Mission

The Romanian Cultural Garden has, since 1967, been the site of the nation’s only urban garden dedicated to perpetuating Romanian-American cultural heritage. The Garden is a testament to the link between Cleveland and Romania, land of our forebears.

Friends of the Romanian Cultural Garden (FRCG) was founded with a mission to conserve, restore, enhance, and improve the Romanian Cultural Garden.

Location

History

The Romanian Cultural Garden was initiated by the Association of Romanian American students, Alpha Sigma Ro, presided by Dr. Nick Neagoy. The clergy and lay leaders of the time, including Rev. Pascu, Fr. Vasile Hategan and Fr. Toderich, were instrumental in securing the land for the Romanian presence here. The heavily wooded 2.1-acre site for the Romanian Cultural Garden was deeded to the Romanian community by the City of Cleveland in 1955.

The Romanian Cultural Garden became a reality in 1967, when the statue of the violinist, composer and conductor George Enescu was brought from Romania and installed here, not far from Severance Hall, where the maestro often conducted the Cleveland  Philharmonic Orchestra. Romanian Americans loved the composer and were proud of this achievement. Since then, local churches and societies made small contributions for the Garden, such as the garden’s sign, restorations and repairs when it was vandalized, planting flowers and participating in the board of the Cultural Gardens Federation. 

In 2011, the Friends of the Romanian Cultural Garden (FRCG) was founded with a mission to conserve, restore, enhance and improve the Romanian Cultural Garden. FRCG members are a collection of individuals of Romanian heritage that come from a variety of professions and backgrounds. All have an abiding interest in improving the Garden’s physical condition, appearance and image. We are currently leading a collaborative process to design and construct physical enhancements to the Romanian Cultural Garden.

Romanian Garden Enhancement Project

The current Romanian Garden Enhancement Project is the product of an intensive design process that engaged many diverse members of Cleveland’s Romanian community in a workshop setting held on May 7, 2011. With the assistance of Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative and other professional architects, landscape architects and planners from the Romanian community, a concept plan and illustrative rendering for improvements was produced.

The vision plan incorporates ancient and traditional Romanian design elements like the Dacian double spiral and the Maramures gate, all set in a plaza that incorporates sustainable design features like bioswales, a rain garden, pervious pavers and the integration of the site’s existing tree canopy.

The plan design is such that it can be developed in two distinct phases, a condition that will permit the Romanian community to see a near-term result, while raising additional funding to complete the entire design.