The House of King Charles III in Viscri, the famous village in Romania’s Transylvania region, reopened for a new visiting season. The reconverted barn of the traditional Saxon property hosts, for the first time in Romania, The Darkness Within, Copșa Mică 1988 – 1995 exhibition of British photographer Barry Lewis.

This is the second exhibition of the British photographer at the house in Viscri, reopened this season under the name The King’s House, after the series of unique photographic portraits of some Romanian artists exhibited here in the fall of 2023.

The new temporary exhibition brings to the public a selection of 42 photographs taken during the photographer’s visits to the area both before 1989 and in subsequent years.

Barry Lewis recalled: “I returned to Transylvania on January 6, 1990. It was a harsh, freezing winter. I knew things had not changed for the better when a few miles from the town the colour of the snow changed from white to grey and I met some shepherds with their blackened flock. The source of the darkness was 7 great missile-silo-sized filters to protect the people from pollution, but these filters were in a state of disrepair. Here, the people were black, the snow was black, the houses were black, the children were black, and nothing would grow in the black fields for miles around. As I walked on the frozen crust of blackened snow, each footprint left a white impression, a sort of negative shadow and I felt myself entering a surreal world where everything was turned on its head.”

Through his photographs, Barry Lewis captures the desolation and resilience of the town’s residents amidst the darkness cast by Carbosin and Sometra factories, the organizers said. His work, later featured in Life magazine and honored with the prestigious Leica Oskar Barnack Award, sheds light on the human cost of industrial neglect and serves as a poignant reminder of the enduring struggle for environmental justice in post-revolutionary Romania.

“Seeing the entire photographic archive made by Lewis in Romania in the 90s, I was moved by the images made in Copșa Mică. The reality captured by these photographs was far beyond what I had imagined from the stories I had heard about the black city, giving me the conviction that such truths hidden in communism must be revisited as often as possible so as not to be forgotten or repeated. We owe it to those who lived in the dark for 60 years and were largely abandoned after the closing of the polluting factories,” said Raluca Grigore, curator for The King’s House.

The exhibition was curated in collaboration with the photographer Ionuț Macri.

The house in Viscri is open to the public until the end of October and continues to host the book and floral art exhibition The Transylvania Florilegium, as well as the permanent exhibition Preservation of historical roof coverings, made in partnership with the Monumentum Association and The King’s Foundation.

More than 38,000 Romanian and foreign tourists visited the king’s house in 2023.

According to Mihai Grigore, administrator of The Kings’s House in Viscri, most profits generated by the house go directly back into the community.

“From these funds, this year we will cover part of the costs of cleaning the village, protecting it from car traffic and printing tourist maps. A large part of the funds goes to the projects for the children in Viscri: the little gardeners will have the opportunity to travel to England to visit His Majesty’s gardens there, and the village cycling team will have part of the costs of equipping and training for competitions covered. And last but not least, this spring, more than 100 saplings of traditional pear varieties were planted on the streets of Viscri to continue this tradition specific to the Saxon villages,” Grigore said.

In the house’s gift shop, visitors can find a selection of products from local artists and artisans.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: The King's House in Viscri)