The bust of Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu

THE BUST OF BOGDAN PETRICEICU HASDEU Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu was born on 26th February 1838, in Cristinești, Hotin, now in Ukraine, and died on 25th August 1907, in Câmpina, Prahova. He was a writer and philologist, historian, encyclopedist, jurist, linguist, folklorist, publicist, politician, academician. He is considered one of the greatest personalities of Romanian culture of all times. He graduated from the University of Kharkiv and was an officer in the Russian army. Between 17th May 1876 and 1st April 1900 he was the first director of the State Archives of Bucharest, contributing to the publication of documents in the „Historical Archives” and „Words from the Elders”, both from Romanian and foreign archives. Among his historical works we mention: „Ioan Vodă the Terrible” (1865), the monumental „Historical Archive of Romania” and „Critical History”. In 1881 he edited and published Coresi’s Psalter of 1577. The most significant of all his literary works is the play „Razvan and the Otter”. In 1877 he was elected member of the Romanian Academy. In 1888, his only daughter, Iulia, an intellectually gifted young woman, the first Romanian to study at the Sorbonne, fell ill with tuberculosis and died at the age of 18. Her tomb in Bellu Cemetery in Bucharest is one of the most beautiful funerary monuments in the country, and her father built „Iulia Hașdeu” Castle in Câmpina. The bust of the great savant, placed in 1932 in front of „Alexandru Hâjdeu” High School of Buzău (which became in the same year „Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu” High School, today „Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu” National High School) was made of bronze by sculptor Oscar Han.