Petru Poni

Petru Poni (b. January 4, 1841, Săcăreşti village, Iaşi County - d. April 2, 1925, Iaşi) was a chemist, physicist, educator, mineralogist and Romanian politician, pioneer of chemical education in Romania.

He followed the primary school in Tâgu-Frumos and then the Central Gymnasium in Iaşi (1852-1859). He received a scholarship in Paris specializing in physical chemistry and mineralogy at the College de France and the Sorbonne. Poni returned in Romania in 1865 and in 1866 he taught at the Military School of Sciences. In 1878 he became head of the Department of Chemistry at University of Iaşi, where he taught for 33 years. Here he founded: the first laboratory of Chemistry (1882) and the Department of Organic Chemistry (1891). In 1897, Petru Poni and Anastasia Obregia inaugurated in the new building of the University of Iaşi a chemistry laboratory, after the German model. In 1903 Prof. Petru Poni introduced a new course, The chemical study of the oil.

In June 30, 1879 he was elected member of the Romanian Academy and in 1889 he was appointed Commissioner of the Romanian government at the Universal Exhibition in Paris. He collaborated on the establishment of scientific societies in Romania: the Romanian Society of Sciences (1890), the Society of Sciences (1900), and was a member of the Society of Natural Sciences in Moscow (1910).

Petru Poni is noted as one of the prominent members of the National Liberal Party (PNL). He was elected several times as deputy or senator. He also served as mayor of Iaşi in 1907 and 1922. He served three times as Minister of Religious Affairs and Education (July 21 to November 26, 1891, October 4, 1895 - November 21, 1896; October 24 to November 29, 1918).

He studied over 80 minerals collected from various parts of the country and even discovered two minerals he called Broştenite and Badenite. Petru Poni studied the action of nitric acid of various concentrations on paraffinic hydrocarbons isolated in indigenous oil. He studied the country's mineral waters and made meteorological observations in Moldova. He was one of the pioneers of Romanian Chemistry is considered the founder of the Romanian school of Chemistry. Currently, the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry of the Romanian Academy bears his name.

Most expensive newspaper copy

According to World Records Academy, the world record for the most expensive newspaper copy in the world belongs to a Romanian newspaper, Zimbrulu şi Vulturulu (The Auroch and the Eagle), printed in Iaşi on November 11, 1858. The newspaper was exposed in the World Philatelic Exhibition EFIRO 2008, in Bucharest, Romania. It returned home in Romania after more than 2 years in London, in a British collection, and dozens of other years in a bank in Switzerland.

The copy was bought by Joseph Hackmey, a famous art collector, at an auction held in Geneva by the "David Feldman" auction house. The piece had a starting price of 500.000 Euro and was sold for 700.000 Euro. With fees and commissions involved, the final price reached 829.500 Euros.

It has become the most valuable copy of a newspaper and the most precious philatelic piece (it is also a collection of postal marks) from a random happening - as the Romanian Post representatives said. The famous copy was sent in November 1858 with destination Galaţi. Because the package was weighting very much, on the copy were applied 8 postal marks Auroch Head (Cap de Bour), one of the most rare and appreciated stamp. It was franked with eight 5 Parale (coins) First Printing Cap de Bour, comprising a quarter of the 32 known used pieces on bluish paper. This is the most famous set of stamps and postal marks applied on a correspondence. At Galaţi it was sold to a bookseller and collector of stamps.

The longest romantic poem

A young poet from Iaşi, Cristian Bodnărescu, shot down the world record at... poem, composing the longest romantic poem of universal literature. Cristian is a journalist with studies in philosophy, and this is his first appearance in the sphere of literature.


The previous record was held until recently by a 126 years old poem, also Romanian: "Evening Star" by Mihai Eminescu, recognized in 2009 by the World Record Academy in Miami, as the longest poem, with 91 quatrains and 364 stanzas of verse.

The poem "She Demon" is, besides the world record of romantic poetry, "an original artistic work, a penetration of the demonic spirit world, an attempt to get starting finding a truth. The poem is apparently influenced by romanticism, but dominant is the fabulous perpetuity", as stated professor Theodore Teo-Marsalcovschi.

Cristian Bodnărescu's poem, of 109 quatrains, will appear in volume in early October, at "Renaissance Publishing House" in Bucharest. Now some details still to be added to the final form of poems and the translations in English, to be approved by the World Record Academy.

The Palace of Culture in Iaşi

The Palace of Culture (Romanian: Palatul Culturii) is one of the largest buildings of Romania, located in the city of Iaşi, Northeastern Romania. The Palace of Culture in Iaşi is the main attraction point of the Moldavian capital. We can’t even imagine a touristic folder without the image of the famous building that shelters four museums, The Moldavian Museum of History, The Moldavian Museum of Ethnography, The Museum of Art, “Ştefan Procopiu” Museum of Science and Technology, and “Gheorghe Asachi” County Library in the North-East side of the building.


The Palace was partly built on top of the ruins of the medieval princely courts, mentioned in a document of 1434, and partly on top of the foundations of the former (neoclassical) palace, dated to the time of ruling prince Alexandru Moruzzi (1806-1812), rebuilt by ruling prince Mihail Sturza (1841-1843) and finally demolished in 1904. It was from this later building that the Palace inherited the legend of the 365 rooms, as many as the days within one year. Actually, the palace counts 298 rooms and has a total room surface of about 36000 m².


The edifice was built between 1906 and 1925, it is designed in flamboyant neo-Gothic style, and is the most outstanding work of Romanian architect I.D. Berindei. In 1926 the Palace of Culture was opened by Ferdinand of Hohenzollern, the second king of modern Romania. During World War II, the Palace sheltered German troops, and then Soviet troops. Until 1955, the building housed the County Law Court, which had the furniture ordered from “Maple House” in London. Between 1975 and 1977 the wood bridging from the last floor was replaced with a cement one, fixed with steel netting. The new bridging sustained the monument during the earthquake of 1977, but the bridging from the first floor, the walls, the ornaments and the relief works were affected. Unfortunately, the consolidation and renovation works are not finished yet.


The entrance of the palace is through a great donjon tower, with crenels and alcoves dominated by an eagle with open wings. In the tower there is also a carillon clock that has an eight bells assembly that reproduces “Hora Unirii” (Hora of the Union) song every hour. In spite of its archaic-looking design, the Palace was designed so to integrate modern materials and technologies. Thus, the stone blocks were replaced with light and much cheaper materials. Besides, some rooms were decorated using a special material licensed by Henri Coanda, under the name of bois-ciment and imitating the oak wood. Decorative ironmongery elements are also remarkable and they can be admired for instance on the doors of the Voivodes’ Hall. The building was also equipped with high-tech facilities for those times, such as electric lighting, (pneumatic) heating, ventilation system, thermostat, vacuum cleaners, which were all directed from the machinery room, at the underground level. Taking also into account the 14 fires that affected the previous buildings, Berindei treated the wooden structure of the attic with an ignifugeous product called orniton, while for the roof he used a special material, named eternite.


The Moldavian History Museum is located at the ground floor, in the West side, being the continue of the Antiquity Museum founded by Orest Tafrali in 1916. It has four sections, prehistory and ancient history, medieval history, modern history and contemporary history, presenting the main aspects of the development of the communities in the area from the Paleolithic time to the World War II.


The Moldavian Museum of Ethnography was founded in 1943, being located in the West side of the Palace, at the first and the second floor. One can admire here the objects used by the inhabitants of Moldavia in their every day activities: in agriculture, viticulture, raising animals, fishing, hunting, apiculture. One can also see interiors of peasant houses, devices used for pottery, weaving, wood processing, mask collections, traditional costumes. Many of these exhibits have more than 100 years old.


The Museum of Art is at first floor and it continues the oldest pinacoteque in the country that existed along with the first modern Romanian university of 1860. The Museum of Art has 24 rooms for permanent exhibitions, arranged in three galleries (universal art gallery, Romanian modern art gallery and contemporary art gallery) and has in its artistic patrimony over 6 000 works, among which almost 2500 are graphic works and 470 are sculptures.


The Museum of Science and Technology is located on the ground floor of the Palace, in the East side, and is named after the great savant from Iaşi, Ştefan Procopiu. Founded in 1955, the museum has four sections: energetic, telecommunications, mineralogy – crystallography, recording and replaying of sounds. The foundation of a section that comprises a collection of computers is also under discussion.

Besides the four museums, The Palace of Culture presents some other attraction points. One of them is the Gothic Room, where can be admired the mosaic that presents a medieval “bestiarum” (gryphons, bicephalous eagles, lions). There is also the Voivodes' Room, located at first floor, where there are the portraits of Moldavia’s rulers and Romania’s kings, starting with Decebal and Traian, paintings made by Ştefan Dimitrescu and his students. Then there is „Henri Coandă” Room, which was named after the carvings and relief works made by the famous Romanian inventor of a cement invented by him. On the right there is the “Turnul de Strajă” (the Watch Tower), reminiscence of the Royal Court of Iaşi, along with the galleries underneath the court of the palace. On the left there is a collection of capitals and other stone architectonic elements grouped in a lapidarium. The hall is superposed by a glass ceiling room, where initially a greenhouse was arranged. In front of the the palace there is the equestrian statue of Stephen the Great, framed by two Krupp cannons, trophies from the Independence War.

Here you can see some panoramas.