Enescu House, Mihaileni, Botosani County

The house belonged to the family of Enescu’s mother, Maria Cosmovici, and was built by her parents, priest Ioan Cosmovici and his wife Zenovia. To this day, we have an impressive amount of letters written by George Enescu to his mother, who had retired at the house at Mihaileni towards the end of her life. The composer’s holidays were split between his native home in Liveni and the house at Mihaileni. It was here that Enescu composed his Symphony for cello and orchestra op. 8 in november 1901, the lieder “Plugar” and “Die Nächtliche Heerschau”. The house follows the ethnographic characteristics of the area. It is a dwelling for one family, with a characteristic sobriety and symmetry. While still uncertain, it was apparently built between 1775 and 1830. Mihaileni is on the border with Ukraine, 5 km away from the customs in Siret, Botosani county. It was established through a lordly charter in 1838 as a market town on the border, shortly turning prosperous and with a rich cultural life. An old school, built in 1850 by Mihai Voda Sturdza, and the St. Nicholas church founded by Mihai Voda Sturdza between 1839 and 1842 are also to be found in this location. The house is in a state of pre-collapse due to the lack of interventions for an extended period of time and to the fact that the bearing elements have yielded (the porch over the cellar is rotten and broken, several parts of the outer masonry on the western, eastern and northern sides are cracked and collapsed, the framework for the roof is fractured due to the way the walls deformed, and important parts of it are rotten on the northern side, etc). The architectural value of the building is not diminished in the least by these important physical degradations. The house remains just as interesting from an architectural point of view: the existence of the two fireplaces between rooms, the floor plan and the functionality of the house represent reference points which justify its preservation even if it did not have memorial value. The value of the house is indestructibly connected to the surrounding terrain; the environment and the landscape cannot be neglected in our appreciation of its architecture. For this reason, it is impossible to even consider rebuilding this house on a different site. The Chamber of Architects Bucharest and Nord-Est branches and Pro Patrimonio Foundation have protect the house in order to prevent the collaps, preparing the restoration works.