The postage stamp issue Mountain Banat, which will be introduced into circulation on Thursday, June 12th this year, is dedicated to the Mountain Banat Day, established by Law No. 60/2025 to be celebrated annually on June 15th. This date was chosen with historical motivation: on June 15th, 1848, during the Assembly in Lugoj, Eftimie Murgu, a well-known advocate for the rights of Banat Romanians, was elected as the ‘supreme captain of Banat’. This prominent leader of Mountain Banat was born on December 28th, 1805 in the village of Rudăria (today called ‘Eftimie Murgu’), located in the Almăj ‘Land’, an area renowned for its chain of water mills, which make up the largest mill park in Romania and a unique one in Europe. A graduate of the University of Pest, where he earned a doctorate in law, he returned to the country and dedicated himself to the interests of the Banat Romanians, securing for them the right to be represented in the Parliament of Pest. The date June 15th, 1848 stands as a significant historical moment, marking the expression of the Mountain Banat inhabitants’ desire to become a free and independent nation, ultimately aiming for unification within a strong Romanian state.
Eftimie Murgu spent a period of time in Bucharest and Iași, where he taught at Saint Sava College and at the Mihăileană Academy, respectively. Among his students were Nicolae Bălcescu and Constantin A. Rosetti. He passed away on May 12th, 1870 in Budapest.
Mountain Banat, a beautiful region of the country located within the borders of Caraș-Severin County, stands out as a land with a rich history, traditions preserved with passion, a wealth of cultural heritage, rare landscapes, and a diverse multicultural ethnic makeup. The Danube Gorge adds extra charm to this area with a well-defined identity. The mountains, covered in centuries-old forests, the Nera and Semenic Gorges with their rocky walls and impressive waterfalls, captivate visitors with their beauty and uniqueness. A resort with a millennia-long existence, Băile Herculane combines its health-beneficial thermal waters with picturesque scenery that attracts tourists from around the world. Mountain Banat is the area with the highest number of nature reserves and natural monuments in Romania: Domogled-Carașului Gorges, Nera-Beușnița Gorges, the Bigăr and Beușnița waterfalls, the Iron Gates National Park, the Banat Semmering – Romania’s first railway –and more.
The philatelic issue, consisting of four postage stamps, a souvenir sheet, and a ‘first day’ cover, evocatively illustrates in its images a small part of the unmatched beauty of Mountain Banat, along with the personality of Eftimie Murgu, the ‘supreme captain of Banat’, whose portrait appears on the postage stamp with a face value of 30 lei, of the souvenir sheet, in a graphic composition that also features one of the water mills from Rudăria.
The postage stamps depict: the Bigăr Waterfall (postage stamp with a face value of Lei 4), a panoramic view of the Danube Gorge (postage stamp with a face value of Lei 6,50), featuring the Baba Caia rock; the Herculane Resort, where, as a sign of the Romans’ presence in the early years of the 2nd century, a sanctuary dedicated to Hercules is located (postage stamp with a face value of Lei 8), Muntele Mic (Little Mountain), in a winter landscape (postage stamp with a face value of Lei 14).
