Historical monument, the Memorial House Pancioiu, was bought during the year 2003. Situated in the central area of the city, in the nearest proximity of the Adventist Church Craiova 1 and of the former head office of the conference, the building from the street Metropolitan Firmilian 18 proved to be the ideal place, which answers completely to the current needs of the Adventists church from the area of Oltenia.
In the building lived D. G. Pencioiu, Romanian lawyer, literary critic and translator. He temporary fulfilled the occupation of mayor of the city of Craiova (1918), during the German occupations.
He attended the courses of the Commercial High School and of the Carol I High School from Craiova, then he graduated the Faculty of Law from Bucharest. Attracted in the youth of the socialism, Pencioiu conducted the local club of the workers from Craiova and he founded in 1888, together with Traian Demetrescu, The oltenian magazine. He participated in 1893, also together with Demetrescu, at the first congress of the Social – Democratic Party of the Workers from Romania (PSDMR), as representative of the organization from Craiova. Later on he obtained the title of doctor in law at Brussels.
Then he activated as lawyer of commercial law at the Bar from Dolj (starting with 1899), temporary fulfilling in 1918 the position of mayor of the city of Craiova during the German occupation from the First World War, quality which brought significant services to the citizens and to the city. He collaborated with articles at the Literary Romanian, the Literary Event, the New Scientific and Literary World, Branches, signing with the pseudonyms Gri – Pen, Xeres and Heres. His articles approach themes of political economy (“The law of the human progess”, “the Capital and Karl Marx”), analyzing problems put into the discussion by social authors.
Passionate of literature, Grigore D. Pencioiu executed writers’ portraits (Nikolas Lenau, Heinrich Heine, Robert Hamerling), evoked in a few articles the personality of the poet Traian Demetrescu (1866 – 1896), he wrote the preface of the volume Simple by Traian Demetrescu, appeared in Craiova in 1896. Also, he executed translations from Nikolaus Lenau, Charles Baudelaire (“The seven old men”), Edgar Allan Poe (“the Raven”) and Heinrich Heine (Form the “book of the songs”), as well as pieces and books of comic opera for the National Theatre from Craiova, proving a good knowledge of the German lyric and of the poetries of Eminescu.
Pencioiu wrote the first study concerning the prose of Eminescu, as a polemic replica at the address of Constantin Dobrogeanu – Gherea, analyzing especially the philosophy ideas from ”Sărmanul Dionis” and outlining the connections between and the behavior of the poet. The author discloses the Schopenhauerian ideas from the novel and he considers Eminescu the most “dignified representative of the Schopenhauerian school”, emphasizing his personality in “perfect resemblance” with his sad philosophy”. The literary researcher Stănuța Crețu considers the fact that Pencioiu is a “critic with sensibility and intuitions in the field of critic, proving solid knowledges over the German romance and philosophy”.
