Casa Dianu, an architectural monument in the city of Craiova built at the beginning of the 20th century as the residence of the Dumitru and Sofia Dianu family, will house the first museum of books and the Romanian exile in the country.

Casa Dianu, named after the family that built it, had several destinations over time after 1955, when it was nationalised, being the headquarters of various institutions, including the administrative offices of the Philharmonic, the Frontul Plugarilor city organisation, and between 1964 and 2013 it was the headquarters of the Cornetti Arts and Crafts School.

In 2001, the building was claimed by the descendants of the former owners, and by a July 2008 final decision of Supreme Court of Justice, the building became the property of the rightful heirs. In 2013, it was bought by the Dolj County Council currently under the administration of the Alexandru si Aristia Aman County Library.

"The Dianu family was a large and well-known family of landowners in Craiova at the beginning of the 20th century that also produced a number of intellectuals (magistrates, teachers and writers - brothers Constantin N. Dianu and Dumitru N. Dianu, Costel Dianu, Romulus Dianu ), as well as merchants, such as Ioan Dianu. In 1906, a building permit was given for the house of the Dumitru (Tache) and Sofia Dianu family, with Tache Dianu, a magistrate who studied Law in Bucharest and Paris, being the first owner. The Dianu couple had three children: a son, Sandy - a painter, and two daughters - Cornelia (married to engineer Victor Nicolau, a former director of the CFR national railroad corporation) and Marioara (married to Constantin Petrescu Ercea, with whom she had a daughter, Cristina). The book 'Pe urmele mele în doua lumi: Romania-SUA' (In my footsteps in two worlds: Romania-US), written by Simona M. Vrabiescu Kleckner, a relative of the Dianus, tells how in 1944, at the beginning of the Russian occupation of Craiova, Casa Dianu was requisitioned by the Russians for the Soviet command. Marshal Rodion Malinovski, the president of the Allied (Soviet) Commission who will later be buried in the Red Square near the Kremlin, is said to have stayed in the house for a few days," Director of the Alexandru si Aristia Aman County Library in Craiova Lucian Dindirica told AGERPRES.

The building is one of the few which architectural and interior elements from the time it was have survived 90%. Casa Dianu and two other buildings are located in a 1,300 sq.m. courtyard; it has three levels - semi-basement, ground floor, attic - with three access ways.

The main entrance has flights of outside steps covered by an awning, and one of the indoor stairs leads to a vestibule that also provides access to the building's semi-basement. The hallway can be reached by passing through carved wooden doors with windows engraved at the Bucharest workshops of August Zwalfer. The owner of a famous Viennese workshop, with a branch in Bucharest, August Zwolfer was one of the makers of the stained glass windows at Peles Castle in Sinaia and founded the first mirror factory in Romania. Moreover, three original crystal mirrors have survived in Casa Dianu (two in the hallway and one in a room on the ground floor). Inside, the house impresses especially by its rooms on the ground floor, where extraordinary painted ceilings, elegant stucco, graceful chandeliers and decorated stoves covered with colored tiles have survived. Casa Dianu also stands out for its particularly elegant facades, with decorative elements, such as columns attached to the window frames, anthropomorphic elements and ornaments with floral motifs," said Dindirica.

In 2017, the Dolj County Council signed a funding contract for a European project worth almost 5 million euros under which the building is consolidated, restored and furnished, with the restoration works designed to recover as many original metal and wood architectural elements as possible.

After restoration, Casa Dianu will have a new purpose, unique in Romania, that of a museum of books and the Romanian exile, where 28 collections, archives and other personal belongings of prominent personalities of Romanian culture, including exiles, will be displayed.

Among them is the Basarab Nicolescu Collection; Leonid Mamaliga Collection; Mircea Milcovitch and Maria Mesterou Collection; Andrei Serban Collection; Paul Barbaneagra Collection; Corneliu Serban Popa Collection; Horia Vintila Collection; Cicerone Poghirc Collection; Andrei Codrescu Collection; Victor Cupsa Collection; Constantza Buzdugan Collection; Bujor Nedelcovici Collection; Cezar Vasiliu Collection; Mircea Eliade Collection; Emil Cioran Collection; Ileana and Romulus Vulpescu Collection; Serban Viorel and Rodica Stanoiu Collection; Academician Dan Berindei Collection; Academician Dinu C. Giurescu Collection; Stefan Stefanescu Collection; The Romanian Institute/Romanian Library of Freiburg Collection; George Banu Collection; Horia-Dinu Nicolaescu Collection; Nicolas Adam Collection; Ion Deaconescu Collection.

The project for a sustainable valorisation of Casa Dianu by creating a museum of books and the Romanian exile for tourist purposes is possible thanks to funds of approximately 5 million euros under the Operational Programme Regional Development 2014 -2020.

"The new cultural institution will include collections that are extremely necessary to fulfill the objective of completing the national culture with the entire cultural heritage created outside the borders of Romania during the 45 years of communism. Along with the donations of academicians Dan Berindei and Dinu C. Giurescu, projects that had already been completed in the fall of 2013 and which include thousands of books, documents and unpublished volumes, pieces of furniture and paintings, the museum of books and Romanian exile will include many other valuable collections of books, manuscripts, audio-video elements and personal belongings and art of the exile generation. The future museum includes personal documents and collections of academician Basarab Nicolescu, authors Mircea Eliade, Leonid Mamaliga, Vintila Horia, Cicerone Poghirc, Andrei Codrescu, Cezar Vasiliu, and Ion Deaconescu, stage directors Andrei Serban and Paul Barbaneagra, visual artists Corneliu Serban Popa, Mircea Milcovitch, Maria Mesterou and Constantza Buzdugan, Rodica and Serban-Viorel Stanoiu, authors Romulus and Ileana Vulpescu and historian V. Veliman," according to the director Alexandru si Aristia Aman County Library.

The museum will be an interactive space, a hub for advanced multidisciplinary research that will provide visitors with the latest technology and study equipment and a place for meetings and cultural debates. Along the exhibition halls for permanent and temporary exhibitions, visitors will avail of multimedia, reading and leisure spaces, as well as concert rooms.

"The new institution will create the premises for the development of new concepts and directions in different disciplinary areas and will stimulate and, at the same time, animate the local cultural and literary community. The museum will therefore be a 'living' one, a unique institution in itself, dedicated to the reintegration of Romanian culture and, equally, a source of inspiration for today's generation, the creators of tomorrow's cultural heritage," according to Dindirica. AGERPRES (RO - author: Maria Mitrica, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)