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The Cantacuzino-Pașcanu Palace, historical monument, is situated on the ancient street in Iași, St. Ilie, the current Vasile Alecsandri Street and was the residence of the families with the same name, for almost a century.
The building was constructed in 1780, on the place of princess Ruxandra’s house, the daughter of Prince Vasile Lupu (1634-1653). Ruxandra lived for a while at the Istanbul Seraglio, where she served the mother-sultan Kiosem, and in 1652 she married Timuș, the son of Ukraine’s hetman Bogdan Hmelnițki. The marriage lasted for only one year, because Timuș was killed in the battle from Suceava fortress in 1653. During the invasion of Moldavia by the troops of the Polish King, Ioan Sobieski, princess Ruxandra retired into Neamț Fortress, where she was cruelly killed afterwards, as revenge, by the Kazaks.
Since 1912, the City Hall moved its headquarters in this palace’s building, after several years of negotiation between the mayor of the time, Nicolae Gane, and the two owners, brothers Alexandru and Constantin Cantacuzino. The modification plans of the building’s ground floor in order to set the institution’s offices were made by architect Nicolae Ghica-Budești, a promoter of national specific features. Beginning with 1970, the City Hall settled its residence at the Roznovanu Palace, on Ștefan cel Mare Boulevard. After the City Hall’s movement, in the Cantacuzino-Pașcanu Palace, the editorial office of “Flacăra Iașului”, “Convorbiri literare”, “Opinia” newspapers and of “Cronica” magazine worked here. Only since 2005, the Palace has become the residence of the Iași Registry Office.
The edifice, conceived as a boyar palace with brick arches and vaults, is comprised of ground and first floor. Inside we can notice the stairway which connects the levels, and on the ground floor, the rooms can be remarked through the “Avella” vaults and the cylindric brick vaults. In the garden from in front of the building, in 1970, the bust of Dimitrie Cantemir was installed, one of the greatest Romanian scholars and Prince of Moldavia (1693, 1710-1711).
The Cantacuzino-Pașcanu Palace was one of the richest palaces of the former centuries, and remained almost unchanged until today, although a complete modification was desired many times. The couples of Iași begin their marriages here, fact which offers the Iași Register Office a romantic air, along with the historical one. Nowadays, ladies come out on the main entrance, holding the hand of their beloved, in the cheering and applauses of their close ones. The present ones make a flower bridge and throw rice at the grooms, an old habit meaning a prosperous and rich life, as well as fertility.
Dimitrie Cantemir (1673-1723)
Dimitrie Cantemir was an early prince of Moldavia, great scholar of universal position, author of “Descriptio Moldaviae” and “The Chronicle of Roman-Moldavian-Wallachian Old Times” and composer of Ottoman music. He spent his teenage life in Istanbul as a warranty of his father’s, Constantin, ruling. In 1710, he made a secret anti-Ottoman alliance with Tsar Peter the Great, whom he received in Iași on the 23rd of June 1711. After the last battle of Stănilești in the same year, he was forced to exile himself in Russia, where he became counsellor of the tsar. After a long wandering, his bones were sent into the country in 1935 and settled at the Three Hierarchs Monastery. Apparently, he lived for a while in the houses of princess Ruxandra, on the current place of the Iași Registry Office, in the yard of which a bust of his was built in 1970.
2. Grand Hôtel Traian