Iulia Hasdeu Castle

Iulia Hasdeu Castle stands at 199 Carol I Boulevard in the city of Câmpina, Prahova County. It was built in 1893-1896 by the philologist, historian and writer Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu (1838-1907), to his own plans, in memory of his only daughter. Iulia Hasdeu (1869-1888) had studied in Paris, where from 1886 she attended the Faculty of Letters of the Sorbonne and the École des Hautes Études, and had written poetry and prose in French, published posthumously by her father. She died of tuberculosis on 29 September 1888, aged 18. After his daughter's death Hasdeu turned to spiritism and claimed that Iulia had passed the plans of the building to him during séances. The first sketch of the castle, drawn by Hasdeu, is on a page of a spiritist manuscript dated 3 September 1893. He also raised Iulia's funerary monument in Bellu Cemetery in Bucharest, decorated with symbols linked to the same beliefs. Hasdeu died in Câmpina in August 1907. The building, which already needed repairs during Hasdeu's lifetime, was damaged in the First World War; in 1924 the „B. P. Hasdeu” People's Athenaeum of Câmpina took over its restoration. After further damage in the Second World War it was entered on the List of Historic Monuments in 1955 (LMI code PH-II-m-A-16395). It was restored in 1962-1964, and on 9 April 1965 the B. P. Hasdeu Memorial Museum, organised by the history teacher Nicolae Simache, opened here. Damaged by the earthquake of 4 March 1977, the castle went through a long series of consolidation works; the museum partly reopened on 17 June 1994 and fully on 25 February 1995. The museum, run by the Câmpina city hall, displays about 300 exhibits: family portraits and photographs, documents, manuscripts, furniture, first editions of the works of B. P. Hasdeu and Iulia, Hasdeu's sketches for the castle, and paintings by Sava Henția, Nicolae Grigorescu, G. D. Mirea and Diogène Maillart. The rooms include Hasdeu's study, the room dedicated to Iulia, with her Carrara marble bust made by Ioan Georgescu in 1890, and the tallest tower, called „the Temple”, with a statue of Jesus carved by Raphael Casciani. The courtyard holds a bust of the scholar from 1937, also a listed monument.