Copou Park

Copou Park lies on Copou hill, at Bulevardul Carol I no. 31, and is the oldest public park in Iași. The idea of a public garden was already in the plans of the town's Eforia in 1833, and the decision to create it was taken by Prince Mihail Sturdza; work began in 1833-1834. In 1835 the Catholic Church donated about 11,700 square metres of land, and the municipality then bought neighbouring plots, so that by 1852 the garden covered about 19 hectares. Today the park covers about 10 hectares and is maintained by the municipal company Servicii Publice Iași. At the centre of the park stands the Lions' Obelisk (Obeliscul cu lei), 13.5 metres high, dedicated to the Organic Regulation and known in the twentieth century as the "Monument of the Organic Regulation". The foundation stone was laid on 8 November 1834, and the monument was completed by 1841 to plans by Gheorghe Asachi, in Șcheia stone carved by Polish sculptors and paid for by public subscription (2,225 gold coins). During the Second World War, Soviet troops destroyed the inscriptions and the coats of arms of Moldavia and of the Sturdza family on the obelisk. It is a listed historic monument, LMI code IS-III-m-B-04290. Next to the obelisk grows Eminescu's Linden, a silver linden (Tilia tomentosa) associated with the poet, who is said to have often sat beneath it during his years in Iași. Its age is estimated at about 458 years in the records of the Iași Environmental Protection Agency and at about 540 years in a 2013 study. A storm on 4 August 1950 broke its main leader, and the tree was treated in 1953, around 1990 and in 2014; the trunk is hollow, but the linden survives thanks to adventitious roots that have grown down through it. It is a protected tree under Iași County Council decision no. 8/1994. Beyond the obelisk and the linden runs the Junimea Alley (Aleea Junimii), with busts of Mihai Eminescu and Ion Creangă facing each other, Veronica Micle, Costache Negruzzi, Iacob Negruzzi, Nicolae Gane, Barbu Ștefănescu-Delavrancea and other writers and artists. In March 2013 the busts of Ciprian Porumbescu, Nicolae Gane and Barbu Ștefănescu-Delavrancea were stolen and were replaced with reproductions in 2014. The park also houses the Mihai Eminescu Museum, opened on 15 June 1989, the centenary of the poet's death, in a building designed by the architect Virgiliu Onofrei. The parachute tower stands just south of the park, and the Botanical Garden lies about 1 km to the north-west.