhibition "Darstele Brasovului. Traditions recalled by Dumitru Voina." was organized at the Ethnography Museum Brasov. The exhibition aims at rebuilding the specific of Darste District, with main reference to the memory of engineer Dumitru Voina who did his very best to build a miniature traditional tool named "darsta" (fulling mill), used for finishing thick fabrics. The author comes from an old family of people who used to do such things and wished to feature an old custom from a district of Brasov.
Fascinated by the mechanism of the "fulling mill"
In his childhood, Dumitru Voina was fascinated by the mechanism of the "fulling mill" and about the functioning modality of this ancient tool. Close by his house, he used to have a neighbour who used to have such a tool and where his father used to bring wood and gravel. Fascinated by this tool, he used to study it and memorize the functioning mechanism. After he became an engineer, he rebuilt the tool on a small scale, as a layout, as he saw it functioning at the beginning of the 20th century on Valea Timisului (Timisului Valley).
The author also wrote a monography with historical data about the house of Dr. Ioan Mesota, the Monument of Heroes and the church from Darste.
The action of using the "fulling mill"
A canal called "Valea Darstei" (Darstei Valley) was built on Timis River at the beginning of the 16th century with the purpose of supplying water to Brasov. The people using the "fulling mill" settled around basically concerned with "felting clothes", which generated the toponym of the locality.
Old people remember the beginnings of Darste from the times when the "fuller" was brought from Barsan- Branzaru, from Tara Fagarasului (Vad), to work at the "filling mill" owned by the Transylvanian Saxon Schobel. In the monography, Dumitru Voinea mentions the existence of 13 technical tools, powered by the water force: felting machines, filling mills and whirlpools, by which they used to finish some of the woollen fabrics. The work of the people using the filling mills connected the wool of the shepherds from Sacele and the fairs from Brasov, where they used to sell the thick fabrics.
Traditional customs from Darste
"With the help of Mr. Voina, we have found out that 100 years ago, the costumes of the people from Darste used to be according to the specific of Sacele area, with influences from Scheii Brasovului. We only know a few things about the traditional customs from Darste because of the urban influence which modified the life of the community. What we do know is that the second Easter day there is "Maial", for Ispas (the Ascension of the Lord), when May bushed branches used to be anchored at the gates of the houses and Heroes? Day was also celebrated. " declared Ligia Fulga, the Manager of the Ethnography Museum Brasov.
