The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 18, 2025
The Transfagarasan Highway, Romania
2007
(American, b. 1978)
Image: 103 x 132 cm (40 9/16 x 51 15/16 in.); Mounted: 260.9 x 502.3 x 0.4 cm (102 11/16 x 197 3/4 x 3/16 in.); Paper: 260.9 x 502.3 cm (102 11/16 x 197 3/4 in.)
© David Leventi, Courtesy Bonni Benrubi Gallery, NYC
Location: Not on view
Description
Since 2006 Leventi has photographed many parts of Romania in order to retrace and understand his family’s history in that country. In this large, vivid vista of the Transfagarasan Highway, he dramatically recorded how the highway twists, turns, and sharply descends through the scenic mountain valley, framed by the two highest peaks in the country. Numerous hiking trails are visible in the foreground, attesting to the popularity of this area as a leisure destination. The road was constructed between 1970 and 1974 by the Romanian government to ensure quick military access across the mountains in the event of a Soviet Union invasion, similar to the one mounted against Czechoslovakia in 1968. Many regard the highway as "the best road in the world," and it was featured in a 2009 episode of the popular BBC television show Top Gear.- Artist; Bonni Benrubi Gallery, New York; Cleveland Museum of Art
- Contemporary Landscape Photography. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 26-August 14, 2011).
- {{cite web|title=The Transfagarasan Highway, Romania|url=false|author=David Leventi|year=2007|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2010.267