GRAND HOTEL TRAIAN

 

 

Hotel Traian was built from the desire of an ambitious mayor who aspired to build the most beautiful national theater in Romania. Scarlat Pastia, impressed by the construction of the Metal Bridge from Ungheni by Gustave Eiffel, collaborated with the famous architect who built the Statue of Liberty in the United States and was to become famous by building the Parisian tower that bears his name today.

 

The building was built between 1879 and 1882 in the place where the lawyer Pastia had his shops in Unirii Square, Arcu Street and Lăpușeanu Street. Gustave Eiffel was an architect who preferred metal in his architectural plans so that the building was built on a metal structure, a unique way at that time, containing cast iron columns and proud platforms. The style of construction was neo-classical French, with Pastia and Eiffel having the desire to build the building with all the notoriety and grandeur similar to a French castle.

 

Scarlat Pastia, having no money due to the very large debts accumulated for the construction, had to give up the property right to the Urban Credit Company. Thus, the history of the settlement was changed, the new owner transforming the theater building into an internationally renowned successful hotel.

 

Hotel Traian has hosted over time kings and queens, princes and princesses, presidents, diplomats, movie stars, poets and writers strengthening the fairytale character of this building with historical value in the center of Iasi. It was even the seat of government in the First World War when Iasi became the capital of Romania.

Among the most important personalities who stepped on the threshold of the hotel is the famous Hollywood actress Greta Garbo. The Hotel also mediated numerous meetings of the Junimea Literary Society, the most important being the one from 1884 in which Mihai Eminescu and Ion Creangă participated.