The town of Piatra Neamt can offer you the opportunity of a trip in the past along with the travel writer Calistrat Hogas in the Land of Neamt and the only Memorial House in the country dedicated to his life and adventures.
The courtyard of the Memorial Museum is surrounded by a metal fence, raised on a stone sill beyond which Mr Calistrat waited, looking quietly under the broad stone hat, inviting us to take a picture together.
After admiring the writer’s stone bust, we climbed the few steps to the porch of the memorial house. We were invited by the museographer in the lobby of the house and saw a large picture showing Calistrat Hogaş dressed in a cape and wearing a wide-edged hat on his head; in the background, behind the writer, there are the mountains he loved so much. The museographer told us that the painting was made by the painter Iulia Hălăucescu, and the author’s wish was to emphasize that the writer is a giant of our literature, bigger and more famous, even than the mountains he loved his whole life. With my eyes on this painting, I was about to not to notice a cabinet where several objects that Hogaş took with him on his travels: briquettes, a revolver, compass, and his hat or imposing mantle were exposed. The museographer drew our attention to a special object on one of the shelves of glass: an ashtray made by Calistrat Hogaş from a hoop of the hood that accompanied him on many of the trips and which he remembered so many times in his stories: „the kitten”. Next, to the ashtray, we read a quote from which we could realize the writer’s attachment to his companion: „The kitty had the agility of the thought and the act of lightning in action.”
We then entered the salon of Hogas family where various pieces of furniture, articles published by the writer, as well as some pictures with the author in various situations or with his parents are displayed. The museographer told us that the furniture exhibited in this dwelling is authentic, being donated by the daughter of the author, Sidonia Hogaş, whose portrait we were going to discover in another room. In a corner of the drawing room, I could see a chair in which Hogaş was standing and resting during winter close to the fireplace.
I went to the next room where I found Calistrat Hogaş’s office. Among other personal items, I could see on the desk the artist’s quilt, a witness of Hoga’s literary inspiration. On one of the walls, I found the portrait of Sidonia Hogaş, the daughter of the writer, the painting made by the same Iulia Hălăucescu, along with an Honorary Citizen Diploma of Piatra Neamţ, awarded posthumously in 2001 to Calistrat Hogaş’s daughter. The museographer told us that Sidonia Hogaş was rewarded for having contributed significantly to the establishment of this memorial museum: in 1967 she donated the house and the entire property of the author to the memorial house. After two years of arrangement, the Calistrat Hogaş Memorial Museum was officially opened in 1969. Sidonia Hogaş died in a block apartment in 1976 at the age of 94.
We walked past a table where we found three small lists of Hogaş’s favourite dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I found out that among other things, the writer appreciated a light meal in the morning with a black coffee at the end, and at noon enjoyed a steak sauce or stuffed cabbage cooked in a clay pot on the fire, and in the evening, he tasted jam followed by a black coffee.
We have arrived in the bedroom of the house where there are many objects belonging to the wife of the author, Elena, but also various pictures with the other children of the couple (Calistrat and Elena Hogaş had eight children). The museographer told us new information, saying that the house where the memorial museum was originally belonged to the wife’s family, being received by Elena Gheorghiu after the marriage with Hogaş on January 17, 1871.
In the last room of the museum I have seen many editions of the most famous works written by Hogaş: „In the mountains of Neamţ”, „Memories from a trip” or „On mountain roads”. We continued to identify other personal belongings among the showcases. So we came to a mug „for men with a moustache,” as the museographer would tell us, an object that amused us: the cup is provided with a small space where Hogaş fit his moustache so as not to wet it when using it.
We cannot end the presentation of this touristic destination of Piatra Neamţ without saying a few words about Calistrat Hogaş: „The writer was born in Tecuci on the 19th of April 1847 in the family of the priest Gheorghe Dimitriu. He was enrolled at the public school under the name of Hogaş, at the initiative of his teacher, the name being the grandfather’s nickname from his father. During his lifetime he was a teacher at the Gymnasium in Piatra-Neamţ, but he also taught for short periods in Tecuci, Iaşi or the Gymnasium of Alexandria. In 1891, the writer moved closer to his home in Roman, where he would die on Aug. 28, 1917. He was buried in this original town because to travel long distances several approvals were required because Romania was involved in the First World War. On October 8, 1917, Calistrat Hogaş was re-buried in the cemetery in Piatra-Neamţ, according to his desire, the necessary formalities being realised by his daughter Sidonia Hogaş. „
We end this article advising you to break your daily time to jump in time, into a world of tranquillity, travel passions and word alongside Calistrat Hogaş’s beautiful travel notes.
Claudia Alexandra Chilă