Fig brandy, the claim to fame of the Svinita Danube riverside township

The locally produced fig brandy made the folks of the Danube riverside township of Svinita - Mehedinti County famous 'far and wide'.

Photo credit: (c) Gil PIETRAR / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The fig tree, this exotic plant, was introduced in this eastern, milder-wintered part of Romania in the olden days. The mostly Serbian community that lives near the Danube Gorges is mentioned in documents as early as 900 years ago. In its current position, the township first appeared on a map from 1723, when the Austrian authorities cut a navigable channel through the Danube rapids. They say that this is the place where ancient time sailors would get their boats ready and also hire a skilled boatswain to guide them past the boil zone of the rapids, where danger lurked every inch of the way.

The Danube Gorges
Photo credit: (c) Simion MECHNO / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The emergence of the fig tree in this area is also linked to the brave boatsmen. Most locals have since been living on fig processing, and this is now the site of the biggest fig plantation in Romania, with about 3,000 such shrubs.

Photo credit: (c) Cristian NISTOR / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

A joke circulating in the folklore of this border region ? which should however be taken with a grain of salt ? says that Svinita locals preserved their old lingo exactly because of the fig brandy, supposedly so delicious and fragrant that boozing it ties one's tongue and thus prevents one from diversifying or modernizing his vocabulary.

''It's because of the fig brandy that our commune has raised to fame. We are known far and wide thanks to this elixir which made Hercules, who was navigating upstream the Danube in search of the Golden Fleece, cast anchor at the river's edge, about the spot...