Landmarks and Portrayals
In autumn 1890, a statue of Asachi was erected in front of the Trei Ierarhi Church school complex, an initiative taken by a group of his conservative collaborators. On the same occasion, Asachi's remains, together with those of his wife Elena, were placed in the monument's base. The courtyard of Asachi's house on Copou Hill hosts a small monument, which he raised to the memory of his daughter Eufrosina and his grandson George.
Asachi laid out the plan for a monument honoring Regulamentul Organic, completed by the Russian artist Sungurov with workforce hired from Galicia, and raised on Copou as the first structure of its kind in Moldavia. He is also noted for having proposed, in 1853, to create a modern cemetery in Iaşi on Galata Hill — his project was never used, but in 1871, Eternitatea, a cemetery corresponding to his requirements, was set up on land donated to the city.
The Copou house itself was taken over by Malvina Czapkai, a creditor of Asachi and his son Alexandru; it served as a boarding school, and, during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, as a Russian military hospital. In 1892, Marie of Edinburgh, who had just married the Romanian heir apparent, Ferdinand Hohenzollern, purchased it for 52,000 lei. It was subsequently the Principesa Maria School for Arts and Crafts, destined to women's education, and, during World War I, served as a home for orphaned girls. In 1937, Queen Marie transformed into an institute for welfare, which notably hosted the practice of sociologist and psychologist Mihai Ralea. The house was again a hospital in World War II, when it was taken over by the Romanian Air Force; in 1948, when the Communist regime was established, it was nationalized (together with all other Royal property), and served as the headquarter of the Romanian Land Forces 4th Corps, and was later rented for private use. Since 1976, it has housed two institutes of the Romanian Academy (the Alexandru Philippide Institute of Philology and the Gheorghe Zane Institute of Economic and Social Research).
Among the artists two have depicted Asachi during his lifetime were his associate Schiavoni (whose painting shows the young writer surrounded by objects illustrating his many interests) and Constantin Daniel Stahi (a pupil of Panaiteanu Berdasare). In December 1937, a section of the University of Iaşi was created into an institute of technology, with the name of Gheorghe Asachi Polytechnic School (the present-day Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iaşi). A public library in the city also bears his name, as do a school erected in 1900 on the site previously occupied by Şcoala Vasiliană and high schools in the Romanian cities of Botoşani and Sibiu, as well as in the Moldovan capital Chişinău.
Read more about this topic: Gheorghe Asachi
Famous quotes containing the words landmarks and, landmarks and/or portrayals:
“The lives of happy people are dense with their own doings—crowded, active, thick.... But the sorrowing are nomads, on a plain with few landmarks and no boundaries; sorrow’s horizons are vague and its demands are few.”
—Larry McMurtry (b. 1936)
“The lives of happy people are dense with their own doings—crowded, active, thick.... But the sorrowing are nomads, on a plain with few landmarks and no boundaries; sorrow’s horizons are vague and its demands are few.”
—Larry McMurtry (b. 1936)
“We attempt to remember our collective American childhood, the way it was, but what we often remember is a combination of real past, pieces reshaped by bitterness and love, and, of course, the video past—the portrayals of family life on such television programs as “Leave it to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best” and all the rest.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)