Photo credit: (c) Adrian CUBA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

In 1862, the castle was bought by Alexandru Ioan Cuza, becoming thus, for only a short while, the residence of the first ruler of the United Principalities of Romania, Alexandru Ioan the First. The Ruginoasa Castle — while being compared with other buildings in Moldavia built in the same period, it occupies a privileged position both from a historical and architectural point of view.

‘Here, at the boyar’s and later prince’s residence, took place a series of important events for the history of the country, among which we remind the gathering of the Romanian revolutionaries of 1848 and the planning of the very bold reforms initiated by Alexandru Ioan Cuza during his rule, curator and Professor Simona Ionescu explained.

Thus, between 1890 and 1900, the Ruginoasa Castle and the surrounding estate became the home of Princess Maria Moruzzi, the wife of Prince Alexandru. After the death of Lady Elena Cuza, the estate and the castle were donated to the Caritatea Hospital in Iasi and was made into a children hospital named after ruler Cuza — Cuza Voda Hospital.

In 1936, the hospital passed the property title of the building on to the Romanian National Railways Company — CFR, which turned it into a tuberculosis hospital. CFR made several modifications to the building to better fit its purposes as a hospital. Being destroyed in the World War Two, the castle regained its architectural beauty and specific charm in 1982, when, after restoration, it became the Alexandru Ioan Cuza Memorial Museum.

Photo credit: (c) Adrian CUBA / AGERPRES STREAM

The lifeless body of ruler A.I. Cuza was brought in 1873 from Heidelberg — Germany and buried at Ruginoasa, close to the church. In 1944, the prince’s remains were preventively evacuated from Curtea de Arges but after the war, given that the church was severely damaged, they were brought at the Biserica Trei Ierarhi (Church of the Three Hierarchs) in Iasi, where they remained until today.

Lacramioara Stratulat, the manager of the Moldavia National Museum Complex, stated that the Alexandru Ioan Cuza Memorial Museum, hosted by the castle that used to be the residence in Moldavia of the first ruler of the United Principalities of Romania, was subjected to an ample restoration programme part of the governmental programme dubbed ‘Rehabilitation of Historical Monuments in Romania’ sponsored by the Council of Europe Development Bank. This stage was followed by a rearranging of the permanent exhibition to bring it in line with the contemporary European standards and to help the contemporary visitor truly feel the atmosphere of the 19th century world of aristocracy. The castle was completely rebuilt on the inside, the same as it was during the time when Elena Doamna lived here. The rebuilding works cost approximately 7.8 million lei. The Alexandru Ioan Cuza Memorial Museum reopened its gates to the large public in February 2013.

Photo credit: (c) Adrian CUBA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

‘Out of a desire to make the museum accessible to all visitor categories new functions and interactive elements such as info-touch and multi-touch panels, video projections, meant to enrich the visual information, were implemented. In line with the latest trends, the information for each room is provided through a diagram. The visitor will have thus the chance to meet the real-size hologram of Prince A.I. Cuza uttering some of its famous speeches,’ said curator and Professor Simona Ionescu.

Only few know that close to the Cuza Palace there was Hanul Domnesc (the royal inn), an inn that used to be quite famous back in those times, where poet Mihai Eminescu is said to have written his poem ‘Prince Charming from the Lime Tree’ and Vasile Alecsandri his famous poem ‘Dridi.’ The ways to accomplish the Union of all the Romanian principalities, as according to Simona Popescu, were also many times debated at the inn by literary critic Garabet Ibraileanu, politicians Constantin Stere, Petre Carp, Botez, Lucretiu Patrascanu and poet George Toparceanu. The inn also hosted writers Mihail Sadoveanu and Ion Creanga, historian Nicolae Iorgan, A.D. Xenopol, politicians Petre Andrei, Petru Poni, Dimitrie Gusti or poet Tudor Arghezi. In the meantime, the inn turned to ruin.

The Scheian Book suggests us the supposed date when Ruginoasa became the property of the Sturza family. Thus, Sandu Sturza’s father, apparently named Ion, bought ‘the entire Ruginoasa village with all its neighbours’ from Constantin Duca Voievod (1693-1695).

‘The precise year when the inn was built in Ruginoasa is still unknown. However, what we do know is that during the ruling of Vasile Lupu the schedule of the post chaises was modified and the inn in Ruginoasa became one of the stations, which means, of course, that the inn already existed at that date. The names of its builders also remain unknown. We believe that it was built by an entrepreneur, who probably realised that the location was very good,’ said Simona Ionescu.

The elders in the village claim that, in the old times, when the village suffered from the many attacked and looting by various hordes, the locals were using a tunnel to get to the castle and take refugee there. In 1905, the inn got damaged in a big fire, but it was rebuilt later. ‘The inn in Ruginoasa is not just like any other, but it is one was quite famous Moldavia. There are many stories about the inn. Some say that the young man from Veresti who ran away with the very beautiful wife of boyar Bals from Dumbraveni, for whom poet Eminescu’s father also used to work, also came at the inn. The story tells that a young Mihai Eminescu, impressed by this love story, even came to Ruginoasa to follow the footsteps of the lovers and he even wrote his “Prince Charming from the Lime Tree” here. Poet Vasile Alecsandri too is said to have written here his well-known poem ‘Dridi,’ said Simona Ionescu.

‘Many of the stories about Cuza-Voda have the inn or the castle in the picture. Thus, they say that the ruler enjoyed putting on a disguise and going to the inn to find out about the sufferings of the people and maybe catch the inn keeper tripping. After his funeral in Ruginoasa, it became a tradition for many people to go on a pilgrimage to his tomb, so that various personalities uses to come at the inn and very very many travellers,’ said Simona Ionescu.

Today, Ruginoasa is a destination for many pilgrims, as the place where the memory of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the first ruler of modern Romania, a living symbol of the Union of 1859. So that, as M. Kogalniceanu said at Cuza’s funeral back in 1873, ‘as long as this country will have its history, the most beautiful page of it will remain the one with Alexandru Ioan Cuza’s name on it.’ AGERPRES