The house Nicolae Romanescu remains the place in which there were gathered to unite their souls Lucia and Nicolae Romanescu after they traveled to Europe, after months of days or even years spent at Liege or at Paris.
The world of Craiova rebirths then with every file. Furnished with the most comfortable and elegant pieced brought from Vienne, heated with the most beautiful fire-places ordered specially for the modernized saloons in the style of all the nobles’ residences from Craiova, the Romanescu House was glowing.
The Romanescu House was beautiful around the year 1894. The white curtains of muslin were flying at the windows, lightened by the Viennese lamps, the silky walls were throwing mysterious sparkles; the façade from Calea Unirii was colored in Venetian under-toned red, which gave it an optimist tint, in contrast with the sobriety of the Mântuleasa church from the proximity.
The oak gate, with garlands of branches and of angels, which seemed to have been waiting guests all the time, since when there were, lighted all the lamps in the arched alleyway.
From the setting of the welcoming home weren’t missing the barks from Oltenia, ornamental vessels of ceramics and ethnic furniture from sculpted wood, in a successful combination with the occidental elements.
In a dress made of dense silk, with ruches, this is how Lucia Romanescu was welcoming her guests. The meals were served in the living room from the ground floor of the house, which had a view facing the garden. In the elegance of the room, the silver or alpaca candlesticks, arranged in a right line on the middle of the table, were sending a mysterious light on the faces of the ones who were enjoying the hospitality of the Romanești.
The meals started frequent times with the French hors d’oeuvres. There wasn’t missing also the Romanian plum brandy made of the plums from the property Cloșani, and near the steak there were placed little picked watermelons and, sometimes, a beautiful bread made on clay objects, in order to remind the ones present about the fact that they were in Oltenia.
The chosen meals were carried on the arms of the Greek cook Kiros, dressed in the costume of his country. He was the ones who sometimes spoiled the family’s kids with syrup sweets and who, during the festive meals, delighted the guests not only with his presence, but also with the macaroons, shiplet, baklava and sarailii.
And when the guests were going towards the saloon, the children of the family Romanescu would delight them sometimes. The oldest, Ionel, would impress them with his brilliant intelligence: “He made Nicolae Iorga state that: «He knows too much for his age. He is an old child.» His passion for building glider planes was a very controversial subject at Craiova. Many times, he would break the handle lamps from Calea Unirii with the flying lamps which he built out of passion”.
Marcel, the youngest, was the poet of the house. He was looking after impressing the audience by reciting with impetus the poems of Alecsandri. He admired the social evening which Lucia Romanescu organized in their house and he liked to be present and to show off his talent in front of the ladies.
Less sociable were Niculiță, Alex and Radu, who were very hard, persuaded in appearing in front of the guests. They preferred Sevastița, the woman brought from Lipov for the house chores, who was a real bag full of stories.
She was the one who would carry them in the world of the stories with outlaws and horse thieves or with genies who appeared in the night in the village’s cemetery. The little ones weren’t impressed by the fairy tales about Ileana Cosânzeana.
