3284 ROMANIA (Iaşi) - Postcrossing Meetup, Iaşi, 24 March 2018

3284 The fourth postcard of the series
"100 years since the Great Union of Romania" (4/12)
- The Palace of Culture in Iaşi

The previous postcard of the series "100 years since the Great Union of Romania" (3/12)

The fourth meeting of the Romanian postcrossers in the year of the Centenary of the Great Union took place on March 24, 2018, in Iaşi. However, the postcard was sent by Mihnea Răducu not from Iaşi, but from Chişinău, from the Republic of Moldova, which is proven not only by the stamp and the postmark, but also by the signatures of several Moldovan postcrossers, to whom I thanks from the bottom of my heart. The postcard depict The Palace of Culture in Iaşi, about which I wrote here.

2766 ROMANIA (Iași) - Mihail Sadoveanu (1880-1961)

Mihail Sadoveanu was a Romanian novelist, short story writer, journalist and political figure. Often seen as the leading author of his generation, and generally viewed as one of the most representative Romanian writers, he was also believed to be a first-class story-teller, and received praise especially for his nature writing and his depictions of rural landscapesbut also he is remembered mostly for his historical and adventure novels. An exceptionally prolific author by Romanian standards, he published over a hundred individual volumes, and his career spanned five decades.

1940, 2662, 3284 ROMANIA (Iaşi) - The Palace of Culture in Iaşi

1940 The Palace of Culture in Iaşi (1)

Posted on 05.10.2015, 22.07.2016, 05.12.2019
Recognized as an effigy of the city of Iaşi (the capital of the Principality of Moldavia from 1564 to 1859), the Palace of Culture hosts, since 1955, the Moldova National Museum Complex, consisting from four museums, as well as other cultural institutions, after previously served as Administrative Palace and then Palace of Justice. It was built between 1906 and 1925, partly on the old ruins of the mediaeval Royal Court of Moldavia (1434), and partly on top of the foundations of the former neoclassical style palace, dated to the time of Prince Alexandru Moruzi (1806), rebuilt by Prince Mihail Sturdza and dismantled in 1904.

2662 The Palace of Culture in Iaşi (2)

Designed in flamboyant neo-Gothic style by the Romanian architect Ion D. Berindey, the Palace has 298 large rooms, 92 windows in the front part of the building and another 36 inside the building. The wings of the building were withdrawn and decorated with statues of archers that stand sentry, and on the sides were built two entries in the form of vaulted towers. Entry into the palace is through a large dungeon tower, with battlements and alcoves dominated by an aquila with open wings.

3284 The fourth postcard of the series
"100 years since the Great Union of Romania" (4/12)
- The Palace of Culture in Iaşi

Elements of tourist interest are, at the ground floor The Gothic Hall (where can be admired a mosaic that represents a gothic bestiary), and upstairs The Voivodes Hall (which contains the portraits of the Princes of Moldavia and of the Kings of the Romanians) and The Henri Coandă Hall. The clock carillon installed in the central tower is a set of eight bells which reproduce every hour Hora Unirii (The Union Hora - a song which is sung and danced especially on January 24, when Romanian United Principalities united in 1859).

1784 ROMANIA (Iaşi) - A chaise of Negruzzi family in Vasile Pogor House

The Vasile Pogor House in Iaşi is the headquarters of the museum of the modern and contemporary Romanian literature, especially the period of the great classics, of the literary society Junimea. The house was built in 1850 by the high official Vasile Pogor together with his wife Zoe. The building has a rich long history connected to the Iaşi cultural life as it is a place where the intellectuality of the city used to meet, the headquarters of the literary society Junimea (1863) and of the review Convorbiri Literare (1867).

0597 ROMANIA (Iaşi) - Church of the Three Hierarchs in Iaşi (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

Erected between 1637 and 1639 in the heart of Iaşi, the then capital of Principality of Moldavia, Biserica Trei Ierarhi (Church of the Three Hierarchs) reflects the aspiration of the founder, the Voivode Vasile Lupu, towards the Byzantine world. The edifice was dedicated to the saints Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom, that places it in a world that was why of the Church Fathers, defenders of Nicene Dogma and of the unity of the Church. Built of limestone blocks carved and shaped, glued together with molten lead, the church complies the typical plan of the contemporary Moldovan churches, with three apses polygonal to outside and semicircular to inside, with three windows each. The uniqueness of the monument comes from the continuous network of ornamentation carved in stone that covers the exterior walls with mainly Armenian, Georgian, Persian, Arabic and Turkish models, but also with Russian, Baroque or indigenous inspired elements. Paul of Aleppo, the Syrian who passed by Moldova in 1653, wrote that the church "amazes the mind of the one who sees it", and the Turk Evlia Celebi, in 1659, that "there's no way to describe it with language or with feather." The original painting was done by Russian masters Sidor Pospeev, Iakov Gavrilov, Deico Iakovliev şi Pronka Nikitin, the best painters in the court of the Tsar, aided by Moldovans Nicolae Zugravul and Ştefan Zugravul (zugrav means dauber).