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The Copou Park or Copou Gardens is the oldest public park in Iaşi,
Beginning with the mid-19th century, Copou's new green spaces became a favourite destination for local gentry and aristocracy, prompting the city's more modest families to avoid the area for fear of exposing themselves to dandyish sarcasm. Usual visitors included persons such as Aglaia Moruzzi (notorious for her annual Copou festivities), Marghiolița Rosetti Rosnovanu, Leon Bogdan, Natalia and Elena Suțu, Maria Catargi or Dimitrie Mavrocordat. The fashionable crowd of Moldavia's capital are known to have used their Copou excursions to engage in displays of social cohesion and play: "replacing their drawing rooms, the aristocratic Copou took on all of the functions of sociability, becoming an enormous public salon". The memories of Alecu Russo confirm the tableaux: "Copou is the theatre where young men make their worldly debut, all melancholy and laid back in their carriages, the usual cigarette hanging from the corner of their mouths ... Copou is also a scene that our ladies like to use, big and small, young and old, ugly or beautiful, to compete for brightness in their eye-catching outfits".
Jeffrey Gorney wrote similarly of Copou Park in his 2014 memories, describing it as "green and gracious ... where Great-Uncle Victor ran a beer garden; where my grandparents and their friends came to see and be seen; where strings of bulbs lit up the night with gaiety; and where wine and beer flowed freely and laughter peeled to the sound of violins and concertinas".
"Scrisoare către autorități"
Jurnalul regional TVR Iași. 'Avem tei argintii'. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSvtDH9KmNo, accessed 18 May 2016.
File:Copou Park (1857 sketch).jpg, Historical map of Copou Park (1857)
File:Mihai Eminescu's bust in Copou Garden 2.jpg, The Obelisk of Lions in Copou Park
File:Parcul Copou (Festivalul Luminii, 2016).jpg, "Light Festival" in Copou Park (May 2016)
File:Iaşi , „Mihai Eminescu“ Museum.JPG, "Mihai Eminescu" Museum in Copou Park
File:Parcul Copou (intrarea principala).jpg, Main entrance in Copou Park
3D Panoramic Navigation, Copou Park
(Google Street View). {{Iași Landmarks Parks in Iași 1834 establishments in the Ottoman Empire 19th-century establishments in Moldavia 1834 establishments in Romania
The Copou Park or Copou Gardens is the oldest public park in Iaşi, Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
. Its development started in 1834 under the reign of Mihail Sturdza
Mihail Sturdza (24 April 1794, Iași – 8 May 1884, Paris), sometimes anglicized as Michael Stourdza, was prince of Moldavia from 1834 to 1849. He was cousin of Roxandra Sturdza and Alexandru Sturdza.
Biography
He was son of Grigore Sturdza, s ...
, making the park one of the first public gardens in Romania and a Iaşi landmark. In its centre lies the Obelisk of Lions (1834), a tall obelisk
An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by An ...
dedicated to Regulamentul Organic
''Regulamentul Organic'' (, Organic Regulation; french: Règlement Organique; russian: Органический регламент, Organichesky reglament)The name also has plural versions in all languages concerned, referring to the dual na ...
, the first law on political, administrative and juridical organization in the Romanian Principalities.
Other landmarks include Eminescu's Linden Tree
Eminescu's Linden Tree ( ro, Teiul lui Eminescu) is a 500-year-old silver lime (''Tilia tomentosa Moench'') in Copou Park, Iași, Romania.
Mihai Eminescu reportedly wrote some of his best works underneath this lime, rendering the tree one of Ro ...
, the Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu (; born Mihail Eminovici; 15 January 1850 – 15 June 1889) was a Romanian Romantic poet from Moldavia, novelist, and journalist, generally regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active memb ...
Museum and the Junimea
''Junimea'' was a Romanian literary society founded in Iași in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi. The foremost pers ...
Alley. The gardens are a popular destination for tourists and locals, as well as a favourite location for poetry festivals, photography exhibitions and art and craft fairs.
The park covers approximately 10 hectares (down from 19 hectares at the height of its late-19th century development) and has been described as one of the most beautiful public gardens in Moldavia.Ionel Lupu. ''Parcul Copou: Studiu Dendrologic. Cu note consultative privitoare la proiectul edilitar de "Reabilitare si Restaurare a Gradinii Copou din Municipiul Iasi"''. Septembrie-noiembrie 2014. Manuscris disponibil in Arhivele Asociației Dendro-Ornamentale "Anastasie Fătu" Iași, p. 1.Ciubotaru, M. Grădinile publice din Iași în secolul al XIX-lea. Grădina Publică din Copou. Colecția Monumentul XVI. Muzeul Național Moldova / Ministerul Culturii. Editura Palatul Culturii, 2015, pp. 400-402.
History
Beginning with the mid-19th century, Copou's new green spaces became a favourite destination for local gentry and aristocracy, prompting the city's more modest families to avoid the area for fear of exposing themselves to dandyish sarcasm. Usual visitors included persons such as Aglaia Moruzzi (notorious for her annual Copou festivities), Marghiolița Rosetti Rosnovanu, Leon Bogdan, Natalia and Elena Suțu, Maria Catargi or Dimitrie Mavrocordat. The fashionable crowd of Moldavia's capital are known to have used their Copou excursions to engage in displays of social cohesion and play: "replacing their drawing rooms, the aristocratic Copou took on all of the functions of sociability, becoming an enormous public salon". The memories of Alecu Russo confirm the tableaux: "Copou is the theatre where young men make their worldly debut, all melancholy and laid back in their carriages, the usual cigarette hanging from the corner of their mouths ... Copou is also a scene that our ladies like to use, big and small, young and old, ugly or beautiful, to compete for brightness in their eye-catching outfits".
Jeffrey Gorney wrote similarly of Copou Park in his 2014 memories, describing it as "green and gracious ... where Great-Uncle Victor ran a beer garden; where my grandparents and their friends came to see and be seen; where strings of bulbs lit up the night with gaiety; and where wine and beer flowed freely and laughter peeled to the sound of violins and concertinas".
Current status
A social-anthropological pilot study done for the municipality in December 2013 found that for the modern visitor Copou Park had become a symbolic place: its secular trees, many of them limes, facilitated the expression of positive feelings towards the past, as well as of "incredulity, bitterness, alienation ... or aggressiveness" with regard to the local administration's controversial decision to replace (by felling) a linden tree alignment in the city centre with miniature Japanese shrubs (a decision later reversed, following a 2015 public referendum on the topic).Lupu. I., Munteanu, D., Dinga, A., Preda, O. 2015. ''Scrisoare Deschisă / Proiect Public. Argumentație în favoarea replantării de arbori din genul Tilia (tei) pe tronsonul pietonal și în zonele conexe ale Bulevardului Ștefan cel Mare și Sfânt din Iași'', p. 10. Disponibil la http://iasuliubesteteii.ro/, secțiunea "Proiectul", sub-secțiune"Scrisoare către autorități"
Jurnalul regional TVR Iași. 'Avem tei argintii'. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSvtDH9KmNo, accessed 18 May 2016.
Images
See also
* Botanical Garden of IaşiReferences
External links
3D Panoramic Navigation, Copou Park
(Google Street View). {{Iași Landmarks Parks in Iași 1834 establishments in the Ottoman Empire 19th-century establishments in Moldavia 1834 establishments in Romania