In one of the best, most elegant and beautiful districts of Bucharest, Cotroceni, you can find the Liviu Rebreanu Memorial House, in fact an apartament of GH Marinescu Street, No 19, second floor, apartament 11, a special place dedicated to one of the most important and talented of the 20th century Romanian writers. In fact, even if we speak about the Rebreanu Memorial House, there is also another one, built on the site of his parent's house, in Prislop, a Romanian traditional and small village. The apartament with four rooms is simply out of time, everything being preserved just as it was during the writer's times.
Due to his proximity to the Cotroceni Palace, the Presidency Headquarters, the apartament is a symbol of an older Bucharest, when elegant villas and cosy and Western-style houses were built, instead of the suffocating flats of the Communist years. Cotroceni is one such place, a quiet district, filled with impressive old villas, many of them renovated in the last years, a place where distinguished intelectuals and rich families once lived, and where authors such as Serban Cioculescu, Vasile Voiculescu, D. Ion Minulescu resided at least for a few years. Even then, an apartement here was highly coveted and rather expensive, especially if you prefered to buy it instead of renting it.
Liviu Rebreanu bought this place in 1934, when he was already considered one of the best authors, as a gift to his daughter, Puia-Florica Rebreanu. Much later, the daughter had the splendid initiative of donating not only the place where Liviu Rebreanu lived and worked, but also most of the exhibits that can be admired here today. A hearbreaking decision, of course, but a generous one, for thus the house of Rebreanu kept all of it's original charm and elegance. The donation was officially made in 1992, and Puia-Florica Rebreanu continued living there for the next three years, until she passed away, in 1995. But what was the hardest, had been done. Since then, the Liviu Rebreanu Memorial House has opened it's doors for a rather large number of visitors. The main preocupation of the curators was to keep the house exactly as it was in the past, with all of the original furniture, objects and decorations, making it seem like Liviu Rebreanu had such stepped outside for a bit.
The four large rooms are an impressive and eclectic collection of various objects, ranging from works of art to personal mementos, manuscripts, photographs, documents and first editions of Rebreanu's novels. In the hallway where the visit begins new comers will nodoubtly be impressed by the small collection of graphic works of art, made in coal, pen and crayon. Some of these drawings and sketches are unique and were very appreciated by the writer. The first room is the living room - also the largest - impressive in the whole apartement. At first glance you will be amazed by the elegance of the old style furniture, all original pieces, perfectly preserved. Also, on the walls of the room there are several large paintings, depicting the wife and daughter of the writer, the works being signed by Camil Ressu.
From here you can continue the visit with the most important room of the house, the one where Liviu Rebreanu used to work everyday : his writing desk, his personal objects, his impressive library - today highly valuable - , the collection of paintings signed by some of the greatest artists of his time (I. Jalea, Milita Patrascu, Steriadi). The room of Puia-Florica Rebreanu is just as well kept, with the furniture and large colleciton of photographs, many of them really old, as well as several paintings and an entire wall covered with beautiful icons, creating a religious, sacred atmosphere. In the dining-room, which has almost a museum atmosphere, there is a grand Biedermeier set of furniture, another selection of icons, a large clock. In the kitchen, the space where no one could expect any surprises, there is a collection of Romanian ceramics, mainly from Transylvania, a nice farewell.
This memorial house, although not very big and certainly not very popular, is one of the highlights of the district and more than recommended for all those who want to know a little more about 20th century Romanian writers. It is always impressive to see how this houses still keep alive something that is characteristics only to that special writer.
December 2007
