The Mayor of Comanesti invites you to visit the gorgeous GHIKA Palace
Dear traveler,
We welcome you with great pleasure in Comănești,
our chic mountain town!
The magic of story places still irresistibly attracts us and fascinates our imagination, regardless of age, even in the present deeply technological age that we are living in. Castles and palaces remain the spaces where fantasy projects princes and princesses, aristocratic and lazy afternoons, caressed by the music of a piano, or the sumptuous balls, at which the coat of arms holders participated. Salon discussions and the spice of alcove deeply impregnated in the walls of these places, which not infrequently, have witnessed some
decisive moments in our history. Passionate about history or not, we seek to materialize fairy tales by traveling on
The Loire Valley or the Rhine, but we often ignore the treasures which are next to us, the Romanian buildings. In these constructions, decisions were made in the boyar domains of the Romanian territory,
which were decisive for the destinies of our country. Ghika Comanesti Castle is no exception.
Our exercise of imagination begins in 1890, when, as any important boyar family, Ghiculeștii, the owners of
a vast expanse of lands and forests, commanded the construction of this palace, a modern building according to the rules of the epochs. With a natural setting provided by the picturesque valley,
Dimitrie N. Ghika, a famous politician and explorer, wanted a summer residence in which the family would retire
from the dust and heat of Bucharest. Being one of the most richest and original Romanians of his time, Dimitrie N. Ghika did not discount quality and small eccentricities, in order to bring in the distant Comănești pieces of Belle Époque European fashion, without tarnishing the authenticity of the place.
This construction was going to go down in history , and was designed by a famous architect, the Frenchman Albert Galleron, who had designed the Romanian Athenaeum and the National Bank building of Romania, and who at the time was contracted by Dimitrie N. Ghika . From this happy and inspired collaboration,the soul of the community was born, a place around which many generations and stories would gravitate.
The Italian specialists who worked according to Galleron’s sketches, completed a built-up area of 2,550 square meters, with 22 rooms, which could be reached from the garden, up on the stone stairs, leading to the entrance guarded by two massive columns, which support the loggia from the floor. In the generous anteroom, which is still waiting to be explored and discovered, guests were greeted by impressive hunting trophies, brought by a family of explorers from different exotic corners of the world, but also from the surrounding forests. It is not difficult to imagine the astonishment produced by the unique huge head of elk in the central hall, an unnatural image in this corner of Moldova, fortunately preserved until today.
The beautiful terracotta fireplace has been preserved to this day, which also dates back from the time of the Ghika family.
As a natural continuation, the steps lead the visitor to the rooms arranged in a disciplined way, on either side of the corridors and corridors haunted by penumbra, rooms which give way to the splendid view of the park. Places where “gentlemen” of the house did their calculations, studied or set up the country, they presented themselves as balanced spaces decorated between traditional and modern. The pearl of the palace was, as today, the living room, a beautiful room, dominated by marble columns in which, if you are careful and open, it seems that you can still hear the piano chords and echoes of porcelain sounds, from the tea time.
The tall, bright windows of the room reveal panorama of the mountains, and the ceiling with stucco, in the form of
floral ornaments, impressed aesthetically even the unadvised eyes. The library, surviving to this day,
was, in the interwar period, the framework of sociocultural approaches that Princess Ioana Ghika coordinated,
together with the young women from the place.
Upstairs you enter through an elegant and imposing solid wood staircase, preserved
so far, and find the enthroned chandelier which was brought from Nicolae Ghika’s castle
from Dofteana. The game of shadows has taken place due to the presence of Venetian mirrors and vertical stained glass, of which only one has been preserved on the upper parts. Fragments of
these stained glass windows are enough for us to imagine a summer morning at the palace, a moment
in which the light borrows from the colors of the glass transpire us to a space filled with the joy of the beginning of the day.
This imaginary pilgrimage reveals the secret of the original interiors, furnished with distinction in
the spirit of the age and storage of an archaic perfume, rare books, decorative and plastic works of art,
but also objects of great ethnographic interest.
The building has been brought to its full form through the two balconies located on the facade.
From the front balcony, opened but bordered by a railing of pillars, behind which large windows allow access, many pairs of curious eyes looked, at scenes unfolding in the beautiful gardens of the palace. Ionic-style columns, have supported a small pediment on which was the coat of arms, supporting many members of the Ghika family, at various times of their existence.
.
The beauty of the whole ensemble was joined by the vast and charming park around the building. In our journey, we must not forget that this family was recognized as passionate about exotic places and artifacts from the cultural area, zoological or botanical. Abundance and a variety of vegetation, which covered an area of 11 hectares, impressed important, daring guests, otherwise accustomed to imposing places in Romania and Europe. Orangery, lakes, and waterfalls, which island the pavilions lost among the lush greenery, and floral scents, created a surprise setting, which could rarely have been found in a beautiful, less urban spectacular , but authentic Romanian province.
The legends of the place speak of the underground passages located under the castle, meant, it seems, to make the connection between the castle and the train station across the road. Whole generations have been fascinated by
the existence of the mysterious tunnel. Many were born around these legends, and many children, but also grown ups have tried to unravel the mysteries. What is certain is that this tunnel
was, in fact, never discovered, not even in the years when Comanesti have started to develop industries and attract several workers for which the state built blocks, therefor a period in which there was constant digging and building.
