The student years in Iași and its tourist attractions.

 Once there, you will follow in the footsteps of "Stephen the Great", you will walk through the places of soul of "Mihai Eminescu" and you will discover the place where the childhood memories of "Ion Creanga" came to life.

Look how time passes, as if I was a high school student yesterday, eager to become a big and responsible man, with many dreams, but I didn't know what the future held for me.

I wanted to continue my studies in Bucharest and start a new life. From certain points of view, destiny has certain plans related to me, where my parents had such a saying: "look in Bucharest, you better stay at home with us".

I chose this faculty not only because of my parents' insistence, but also because I really wanted to. This college gave me insights into life and helped me grow. Everything changed from year to year.

When you are in an unknown place, either city or people, it is the same. You adapt hard but in the meantime you get used to it.

Wherever you come, he greets you with open arms. Although it seems that it is a game of destiny, only the strong can resist, because wherever you are, you go through hardships and situations.

In this article I want to talk about other things. After graduating from high school in Sfântul Gheorghe, I submitted my papers to Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, to the Faculty of Philosophy, Specialty of Political Sciences in Iași. I really wanted to study at this university.

Iași seemed more beautiful to me than Sfântul Gheorghe, which has a rich cultural history and a famous university center.

I had very good teachers from whom I took important things for life, who opened my eyes wide, how to think, how to speak, to have a certain vision of life.

I met beautiful people at heart and mind, who remained my friends forever.

The city of Iasi was a second home for me, where everything was new, people places and events that happened in the meantime. There is nothing accidental in life.

It was hard for me to get used to everything about this city, but in the meantime I managed to get used to it. I remember all the memories of my student years.

I'm still amused by that incident with my teacher. My history teacher, who made my classmates laugh because all the seats were occupied. At first I had great emotions, which disappeared after I met my colleagues.

In class we were all together, but in seminars we were divided into groups. There were a total of five groups, including me. We were not a united group, where each was independent.

In time, I managed to make friends. I was attracted to tourist attractions from the first year of college.

My first tourist attraction was Bojdeuca lui Ion Creangă. Together with other colleagues of mine, we met in front of the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" statue, which was the meeting point for all students.

It was autumn outside, it was warm and beautiful, the yellowed leaves were falling from the trees.

The city of Iasi is a beautiful city, which I miss. The student years are over. There I met the period of Eminescu and Ion Creanga. The culture and history of this city, as well as the architecture, made me love it and the people in it.

  After visiting the city's locations, Bojdeuca lui Ion Creangă was followed by Copou Park and the Botanical Garden. Bojdeuca lui Ion Creangă, dates from 1872, when he was rebuked and forced to leave the house inside the Golia Monastery. The man from Humulești moved here, in the room on the right, having as neighbor Ecaterina Vartic, the one who would fatten him until the end of his life. All Stories Childhood Memories were written in the box christened by the bojdeuca writer. In the summer and autumn of 1876, Mihai Eminescu lived here as Creangă's tenant.

I was left with some very beautiful impressions, after visiting the house of the great storyteller and I felt the energy emanating from the present objectives.

Ion Creanga's house was composed of two rooms that also had a beautiful garden in the back. It became a memorial museum on April 15, 1918, and restorations were made between 1942 and 1985.

After visiting this wonderful bojdeuca, we took it on the way to Copou Park. Copou Park is the oldest park in Iasi, located on Copoului Hill, being the largest urban park in the central and northern part of the city.

In the garden of Copou Park is the Monument of Constitutional Laws, known as the Obelisk with Lions made by Mikhail Singurov, in 1834, according to a project by Gh. Asachi. The 15 m high and 10 ton heavy stone column, supported by four lei, symbolizes the four European powers that recognized the independence of the Romanian Lands.

In the center of Copou Park, we can find next to Eminescu's Lime and Bust and the bust of his old friend Ion Creanga erected in 1932. Later Junea Alley was erected with bronze busts of its members: the monument of the poet Veronica Micle, the bust of Costache Negruzii , the bust of Iacob Negruzii, the bust of Gheorghe Panaitescu-Bardasare, the bust of Constantin Daniel Stahi, the bust of Nicolae Gane and the bust of Barbu Ștefănescu-Delavrancea. The monuments dedicated to George Topârceanu, Ion Luca Caragiale, Emanoil Panaiteanu-Bardasare, Octav Băncilă, Ciprian Porumbescu and Grigore Vieru decorate other alleys of the park.

The park dates from the first half of the 19th century, its arrangement starting with the years 1833-1834 under the reign of Mihail Sturza.

Together with my colleagues I also visited the Botanical Garden "Anastasie Fătu." The park was established in 1856, it is the first university botanical garden in our country, named after its founder, Anastasie Fătuș.

The arrangement of the famous garden in Copou has never stopped, being necessary the constant conservation of the ten sections that it includes. Over 9000 plant taxa from various geographical regions can be admired outside and inside the Botanical Garden of Iasi.

In February-August there are collections of azaleas, camellias, orchids, crotons, cacti, bonsai, tulips, irises, daffodils, roses and dahlias, and in September-November, starting with 1976, they are exhibited, under the title Autumn Flowers, chrysanthemums, fruits, cabbage seeds, beets, peppers and decorative pumpkins, which attract over 200,000 visitors annually, from the country and abroad.

Because we were hungry and it was too late to visit other tourist locations in Iasi.

During the four years of my student stay in Iasi I visited many tourist attractions as historical and cultural religious such as: Monastery of the Holy Three Hierarchs, Metropolitan Cathedral of Iasi, Church of St. Nicholas the Prince, Băărboi Monastery.

The student years were interesting and full of adventure, with an unforgettable experience, where I also went to the University Library, in clubs with friends, and outdoor trips.

Iasi was the capital of Moldavia from 1564-1859, one of the two capitals of the United Principalities between 1859-1862 and the capital of the Kingdom of Romania between 1916-1918. The city is shrouded in beauty and charm, being a true national museum, with its treasures of history and art.

The name of the city is closely linked to the so-called golden age, of the Romanian culture and spirituality, its history being marked by numerous monuments and archeological vestiges from Cucuteni that revealed one of the most brilliant Neolithic culture in Europe. Located in northeastern Romania, the city of Iasi was and still is, the capital of Romanian culture and spirituality.

The cultural heritage includes 256 archeological sites, 20 memorial houses, 580 historical and architectural monuments, 13 architectural museums.

The city is a real national museum, through the treasures of history and art that have traces of inhabiting this land since the Paleolithic on the territory of Iaşi County, numerous settlements dating from the XIII-XIV century have been identified.

On weekends we visit several locations in Iasi, museums, theaters, cinemas, markets, parks. The first Memorial House I visited was the "Otilia Cazimir Memorial House," the house where Otilia Cazimir lived and created, which became a memorial museum in 1972.

I entered a semi-cool room and I could still feel the energy and the fragrant smell of the writer, the office where Otilia Cazimir was writing is full of manuscripts. The pen of glasses and other personal items seemed to be waiting for her.

The writer's library abounds in dedicated books. His portraits or landscapes from the Bucșinescu area, made by painters from the Iași school, such as Victor Mihăiescu-Craiu, Nicolae Constantin, give the measure of the appreciation that Otilia Cazimir enjoys among plastic artists.

The next one is the “George Topîrceanu Memorial House”, a small, discreet, almost mysterious house that was built at the end of the 19th century and belonged to the poet Demostene Botez. I later found out from the guide and the headquarters of the magazine "Literary Notes", installed on January 8, 1919, which included: Mihail Sadoveanu, G. Ibrăileanu, G. Topîrceanu and Demostene Botez. The memorial was inaugurated on June 22, 1985, one year before the centenary of the poet's birth (UNESCO Centenary).

Then we visited the Mihail Kogâlniceanu Memorial Museum, along with other old buildings from Iași that belonged to the Kogâlniceanu family. but also those of the man Mihail Kogâlniceanu (1817-1891). Starting with March 4, 2012, the “Mihail Kogâlniceanu” Memorial Museum is reopened to the public.

The next visit I made was the Memorial House of "Mihail Sadoveanu", I did not know that Mihail Sodoveanu lived in Iasi. But I found out from the museum guide that this Memorial House was inaugurated on November 6, 1980, where the daughter of the writer Profira Sadoveanu, the wife of the writer Valeria Sadoveanu, writers and people of culture, officials from Iași, a large audience were present.

The next trip was the Memorial House "Vasile Pogor" in the heart of Iasi is the "house with lighted windows", in the halls of which met some of the personalities who marked the history of modern Romania: Maiorescu, Alecsandri, Xenopol, Conta, Caragiale, Eminescu, Slavici, Creanga and many others. At that time, this house belonged to Vasile Pogor, one of the founders of the famous literary society "Junimea," and hosted countless junimist meetings.

The museum benefited, through the care of the Ministry of Culture and Cults, of the Iași County Council and of the Iași City Hall, from restoration works during 1994-2006. The permanent exhibition, reorganized and inaugurated on October 13, 2006, brings together aspects of literary history covering, in stages, a period of about 150 years.

Its construction, in a brilliant neo-Gothic style lasted almost 20 years, and both its interior richly decorated with heraldic motifs. The clock in the tower sang "Hora Unirii" every hour. There are four museums inside. Admission to the Voivodeship Hall or walk around is free, but each museum has a separate entrance free.

On the side is the "Museum of the History of Moldova," which focuses on archaeological elements. It has a beautiful collection of Cucuteni pottery, a native culture that is thought to have existed in this region between 3700-2500 BC. The inhabitants of Cucuteni had talents for pottery and decorated their vessels with symmetrical geometric elements, the only surviving aspect of their decorative art.

On the first floor, there is the "Ethnographic Museum of Moldova," featuring a set of very large tools used in food production, as well as folk costumes and carpets. There is also a craft shop.

At the same is the "Art Museum," which has two sections and a temporary exhibition in the Hall of Dukes. It presents modern and contemporary art, Theodor Aman's work Unirea Pricipatelor depicting two women dressed in folk costume, holding hands. The other section presents European art.

Perhaps the funniest for children is the "Stefan Procopiu Museum of Science and Technology" on the ground floor. It has a strange and beautiful collection of musical instruments from the 19th and 20th centuries, which the staff will present, even making demonstrations. Another section has models of different teachings, some little known, beyond the borders of the country.

Next to the palace, there is a large equestrian statue of Stephen the Great unveiled by Carol I in 1883, with his scepter indicating the boulevard of the same name. The bas-reliefs on the marble pedestal commemorate scenes

from the battles of Dumbrava Roșie and Valea Alba, in which Ștefan cel Mare fought.

The other two tourist attractions were the "Palace of Culture" and the "Dosoftei House," which is located in the Civic Center, overlooking the majestic south end of Stefan cel Mare Boulevard, ridiculously gigantic. 

After finishing visiting the "Palace of Culture" we went to the Church of "Saint Nicholas the Prince" and "Casa Dosoftei."

Located right next to the "Palace of Culture", the "Church of St. Nicholas" was built by "Stephen the Great" in 1491-1492, being the oldest church in Iasi that has been preserved to this day, and its exterior has a unique appearance , which you admire on your way to the city center.

But let's not forget another cultural and literal edifice is "Casa Dosoftei" hosts the Department of Romanian Literature where you can see many original exhibits, including the oldest manuscript continuing the Chronicle attributed to Grigore Ureche. The archaic-looking stone building was built in the second half of the 17th century and originally belonged to the "St. Nicholas Prince" church.

I couldn't miss a walk on "Ulița Domnească" which starts from "Palatul Culturii" and ends in Piata Unirii I discovered a lot of symbolic buildings of Iași.

The "Vasile Alecsandri" National Theater, dating from 1896, is the oldest in the country and one of the most beautiful in Europe. Its elegant and richly decorated interior was inspired by the Baron and Rocco architectural styles, one of its ceilings being painted by the famous Viennese painter Alexander Goltz.

Once inside the theater, I was impressed by the 100 lamps in the center of the building, all of which offer a special elegance and refinement to the theaters in the monumental art of Iași. Numerous plays that have become famous nationally and internationally it is performed in the halls of this theater every year.

Next we visited the "Museum of Natural History" which is located at number 16 and occupies an impressive neoclassical building from the eighteenth century, somehow known as the Roset house. The museum is famous because Alexandru Ioan Cuza was elected governor of Moldavia in 1859.

Râpa Galbenă, known among the locals, is an important area, located at the base of Copou Hill. The Elisabeta esplanade in Iași was built at the end of the 19th century, its purpose being to facilitate the movement of friends to the central area of the city. Its terrain is clayey, and its unique appearance is represented by the multitude of underground springs that descend from the Copou area to Bahlui.

Numerous works have been carried out in this area for the construction of clay for construction or pottery, in the area of Unirii Markets there was in the past a neighborhood of locals specialized in the art of pottery.

The Union Square and Museum in Iași, through which I passed daily, are of historical importance. The main square of the city. Unirii Square is of overwhelming importance for Romanians, because here the union ceremony with Wallachia was celebrated and Romania was born in 1859. Sitting in a small garden in the center of the square, the bronze statue of Alexandru Ioan Cuza is another symbol of union.

And further north, behind the Republic Cinema, the Union Museum is housed in a building dating back to 1806. After the union of 1859 it became Cuza's palace in 1917-1918 and was for a short time the royal residence for King Ferdinand. when the capital temporarily moved to Iasi, during the First World War. The museum contains valuable collections of documents and other items belonging to Alexandru Ioan Cuza and his family.

In closing, if you pass through Iași, don't forget to visit these wonderful tourist attractions.

In the next article, I will tell you about the most important monasteries and churches in Iasi, and an important trip to Sturza Castle in Maiclăușeni and the Alexandru Ioan Cuza Memorial Palace in Ruginoasa, Red Lake and Bicaz.

                                                        Written by Elena Bogus