The beautiful building of the "George Enescu" Museum, previously known as the Cantacuzino Palace, was built between 1896 and 1900 in the French Baroque style, being designed by the architect I. Berindei.
The building, with a richly decorated facade, where the central element is the entrance guarded by the statues of two lions, has four floors. Inside, the interior spaces are marked by the main hall on the ground floor, with its ceiling painted by the artists Vaumont and Mirea.
Maruca Cantacuzino, the daughter of Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino, an important politician and landowner, was the owner of the house. Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino was the leader of the Conservative Party and held the positions of minister and prime minister between 1904 and 1907. Due to his immense wealth, he was known as the Nababul. After her husband's death in 1929, Maruca remarried the famous composer George Enescu.
Despite the adversities and repressions suffered, the Cantacuzino family becomes extremely famous and influential, especially in the period 1630-1716.
The ancestor of the family, Mihai (Șeitanoglu), a prosperous Greek merchant from Antioch, known as a leader of the Greek community, was able, thanks to his wealth, to offer the sultan 15 new ships in 1571. He met his end by being strangled in his own palace.
Constantin, the youngest of the 8 children of Andronicus (son of Mihai, supporter of the return to the reign of Mihai the Brave), settles in Wallachia and joins the noble landowners. He becomes a close relative of Matei Basarab, who marries him to Elina, a close relative. Although the most influential figure in the political landscape of the boyars of Muntenia, he was assassinated by order of the ruler Gr. Ghica, leaving behind 12 children. The considerable number of descendants of the Cantacuzino family explains, in part, the extensive spread of this name in Romanian countries.
Şerban Cantacuzino, who became ruler, aims to establish a Western-type feudal system, consolidated from a political point of view, with the objectives of both union with Moldova and independence from the Porta. He supports, with his own financial resources, the translation and printing of the Bible in Romanian, a monumental work of particular importance for the evolution of the literary language. In the preface written by Dosoftei, the patriarch of Jerusalem, Şerban Vodă is compared to bishop Ulfila, the convert of the Gothic people to Christianity.
Stolnic Constantin Cantacuzino, a political figure and historian with a modern orientation and humanistic concerns, writes a history of Romania in which, by using original sources, he supports the ethnic and linguistic solidarity of Romanians from the three provinces. He mentions that the term Romanians includes not only the inhabitants here, but also those from Transylvania and Moldova. Skillfully using the method of comparative history, he proudly emphasizes the active role of the Romanians in opposition to the Ottoman expansions. During his studies in Padua, he made the first geobotanical map of Romania in 1700.
Starting with 1955, the old Cantacuzino mansion becomes the place where the Composers' Union and the "George Enescu" museum are based. Various exhibits related to the life and work of the illustrious Romanian composer are presented here, including paintings, busts, photographs, original scores, manuscripts and documents.
George Enescu (1881-1955), an eminent composer, violin and piano virtuoso, as well as a talented conductor, was among the most distinguished musicians of the first half of the 20th century. Inspired by the affection for the people in whose midst he perfected his art and whose feeling he identified with, Enescu created compositions with a strong popular and national touch, contributing to the affirmation of Romanian symphonic music in the sphere of universal musical values. In addition to his contributions as a composer, Enescu was also recognized as an outstanding conductor. As an educator, he mentored and trained many renowned musicians, including Dinu Lipatti, Yehudi Menuhin, Ida Hendel and others.
Through his work and his artistic contribution, Enescu becomes one of the most important personalities in the context of Romanian culture. In his memory, the Romanian government organizes the George Enescu International Festival in Bucharest, a tradition started in 1958 and repeated every three years.
Source: Bucharest, the capital of RSR (Ministry of Tourism, 1976)
