The house in Humulești

Narration text

"Sometimes I sit and remember what times and what people there were in our parts when I, dear Lord, was beginning to grow into a little boy in my parents' house, in the village of Humulești." With these words Ion Creangă opens his Childhood Memories, and the house he speaks of is this one. It was built around 1830 by his grandfather, Petrea Ciubotariul, and given as a wedding gift in 1835 to his son Ștefan, when he married Smaranda from Pipirig.

Look at the walls: fir logs joined at the corners with dovetail joints, then plastered with clay mixed with straw and whitewashed. The four-sided roof is made of wooden shingles fixed with yew-wood pegs, and it reaches well beyond the walls, like a hat keeping off the rain. The windows are small and the back of the house faces north, to keep in warmth in winter and coolness in summer.

Before going in, step onto the porch, where the family once sat to rest.