LIVE VIDEO: The French geographer who drew the map of Greater Romania, honored in Alba Iulia, 151 years after his birth

The French geographer who drew the map of Greater Romania, honored in Alba Iulia, 151 years after his birth

Today, April 1, from 1:00 p.m. (no kidding), the cultural-patriotic NGOs, led by the “Alba Iulia 1918 for the Unity and Integrity of Romania” foundation and the “Dacoromania” magazine, pay tribute to him on his 151st birthday at the birth of the French geographer-climatologist and pedagogue Emmanuel Martonne.

He was known in interwar Romania for his essential contributions to drawing the borders of Greater Romania, as well as to the rigorous study, for the first time in the history of science, of the geography of Romania and the Făgăraş Mountains, which he called the “Transylvanian Alps”. He founded the Institute of Geography at the Sorbonne.

In 1918, he was appointed expert of the Committee of Studies attached to the Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920). In the framework of the peace treaties after the First World War, he was the main author of the recommendations made with objectivity to the French government regarding the territories that were to be recognized by Romania and Poland, through the treaties. He drew and outlined on the map the borders between Romania, Serbia and Hungary, still valid today.

For these merits brought to Romania, the Romanians, and especially those from Alba Iulia, as a sign of gratitude, erected, placed and unveiled a bust of him in the Union Park in the Cetate, next to the artesian fountain and the Union Monument. Today, as many Albaiulians as possible are expected here, led by representatives of local and county public institutions, pupils, teachers, students, members of cultural-patriotic NGOs and other citizens, with a flower or only with their soul, to evoke their life and the activity of the great geographer.

Dragomir VLONGA