Ulysse de Marsillac left us the most attractive pages about 19th-century Bucharest
The East European space has been discovered and rediscovered by the West in several waves in the history of the last millennium. Starting in the 18th century, the European West has invented Eastern Europe as we know it today, and in the process of invention the French had a crucial role due to the impact of the revolution between 1789-1795 and the project of the modern state proposed by it. The Romanian space, part of the Eastern world, was also discovered by several generations of French, the first being that of the French consuls in Bucharest and Iași. The international events that took place in the first half of the 19th century and that led to the emergence of the modern Romanian state caused other generations of French to migrate to the mouths of the Danube and describe the new world in which they arrived. One of the French who left us the most attractive pages about 19th-century Bucharest was the teacher and journalist Ulysse de Marsillac, the man whose name is associated with the Francophonie of the Romanian generation from the mid-19th century.
De Marsillac was French, but he was equally Romanian. He identified so much with the Romanian spirit that he chose to stay in Bucharest until the end of his 56-year-old life. Born in 1821 in Montpellier, de Marsillac arrived in Bucharest in 1845, at the age of 24. In Bucharest he was a teacher at the Military School, at the "Saint Sava" National College and at the University. As a journalist, he wrote for the biweekly "La Voix de la Roumanie", founded by him in 1861, which appeared until 1866. Between 1866 and 1870 he was editor-in-chief of "Le Moniteur Roumain", and between 1870 and 1876 he edited and published in "Le Journal de Bucarest". He wrote several volumes, the most popular being "Guide du Voyageur a Bucarest", published in Bucharest in 1872.
Twenty years after coming to Romania, Ulysse de Marsillac remembered what the new world was like in which he probably didn't know he would spend the rest of his life: "In Giurgiu, I get into a cart. It is a trapezoidal wooden crate, with no nails or iron pieces, just wooden wedges. This box is placed on four polygonal wheels and is filled with hay. The great luxury is to have plenty of hay. The passenger lays down in the hay, holds on to the sides of the box and four small, ugly, but tireless horses pull the light carriage that jumps over the cobblestones in the streets, the potholes in the road, the logs in the forest. At first, you are shocked, your head is spinning, your whole body is looking for a balance that it cannot find; after an hour, a great pain is gripping you in the saddle, your guts are twisted; after two hours start thinking of the Inquisition and its tortures, not all of which let you die. And then the moment comes when the executioner - driver approaches you with a sweet smile, informing you that you have arrived and asking for a tip."
The accounts of Ulysse de Marsillac were in synchronicity with the times. The author was noticing the changes Bucharest and Romanian society were going through and was enthusiastic about that. Sandra Ecobescu, president of the Calea Victoriei Foundation, noticed how Ulysse de Marisllac understood Bucharest and Romanians deeper than we would be tempted to believe :
" This French gentleman, so in love with Bucharest, has a chapter he named 'the fiddlers'. In fact, it's not just about fiddlers. There are many pages about their costumes, their music, their traditions. Actually, he talks about folklore. And this is interesting because there's been talk about the Orient, about the Byzantine line or this tradition that defines Romanians and which must be embraed as such. Romanians are not just the descendants of Rome, they are a mix of so many things. And the foreigner travelling here can find all these traditional elements. "
Gheorghe Crutzescu, the author of the very popular « Mogosoaia Bridge - the story of a street », from 1943, characterized Ulysse de Marsillac, who actually lived on Victoria Boulevard, the current name of the street he was writing about : «" I don't think that our city has had a more honest and and more understanding chronicler than this foreigner. He hasn't missed any change, any progress, no matter how little it may be. And at the same time, he has shown so much love for our past, which he knows so well. "
So, Romanians had among them a foreigner who cared about their world and who wanted to see getting better. Crutzescu was also the one who wrote about the death of the French with a Romanian soul, in 1877, the year when the Romanian army started the war that would bring its independence : « In 1877, tormented by a terrible diseases, Ulysse de Marsillac died. But he still had time to wish good luck the Romanian troops that were crossing the Danube. » (MI)
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