Iulia Hasdeu Castle (2)
I must say that I was most happy for going on a trip on a school day, but this trip to Campina in the European Week turned out to be both fun and interesting.
The way to Campina seemed so short, we sat and talked all the time and I couldn't get bored. We made friends easily and discussed interesting topics; we even mentioned school, which wasn't exactly in our schedule.
When we arrived at "Iulia Hasdeu" Castle everyone was amazed, as it is a strange building. Our new friends had already been told something about it before, but now they found out new things and exact dates in the history of the castle.
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu (1838-1907) was a well-known historian, writer and philologist. In the early 1880's, Hasdeu buys a house in which to spend the summers with his family.
His only daughter, Iulia, born in 1869, a very talented poet and pianist, dies in 1888, at the age of nineteen. The premature loss of his beloved daughter causes Hasdeu an unimaginable pain and makes him fall into bizarre beliefs. In his daughter's memory he starts building the "Iulia Hasdeu" Castle in Campina in 1893, which is finished in 1896. In his castle he remains isolated from a world that was trying to remove him from the science arena.
The building was devastated in World War One and restored only after World War Two when it was declared an architectural monument. In 1965, the "B. P. Hasdeu" memorial museum opens. It presents original papers that confirm the existence of the Hasdeu family even in the 17th century, family pictures and paintings, manuscripts, furniture items and personal objects. In front of the museum was built a statue of B. P. Hasdeu in 1937.
On the inside, the castle is even stranger and maybe a bit scary, especially the room in the central part of the building, where the statue of Jesus Christ is. Being there, looking up to see the statue and listening to a sad song that is said to have been dictated by Iulia to her father in a spiritualism session, makes you turn back in time for a moment and see Hasdeu, a father devastated by his daughter's death, climbing the stairs to the statue and praying.
As simple as it is, the castle did not fail to show as the image of a desperate father and give us some hints of his grief. It gave us a profound feeling of pity for Hasdeu, the man who had spent the rest of his unhappy life mourning for Iulia.
After this moment of sadness, we had our part of fun, going to a picnic, where we had the chance to talk (again!) and take pictures.
This was a special day for me and I will always remember it so and hope that next time will be at least as pleasant as this experience.
Ion Ruxandra, IX F1
