In the middle of July, after months of postponement and
tergiversation, after I eummaged through promises which is soothing my brain I
am always keen on hiking, I decided to leave behind the hotness of the city and
lose myself through the cool forest clearing. And not any wood – but the middle of the forest, near the
village of the most famous Moldavian fabulist: Alecu Donici. One of his amusing
fable „The surplice of Arvinte” („Antereul lui Arvinte”), I heard from my
mother when I was 10 years old.
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| „Alexandru Donici” |
I arrived to the house of Donici directly from the
forest, after an 8 km hike from the Monastery Curchi. The path Ie came to
turned into a country road, then right into an asphalt road that took me right
in the middle of the village, in front of the beautiful church founded by the
old Donici boyar family. Before to enter n this building, I hoveredabout
wondering bythe beauty and the
complexity of the architecture, the building elements that increase its
originality and the fine taste of those who built the church. If I had a hat, I
would take it down with admiration.
From the priest in the village I find out that the
little church was built by Donici family as a family chapel, like a modest prayer
room according to the intimacy of these boyar intellectuals. The foundations of
the beautiful edifice were laid by Dimitrache and Elena Donici, parents of the
future fabulist Alecu Donici. But the construction itself was erected by their
children, following the model of a St. Petersburg cathedral designed by the
architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli. In this chapter, however, there is a
bit of information chaos, because it is said that, in fact, the Curchi
monastery was built in accordance with Rastrelli's model. The church of Donici
family was erected and received the dedication of the Assumption of the Virgin
Mary, and in the same courtyard the belfry was digged a tomb and nowadays
shelters the graves oftose wh built the church and are part of the family. Here
are buried Dimitrache Donici and Elena Donici
(Lambrino) – the parents of Alecu, one of there son, named Andrew with his wife and his
son.
The church and the belfry is situated on a high place, a kind of hill which like
this is named – Hill of the Church – from which a picturesque panorama over the
whole village and the forests that continue beyond the lake founded on the
Bezin stream opens to the view. Near of the church is the home of the Donici
boyars and the place where born the fabulist himself. It is more commanding
than the houses of peasants of those
times, but quite modest compared to the manors of the aristocracy from us.
This house became museum in 1976, at 170 years from
the birth of the fabulist and was named „Alexandru Donici” – a small trace on
the dear memory of this man who all his life replied to the name „Alecu”. He was
the first of the four boys of the clucher (high official which dealing with the supply of the Royal
Court), and probably in his childhood run barefoot on the street which
connected his church house, as I did 200 years later. Unfortunately, Alecu
Donici didn't spend too much time in his parents' country house. In 1825 he
went to study in city Sankt Petersbourg, and in the same year his father died by tuberculosis. In 1825 Alecu Donici
was sent like a second lieutenant in the regiment Ekateringburg in the South of
Bessarabia. One year later he asked to be released from military service, settling
in Chisinau with his family, moved here 4 years ealier, investing his energy in
social causes (fighting the plague epidemic in Bessarabia, being a member of
the Ciuciuleni commission. During his time as an adviser on behalf of the
nobility in the regional court of conscience in Chisinau, he was also noted as
a translator of the stories of I. Kralov and of the poem „Gypsies” by A. Puskin
(A. Hajdeu mentioned in the article "Literar Bessarabians" published
in the magazine „Teleskop”. The year 1836 found him moved to Iasi and married
Maria, the daughter of Costache Rosseti-Balanescu. In the year 1839 start to
write and publish fable and till the end of the life, carrying on in parallel
the activity of lawyer and magistrate.
The memorial house in the village of Donici preserves
his works, collections, writings and all the evidence attesting to the great
literary activity of the fabulist, which was extinguished in the city of
Piatra-Neamț (Romania), on October 20, 1865. I admire the bust of the
fabulist, the park from the park in front of the house, the small lake and the
water lilies. Some also mention the existence of a spacious cellar, destroyd in
soviet time and th and the presence of a vegetable garden belonging to the
Donici boyar whose irrigation was done through a spring called Stânca (Rock). Under
this name was known the place where the Donici boyars house was in the past,
being mentioned in the sources of the time as one of the estates of the noble
Dumitrache. Sometime later the settlement was called Bezin, then renamed
Donici, in honor of the great fabulist. The historical sources attest that
around it were the estates that belonged to this family: the village of
Teleșeu, which in 1774 belonged to the backrest Constantin Donici, probably
Alecu's grandfather. The estate passed in the years 1789-1862 under the control
of the boyard Vasile Cristi, whose last heir, Vladimir Cristi, was an illustrious
politician and a great viticulturist, being the first to bring the vineyard „sauvignion” in Bessarabia and the first to produce sparkling wine on
these lands. The Cristi family left behind a mansion, but which is now in a
state of degradation.
Another estate owned by the Donici family is the
locality of Camencea, of which Nicolae Iorga mentioned in „Studies and
documents regarding the History of Romanians” (Vol. XVI. Bucharest, 1909) that it belonged to 1803 Catrinei
Donicioae. In 1821 the documents mention about a certain Andrei Donici, who at
his expense erects a stone church. Another Andrei Donici, probably the son, is
mentioned in 1861 as having land in Camencea, and in Rock. The next generation,
represented by the nobleman Nicolae Donici, sells part of the estate to a
certain Teodor Șerban. Nicolae Donici had borrowed from a bank in Herson 29,000
rub. and, not repaying the amount on time, it was forced to sell 1,196 land
deserts, including 483 forest deserts.
Unfortunately, today nothing is known about the
descendants of this generation of Bessarabian intellectuals and boyars. The
fabulist's two sons, taken to Paris by their father, probably founded their
families there. It is said that in Piatra Neamț a great-great-granddaughter of
Alecu Donici would live, but the rest of the noble vine that started from Orhei
county did not withstand the trainer of history, it had been crushed somewhere
in the past, leaving us a beautiful home with a legacy porcupine in the middle
of Donici village. And many fables whose satire is also mirrored by today's
reality.
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