Architecture / Museums

Pogor Memorial House

Pogor house or “The House with Lighted Windows” is the first private building in Iași with electric lighting.

The great boyar Ioniță Cerchez, responsible with bread distribution, is the one who built here for the first time a dwelling in 1776. His son Iancu inherits the property and leaves it to his daughter, Zoe, wife of headman Vasile Pogor. The latter demolished the old building and built a new one in 1850. After the headman’s death, in 1857, the houses were inherited by his son, Vasile Pogor, three times mayor of Iași.

The building worked as headquarters of “Junimea” Literary Society, founded in Iași in 1863 at the initiative of some young people returned from their studies abroad: Titu Maiorescu, Vasile Pogor(son), Theodor Rosetti, Iacob Negruzzi and Petre P. Carp. During the many meetings at Junimea, some of the most famous writers appeared, such as Mihai Eminescu, Ion Creangă, Ioan Slavici or Vasile Alecsandri. Since 1867, Junimea published the “Convorbiri Literare” magazine, which became the most famous publication in the history of Romanian literature. During the world wars, the cellars of Pogor House were transformed into ammunition and weapon stores. The historians of the time said that these undergrounds were part of a cellar network which crossed the area and were considered a refuge place or a food store. Since 1972 it became the residence of the Literature Section of the Moldova Museum Complex, separated afterwards, since 1990, into the Iași Museum of Romanian Literature, an independent institution, until 2018, when it moved to the House of Museums.

The main building is comprised of 10 rooms with the permanent exhibition. The main entrance can be noticed through the four columns, above which you can see a balcony, adorned with two Ionic pillars. Inside there are objects of memorial value, tapestries, paintings and manuscripts, some of them belonging to great writers. In the rooms on the ground and first floor, but also in the two hallways, the main stages and literary streams of the last two centuries are presented.

Nowadays, the “Vasile Pogor” Museum organises many cultural events: book launches, opera concerts and symphonic concerts, exhibitions and fairs, actions for children and events which encourage freedom of expression through art among young people. The “Pogor Attic” Galleries host literary and artistic events. The “Street Delivery” Festival in June has a big success among young people, who simply fill up the yard. Also, FILIT, the International Literature and Translations Festival, each year, in October, reunites at Pogor House famous writers and international audience. In the yard, there is also an annex, inaugurated in 1994, which protects the entrance in the catacombs of Pogor house and where recently a coquettish restaurant has opened.

Strada Vasile Pogor nr. 4, Iași 700110
Photo by muzeulliteraturiiiasi.ro

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