First of all I would like to explain two names: Resita and Specialis. Resita is the oldest industrial town in Romania, in the Banat Mountains region, not far from the country’s southwestern border with Serbia. The town’s iron works were grounded by the Austrian Crown in 1771. Specialis is a travel film production house from Belgrade, distributing its films on the National Serbian Television RTS. The connection between the two was established by the good vicinity, the cross border personal and political relations and completed by Google’s search engine.
This is how we, VisitFactories, were introduced into this equation. And this was not by mistake, because Resita’s identity as a travel destination and the VisitFactories’ more globalized approach, are somehow the same, for similar minded people around the world, who additionally love to travel and to discover both near as well as remote places.
Being born and tied to Resita, our world is a world of things “made in Resita”: starting from the Eiffel Tower’s iron or famous railway steam engines, to the Europe’s biggest hydro power plants; a picturesque and inseparable mix of a more or less anonymous town and historic factories surrounded by a splendid mountain nature: virgin forests, caves, canyons and lakes. Inside this defining frame can be found our culture, education and traditions shaping our personal lives and unique individualities.
Starting from this point begun the work of the Specialis team. I accompanied them where I thought I might bring a local insight and with the assumed mission of guiding and communication junction. I knew when the daily schedule begun, but I couldn’t foresee when it ended. My appreciation error was quite considerable: instead of finishing at 6 in the evening, we regularly continued until around midnight, and not because of a males’ team being disturbed by nice girls, but because of their deep passion and openness to enjoying and absorbing every unexpected detail they found on the way.
In spite of the recovery period I needed after this adventure, I left with a great feeling (and even a little envy) about that permanent challenge and joy that the Specialis team finds in their daily activity. If we could compare with the wild world, this feeling would be probably similar to that of an eagle in flight or a tiger running.
In the downtown of Resita: a bridge from 1931, among the first welded in the world, and a disaffected ropeway for the transport of lime stones to the iron works
In Resita, in front of the 1904 “Grebla” Hydro Power Plant, some historic Hydro Aggregates
Image from inside of “the monster” where the famous huge Iron Gates (Djerdap) – Danube turbines were built (the UCMR factory)
Just imagine how much this image taken by the Specialis team impacted my schedule, not to mention the many others
Spectacular forest close to the Comarnic cave (in the Semenic National Park, 15 km from Resita)
Inside the Comarnic Cave
That day, me and my 10 years old boy who accompanied me, arrived home at midnight (to my wife’s despair). However, it was not exclusively due to the filming, but also thanks to the hospitality of my colleagues from the Semenic National Park with whom I shared the astonishment regarding the Serbs’ joy and passion for what they are doing, everything happening in their own frame of reference, very different than ours.
The photos are taken from https://www.facebook.com/specialis.rs