FACTS ABOUT POTOC VILLAGE

Here are more points about Potoc village, the village where the upcoming PAO.5 Architecture Summercamp is going to happen:

PLACE "Potoc" is Serbian and means something like 'hard & noisy rushing water'. Potoc is a small village in the Southwest of Romania, 20 km far from the Serbian border and 40 km away from the Danube (Donau) river. The nearest bigger cities are Timişoara (120 km) and Belgrade (150 km). The region belongs ethnographically to the Balkan Region. The village itself is situated in the foothills of the Southwestern Carpathians, where the great Pannonian plains merge into the montainside. The low mountain range area around Potoc is characterized by grey limestone rocks with many caves and deep carved river valleys covered by a sub-mediterranean vegetation. The world of insects and birds is marvelous and fills the air with sonorous sounds. Summers are hot and dusty, winter short but cold. In the beautiful and long periods of Spring and Autumn is the majority of rain downpour.

OLD VILLAGERS Those local villagers who spent the whole year in Potoc are elder people in general. Their children and families usually move to bigger towns or even foreign countries. However, in holidays all members of the family are meeting up together in the village, spending time in nature and filling the village's streets for a time period with humble and bust. But there are still some families who live in Potoc altogether.

ECONOMY The common village people are self-supporters, living from their own agriculture and animal production. Almost every self-supporting family owns a cow, some goats, pigs and a range of small livestock. In the gardens potatoes, tomatoes, corn and several kinds of fruits are being grown. Things additionally needed are brought from the market in the neighbouring town oraviţa. Under communist rule, the peasants were generally collectivized in Agricultural State Cooperatives, yet every family would have a piece of land and animals to make ends meet appropriately. This way, the traditional rural life-style survived. Once before, the region was well-known for its mining industries. Other light industries employed a lot of village people. Today almost all of them are receiving a small but constant governmental pension.

NEW VILLAGERS Nowadays, some people are returning to Potoc, at least in the season between Spring and Autumn. These "New Villagers" in Potoc and its neighborhoods are mostly weekend commuters whose families or childhood experiences are rooted in this area. They are coming from towns and cities in the surroundings, with their family business, with kids and dogs. Besides that, an alternative movement has been going on during the recent years an alternative movement. Artists from Timişoara with their friends are coming for work and relax to this especially beautiful landscape-scenery. A kind of expanding colony is already established. In comparison to the indigenous locals all these new people are rather wealthy people.

SIDE-NOTE By the way, this movement is perhaps linked to an upcoming general trend in civil society in Romania. Since the post-communist revolution, the welfare has been growing. Economically, some Romanian people are well-off these days. Such people are rediscovering now traditional values of the middle class. Like in the prospering 60's, the Romanians are developing so-called "post-materialistic" attitudes and practices, which means keeping their traditions and living in a very individualistic manner. In comparison to the very traditional locals, however, these people appear often like aliens.

ADMINISTRATION Today, Potoc has about 250 inhabitants. The village is administrated by the communal district Sasca Montana, the next village with an abandoned copper mine. Oraviţa, a small town with approx. 12.000 people can be taken as the cultural center of the region. Duing the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Oraviţa was a health resort, with hotels, theaters and casinos erected in a late-baroque architecture style which is typical for that region.

SCHOOL AND SHOPS The school building in Potoc was closed in 2004. The last twelve pupils (2009) are going to school to the next village by bus. We have three corner shops in potoc which have opened in the last four years. This makes up quite a pretty nice shopping-mile for this little village.