„Veronica Micle” Memorial House, Târgu Neamț

The memorial house stands at 33 Ștefan cel Mare Street in the town of Târgu Neamț. It is a 19th-century house with four rooms, nine windows, six doors and three stoves, with outbuildings: a well, a cellar, a stable and a barn. The building was put up in 1834 at the initiative of Neamț Monastery as a dependency and school for monks. In the summer of 1850 it was sold for 100 gold coins to Ana Câmpeanu, Veronica Micle's mother. The family moved to Iași in 1853, but the house stayed in Ana's ownership, and she gave it to her daughter as a dowry after her marriage to the professor Ștefan Micle in August 1864. During her summers here, Veronica Micle held literary evenings in the salon, attended by Mihai Eminescu after his return from Berlin in 1874. After the poet's death in 1889 the house was sold, and most of the family's belongings were lost. It was declared a historic monument in 1934, and in 1939 Nicolae Iorga stepped in to save it from possible demolition. In 1982 the building was taken over by the Neamț Museum Complex, which set up the memorial house. The permanent exhibition, last reorganised in 2010 for the 160th anniversary of the poet's birth, fills three rooms. The first covers Veronica Micle's life, her relationship with Eminescu, accounts by her contemporaries and the critical reception of her work. The second has 19th-century furniture, the Micle family's travel trunk and period clothing, and the third the desk at which she wrote letters and poems dedicated to Eminescu. Photographs, facsimiles and 19th-century prints are also on display. The building is a listed historic monument, LMI code NT-IV-m-B-10769. The memorial house belongs to the Neamț National Museum Complex, under the Neamț County Council.