Anton Pann Memorial House, Bucharest

1. Building

We've identified the house museum. It is a gray, tall building flying flags. We walked across the courtyard to the museum entrance. We paid, put on plastic booties and couldn't wait to visit the rooms of the house.

At the entrance I "read" the sketch of the museum divided by rooms and then I read, this time without quotation marks, some verses by Anton Pann, verses that I liked:

"Let's talk soon,

We still have no business;

Because

Gura doesn't charge rent,

Can speak either.

But often

Word, word to word

They've reached the cociorba

That's the proverb:

Word on the street

Better to have coughed.

That's why

When you speak, when you speak

Let there be license and measure."

2. Biography and historical context

The first room is called "Biography and historical context". Before the emergence of the cinematographic industry, animation was born in Anton Pann's time. Animation was based on the optical illusion created by a rotating device. A practical sample of animation from one of Pann's stories realized with this device called zoetrop is presented. In addition to the zoetrope, we noticed in the unique presentation system that you will find in the pictures, several small paintings depicting scenes and figures of the time.

3. Bucharest in the mid-19th century

The museum rooms are small, but with distinct themes. Enter "Bucharest in the mid-19th century". The most impressive scene presented in the paintings is the great fire that devastated Bucharest in 1847.

This was also rendered by Anton Pann in verse:

"My, what a sight! What a living horror!

What a whip of the para, heavenly plagues!

What a pity! What poverty

Cazu once on Bucharest!

March in twenty-three days,

Holy Easter when it is celebrated,

When the youth, children, children,

Strafin new clothes that change [...]"".

4. Music room

I have passed in "Music room", where several instruments of the Anton Pann band are exhibited. There are also cobzas, violin, tambourine, drums, whistles, tambal, kanun.

Anton Pann is considered to be the author of the national anthem "Desteapta-te, romane!". The well-known music actually accompanied the text of the poem "Din sanul maicii mele". The question then arises, how did this song come to be associated with Andrei Muresanu's poem "Un rasunet"? It seems to be the fault of an apprentice of Anton Pann who presented to Andrei Muresanu several songs written by Anton Pann, to inspire him to write a hymn, including the one in question. Could it be so?

5. Writer, editor, printer

With this enigma in mind we enter the hall "Writer, editor, printer". Here are presented the hymn "Awake, Romance!" and many other creations by Anton Pann. In the room we also admire a printing press and the verses of many Romanian writers such as Eminescu, Nichita Stanescu and others.

6. Stories

The visit is progressing slowly. We're in the room "Stories"where "The Story of Speech" could not be missing. If in the first room we saw a device to produce animation, here we see the praxinoscope, which also offers a practical test. Anton Pann's work is presented in colorful images. I recognized for example "Nastratin Hogea".

7. Wine cellar

The visit ends in "The wine cellar, where we go down the stairs to discover some wine bottle racks on the packaging of which were scenes, words and verses from Anton Pann's operas. Very cool idea! A big Bravo!

An example from Pivința with wines....

"On Drunkenness (from The Story of Speech)

Drunk out of a pub,

Enter another one, they are dese"".

8. Parrot ticket

Before thanking for the information received, on departure, I pulled two "parrot tickets" with words by Pann. Interesting and completely different from the other MLNR museums in Bucharest - National Museum of Romanian Literature!