Alexandru Stermin
biolog and explorer
ABOUT THE RESIDENT
Alexandru N. Stermin is a biologist and explorer. He teaches comparative anatomy of vertebrates, ethology, bioethics, and human ecology at the Faculty of Biology and Geology of Babeș-Bolyai University. He has studied biology, theology, psychology, and philosophy. He has taken part in expeditions to the jungles of South America and Siberia and has been a scholarship recipient at the University of Greifswald and the State University of Rio de Janeiro.
He is actively involved in science communication and nature conservation. He writes for Dilema and National Geographic. His books “A journey around the human being”, Fallen from the jungle, and “The orangutan’s gaze” have become Humanitas bestsellers.
He coordinates the Centre for Explorations in the Environmental Humanities at Babeș-Bolyai University.
ABOUT THE RESIDENCY
Rootedness and catharsis
Terra Romana represents, at the end of the trail, the territory that completes the project’s entire conceptual arc: rootedness. Shortly after the Second World War, Simone Weil wrote that uprootedness was the most dangerous illness of modernity: the loss of our connection to place, community, and the natural rhythms of existence. If the rest of the trail explores this theme through culture, language, architecture, or history, the residency in Terra Romana approaches it at the most concrete level possible: the biological one.
The natural landscape here, with its mountains, forests, rivers, plants, and animals, as well as traditional practices such as mowing, shepherding, and gathering wild plants, constitutes a form of heritage. The aim of the residency is to document the unique plant and animal species encountered along this section of the trail, with particular attention to the biodiversity sustained precisely by local traditional practices. One example is the exceptional variety of plants maintained through manual mowing, which is already attracting teams of researchers from abroad. In essence, the researcher reveals the direct connection between the formative and ontological experience of the trail, the central theme of the entire project, and its measurable, tangible biological reality.
The hiker connects with nature while, at the same time, literally traversing one of the richest remaining intact ecosystems in the region.
ABOUT THE REGION
Terra Romana comprises the final 143 kilometres of the Via Transilvanica trail, beginning at Crușovăț in Caraș-Severin County and continuing through Mehedinți county to Drobeta-Turnu Severin. The Mediterranean influences of the climate have favoured the development of a unique natural landscape here, unlike anywhere else in Romania.
The Hermann’s tortoise, the nose-horned viper, the Banat black pine, ferns, bat colonies, and cherry orchards form a world shaped by the region’s climate and distinctive landscape.
Near the end of the journey, the hiker suddenly finds themselves in a mysterious world, with fig trees lining the path and, in the distance, the blue Danube drawing ever closer, the river that clears the mind. After crossing almost the entire country, the hiker feels closer than ever to nature, experiencing it as something that is also a part of themselves.
The end of the journey in Drobeta-Turnu Severin demonstrates that some places and stories can only be discovered by experiencing the country on foot.
ABOUT THE CULTURAL IMPRINT LEFT ON THE REGION
The outcome of the residency will be an audio-visual inventory of the endemic or endangered species encountered along the trail, a scientific document conceived also as an ecological education resource for hikers who will travel through Terra Romana after the residency has ended.
Beyond its strictly scientific value, the inventory represents the final link in the paideic arc of the entire project: the traveller who reaches this point, at the end of the trail, learns beyond the people, clothing, customs, architecture, or history, about the life of the natural world of which we, too, are a part.
