Constantin Gheorghe Costa-Foru (26 October 185615 August 1935) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n journalist, lawyer, and human rights activist. He was born in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

on 26 October 1856, in a wealthy family. His father, Gheorghe Costa-Foru (1820–1876), was a noted politician, twice minister, and the first rector of the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...

. The family had Aromanian origins, being originally from the city of

Larissa Larissa (; , , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 148,562 in the city proper, according to the 2021 census. It is also the capital of the Larissa ...

, in

Thessaly Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Aeolic Greek#Thessalian, Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic regions of Greece, geographic and modern administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient Thessaly, a ...

. In 1740 they had settled in Bucharest, where they amassed considerable wealth, building a mansion in Popești-Leordeni and summer residence was in Berca. Costa-Foru studied in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

, then at

Collège Sainte-Barbe The Collège Sainte-Barbe () is a former college in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. The Collège Sainte-Barbe was founded in 1460 on Montagne Sainte-Geneviève ( Latin Quarter, Paris). It was until its closure in June 1999 the "oldest ...

in Paris, and around 1872 in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

. After finishing his studies he returned to Paris, where he married with Maria Ion Paspatti (1872–1935) on 26 June 1893. The couple had 10 children. Constantin Costa-Foru was a vocal supporter of human rights, and accused the growing antisemitism in the post–

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Romania. On one occasion he was attacked and beaten by a band of extremists as a result of his public discourse. In 1923 he was one of the founders of the League for Human Rights, working as its secretary. As a lawyer he pleaded, in 1925 at Turnu-Severin, against nationalist Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, leader of the anti-Semite

Iron Guard The Iron Guard () was a Romanian militant revolutionary nationalism, revolutionary Clerical fascism, religious fascist Political movement, movement and political party founded in 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as the Legion of the Archangel M ...

, who had assassinated the

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect' ...

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...

. However, as a result of the powerful lobby of the nationalist organisation, Codreanu was ultimately acquitted. Another contribution was in defending the rebels of

Tatarbunary Uprising The Tatarbunary Uprising () was a Bolshevik-inspired and Soviet-backed peasant revolt that took place on 15–18 September 1924, in and around the town of Tatarbunary (''Tatar-Bunar'' or ''Tatarbunar'') in Budjak (Bessarabia), then part of King ...

during the famous 1925 "Trial of the 500". Costa-Foru was also one of the Romanian pioneers in the business of

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...

and oil exploration, contributing to the creation of the first Romanian Coal Company (1903). In memory of him and his father, two streets in Bucharest and one in Berca are named in their honor.

References

* . Realitatea Evreiască, 262-263. November 7, 2006. Accessed on 2010-08-24. *
Costa-Foru Family
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Costa-Foru, Constantin 1856 births 1935 deaths Lawyers from Bucharest People from the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia Romanian human rights activists Romanian journalists Romanian people of Aromanian descent Adevărul writers