19th LUMEN International Scientific Conference

Dear Colleagues,

Our Scientific Event will take place at

“Petre Andrei”University of Iasi
Room I: Room Aula Magna, 6th floor
Room II: Room 8.3, 8th floor
Address: Street Grigore Ghica 13, Iasi, Romania.

We are honored to give you a short historical, cultural and social background of our Conference city, Iasi. All these information were retrieved from Wikipedia.org*

Architecture*

Palace of Culture, night view

Central Hall Square

With historical monuments, 500-year-old churches and monasteries, contemporary architecture, many of them listed on the National Register of Historic Monuments, Iasi is an outstanding educational center. Pieces of architecture include the Trei Ierarhi Monastery, part of the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Site, or the neo-Gothic Palace of Culture, built on the old ruins of the mediaeval Princely Court of Moldavia.

During World War II and the Communist era many historical buildings in the old city center (around Union Square area) were destroyed or demolished, and replaced by International style buildings and also a new mainly Mid-Century modern style Civic Centre was built around the Old Market Square (The Central Hall).

Grand Hotel Traian (Union Square), designed and built by Gustave Eiffel

Cuza Palace, The Union Museum

Other buildings include:

Monasteries and churches*

Barnovschi Church

Iasi is the seat of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan of Moldavia and Bukovina, and of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Iasi. There are currently almost 10,000 Roman Catholics living in Iasi. There is a debate between historians as to whether the Catholics are originally of Romanian or Hungarian descent.

St. George Church (Old Metropolitan Cathedral)

The city and the surrounding area house more than 10 monasteries and 100 historical churches. Among the oldest is Princely Saint Nicholas (1491), dating from the reign of Stephen the Great, and the Metropolitan Cathedral is the largest of its kind in Romania. The Three Holy Hierarchs Monastery, a unique monument, considered to be an architectural masterpiece,was erected in 1635–1639 by Vasile Lupu, and adorned with gilded carvings on its outer walls and twin towers.

Gardens and parks*

Ciric Park

Iasi has a diverse array of public spaces, from city squares to public parks.

Mihai Eminescu‘s statue and his Linden Tree in Copou Park

Begun in 1833, at the time when Ia?i was the capital of Moldavia, by Prince Mihail Sturdza and under the plans of Gheorghe Asachi and Mihail Singurov, Copou Park was integrated into the city and marks one of the first Romanian coordinated public parks. The oldest monument in Romania stands in the middle of the park, the Obelisk of Lions (1834), a 13.5 m (44.29 ft) tall obelisk, dedicated to the Law of Organic Rules, the first law on political, administrative and juridical organization in Romanian Principalities.

Founded in 1856, the Botanical Garden of Iasi, the first botanical garden in Romania, has an area of over 100 hectares, and more than 10,000 species of plants.

Iasi Exhibition Park was opened in 1923 and built under the coordination of the architect N. Ghica Budesti.

The Ciric Park, located in the north-eastern part of Iasi is another complex which consists into the park and four lakes.

Cultural life*

Pogor House, The Romanian Literature Museum

Major events in the political and cultural history of Moldavia are connected with the name of the city of Iasi. The great scholars of the 17th century, Grigore UrecheMiron Costin and later Ion Neculce, wrote most of their works in the city or not far from it and the famous scholar Dimitrie Cantemirknown throughout all Europe also linked his name to the capital of Moldavia.

The first newspaper in Romanian language was published in 1829 in Ia?i and it is in Ia?i where, in 1867, appeared under literary societyJunimea, the Convorbiri literare review in which Ion Creanga’s Childhood Memories and the best poems by Mihai Eminescu were published. The reviews Contemporanul and Viata Româneasca appeared in 1871, respectively in 1906 with great contributions to promoting Romanian national cultural values.

Many great personalities of Romanian culture are connected to Ia?i: the chronicler Nicolae Milescu, the historians and politics men Mihail Kogalniceanu or Simion Barnutiu, the poets Vasile Alecsandri or George Topârceanu, the writers Mihail SadoveanuAlecu Russo, or Ionel Teodoreanu, the literary critic Titu Maiorescu, the historian A.D. Xenopol, the philosophers Vasile Conta or Petre Andrei, the sociologist Dimitrie Gusti, the geographer Emil Racovita, the painter Octav Bancila, only to name a few.

Theatres and orchestras*

The “Vasile Alecsandri” National Theatre, opened in 1840, is the first National Theatre in Romania. The building, designed according to the plans of the Viennese architects Hermann Helmer andFerdinand Fellner, was raised between 1894 and 1896, and also hosts, starting 1956, the Iasi Romanian National Opera.
Ia?i is also home to:

Museums*

Ion Creanga Memorial House

Iasi is home to many museums, memorial houses, art galleries.
First Memorial House from Romania opened in Iasi in 1918 as Ion Creanga Memorial House, and today the Iasi Romanian Literature Museum owns twelve memorial houses. The Mihai Eminescu Museum is situated in Copou Park and it is dedicated to the great poet’s life and creation. Other museums are dedicated to: DosofteiMihail KogalniceanuVasile PogorNicolae GanePetru PoniMihai CodreanuMihail SadoveanuGeorge TopirceanuOtilia CazimirRadu Cernatescu.

Mihai Codreanu Memorial House

The Theatre Museum, opened in 1976, at the celebration of 160 years since the first theatrical performance in Romanian, illustrates the development of the theatrical phenomenon since the beginning, important moments of the history of Iasi National Theatre, the foundation, in 1840, of the Philharmonic-dramatic Conservatoire, prestigious figures that have contributed to the development of the Romanian theatre.

The Union Museum, includes original pieces and documents which belonged to prince Al. I. Cuza and his family.

The Natural History Museum, founded on 4 February 1834, is the first museum of this kind in Romania with over 300,000 items, the most valuable being the collections of insects, mollusk, amphibians, reptiles, birds, plants and minerals.

Four other museums are located in the Palace of Culture, The Art Museum has the largest art collection in Romania, with more than 8,000 paintings, out of which 1,000 belong to the national and universal patrimony, The Moldavia’s History Museum, offers more than 35,000 objects from various fields, archaeology, numismatics, decorative art, ancient books, documents, The Ethnographic Museum of Moldavia owns more than 11,000 objects depicting the Romanian advance through the ages and The Science and Technology Museum with five distinct sections and one memorial house.

French Institute in Iasi

Foreign culture centres*

Iasi hosts six cultural centres: FrenchGermanBritishLatin American & CaribbeanHellenic and Arab.