The Last Prince of Moldavia, Grigore Alexandru Ghica
The earthly remains of the great prince have been brought home
Ion Puican and Eugen Cojocariu, 29.11.2025, 14:00
The earthly remains of the last prince of Moldavia before the Union of the Romanian Principalities in 1859, Grigore Alexandru Ghica (1804-1857), have been brought back to Romania after 168 years in a wide symbolic and historical endeavor. The ceremony began in France, at the Gendarmerie Academy, with military honors and tributes paid to the prince. The Romanian ambassador to Paris, Ioana Bivolaru, involved in organizing the events in France, speaks about this initiative supported by the Romanian state:
“Through this repatriation, Romania sends a call to keep alive the memory of a personality who made an important contribution to the history of modern Romania”.
For the Romanian state, the moment of repatriating the earthly remains of the prince represents an act of recovering the memory of a key reformer of Romanian modernity. Grigore Alexandru Ghica ruled under the name Grigore the 5th Ghica, in two periods: May 1849-October 1853 and October 1854-June 3, 1856. He was the son of the great logothete Alexandru Constantin Ghica, protector of Romanian theater in its early days. He studied in Germany and after returning to his country held high positions at the princely court.
As prince, he had major achievements for the era, in the context of modernizing the Romanian Principalities. Among these, the liberation of the Roma people: in 1855, he requested the draft law for abolishing Roma slavery. The law was unanimously voted. Mihai Ghyka, the prince’s great-grandson, also speaks about these achievements:
“Practically, he is one of the Europeans before Europe was born. Grigore Alexandru Ghica is the one who founded the Romanian Gendarmerie, the National Bank. He is the one who freed the Roma and, at the same time, the one who abolished censorship, all things that aligned with the spirit of the times and connected with Western European nations and that pulled Romania out of dependence on Turkish and Austrian power, which at the time decided things in the Romanian Principalities”.
On February 24, 1856, Prince Grigore Alexandru Ghica issued the act abolishing censorship. He promulgated the first law of the Gendarmerie, thus becoming the founder of the Romanian Gendarmerie. He introduced the telegraph into the Romanian Principalities with the help of French engineers. He reformed agriculture by regulating relations between landowners and workers, reducing working days, abolishing the tithe and stopping the use of peasants for other labors than agricultural ones. These important reforms were also mentioned by the President of Romania, Nicușor Dan, in his speech on the occasion of repatriating the prince’s earthly remains:
“We are here on the occasion of bringing back to the country the earthly remains of the prince of Moldavia, Grigore Alexandru Ghica, the last prince of Moldavia before the Union of January 1859. And it is an opportunity to remind us that the construction of modern Romania started before January 1859. Some important decisions which Prince Ghica either initiated or participated in: abolishing censorship, initiating specialized medical units (maternity), founding the School of Road and Construction Engineers. Bold social reforms: abolishing Roma slavery. Establishing the Gendarmerie, which was an institution for internal peace, but also for people prepared for bigger battles, in a time when Romania’s armed forces were limited by agreements of the great powers. We must also mention some things about social reforms: the courage to reduce taxes, the tithe for those who worked the land, and customs taxes, the so-called taxes on goods circulation. But I insist, in my opinion, on the Union of 1859. Because the Union of 1859 didn’t occur out of the blue, it was not a gift to Romania. To achieve it, there were political people who acted in this direction, and Prince Ghica is one of them”.
Grigore Alexandru Ghica was also a reformer of education, laying the foundations of modern education in the Principality of Moldavia. He built elementary and primary schools, established the first two faculties: Law and Philosophy, and developed medical education through the Gregorian Institute, the surgery school, the midwifery school and the infirmary hospice. He also contributed to infrastructure, urban planning and administration by building the barracks in Copou, Iași, developing the salt mines exploitation system and reducing customs duties to stimulate commerce. He was a firm supporter of the Union of the Romanian Principalities. He supported the unionist movement by making the first steps towards the unification of Moldavia with Wallachia, thereby entering into conflict with the Ottoman Porte due to his unionist activism, as his great-grandson Mihai Ghyka points out:
“He was, without a doubt, a man of a single idea: the idea of the ‘patriots of the 1848 revolution’, who wholeheartedly desired the Union of the Principalities and the sovereignty of Romania. He set aside personal interests and fought to bring alongside him people educated in Berlin or Paris, and French institutions were the inspiration for his reign”.
The last prince of Moldavia, Grigore Alexandru Ghica, remains an iconic figure of the 19th century, a leader who put the public good above all else. Today, with his symbolic return, Romania reaffirms its respect for those who built, with vision and courage, the foundations of the modern state. (VP)
