The Minister of Culture, Raluca Turcan, requested the Control Body to verify the legality of the issuance of the opinion for the intervention carried out on the historical monument “Bojdeuca scritoruului Ion Creangă”, and the National Commission of Historical Monuments and the National Institute for Heritage will be requested to pronounce on the quality of the intervention, it is shows in a press release sent by the Ministry of Culture, after the writer’s memorial house was rehabilitated by the Iași County Council.
Last week, the president of the Iași County Council, Costel Alexe, announced that the rehabilitation works at Ion Creangă’s Bojdeuca, the first literary museum in Romania, have been completed, and the house where the writer lived will be reopened in December. But the announcement was met with many messages of outrage from people who say it is unrecognizable.
“According to Law 422/2001 on the protection of historical monuments, with subsequent amendments and additions, article 23, paragraph (1), interventions on historical monuments are made only on the basis of and in compliance with the opinion issued by the Ministry of Culture or, as the case may be, by the decentralized public services of the Ministry of Culture. Also, in accordance with the Regulation of the Organization and Operation of the National Commission of Historical Monuments, for the monuments classified in group B, the attributions of approval in the case of the historical monument “Bojdeuca scritatorului Ion Creangă” belong to the decentralized public service of the Ministry of Culture – the County Directorate of Culture Iași – through the Zonal Commission of Historical Monuments no. 5. DJC Iași, which also has the responsibility of following up the works in accordance with the issued notices”, reports the Ministry of Culture.
The Iași County Council put out to auction the contract for the public procurement of design services and technical assistance for the objective of the Rehabilitation of the “Ion Creangă” Museum Ensemble Iași within the “Traveler on Cultural Meridians” project in 2019. According to the documentation available in SEAP, through this project it was desired to access European funds through the Joint Operational Program Romania – Republic of Moldova – HARD projects, Thematic Objective 3 – Promotion of local culture and protection of historical heritage, Priority 2.1 – Promotion and preservation of cultural and historical heritage. According to the information from SEAP, “the restoration of the cultural objective “Ion Creangă” Museum is a project that aims to capitalize on the historical heritage monument, the house of the writer Ion Creangă, which houses the museum of the same name, by carrying out restoration works, arranging and equipping the two buildings (Casa Bojdeucă – heritage building, the inner courtyard and the Museum building which includes photo-documentary exhibitions) and the museum premises”.
The last major interventions before the start of this project – renovation and consolidation works on the historical monument were carried out in 1984, and in 1985 the museum was reopened to the public. In this context, the “Ion Creangă” Museum Ensemble was built on the premises, which was inaugurated on June 11, 1989.
The building where Ion Creangă lived was owned by the Vartic family, place taken over from the “Buna Vestire” Church. Ion Creangă lived in a house on the premises of the Golia Monastery and, after he was definitively excluded from the clergy, he rented this house where he lived until the end of his life.
In 1917, the house was ceded to Iași City Hall, at which time a series of interventions took place to prepare the building for hosting the Ion Creangă museum.
In the period 1931-1936, repairs were made to the 19th century house (the oak forks that supported the building on the east side disappeared and a stone wall was made and a building was built in the premises for the museum caretaker.
As a result of the earthquake in 1940, when it suffered considerable degradation, an intervention was necessary, carried out in 1942, with the support of the Neamț Monastery.
In 1966, a re-profiling of Bojdeuca took place, aiming to evoke the way of life and the atmosphere in which the writer created.
In the spring of 1968, before the semi-centennial anniversary of Ion Creangă’s house, new repair works took place.
Following the earthquake of 1977, the house remained standing, but fell into disrepair, leaving it out of service for several years.
Located in the Ţicău neighborhood of Iaşi, Ion Creangă’s Bojdeuca is the first memorial house in Romania. The house has two rooms, located on either side of an entrance hall and became a museum on April 15, 1918. In this house, the writer lived between 1872 and 1889, its threshold also being stepped on by Mihai Eminescu, a good friend with Branch.
Editor : Robert Kiss
