keflor: Cantacuzino villa-the little castle of the Olt valley

Built at the end of the 19th century, this aristocratic villa located at the border between Călimăneşti and Căciulata was a constant presence on the Olt Valley illustrates. The villa was built by engineer Ion G. Cantacuzino, from the famous noble Cantacuzino family, a dynasty with Byzantine origins that ruled in Wallachia and Moldova. Descending from the branch of the ruler Șerban Cantacuzino, Ion G. Cantacuzino built the railway on the Olt Valley, the first modern spring water collection system of the Căciulata spring and a cement factory in Brăila.

He married Maria Fălcoianu and they had four children, the first being Ioana (1895-1951). Ioana spent her childhood in Călimăneşti, where she attended primary school, continuing high school in Paris. She was passionate about flying, and shared this interest with her brother, Mircea. In 1928, the two brothers founded the first motorized flight school in the country. Ioana was the holder of the first pilot licence (1930), being the first woman in Romania to obtain it. In the same year, her brother had an aviation accident and died - following the tragic episode, the princess gave up flying and took over the management of the Băneasa Pilotage School, which she named "Mircea Cantacuzino", after her brother. Princess Marina Ştirbey received her pilot licence here, as well. Ioana Cantacuzino was married twice: first with Grigore Carp, then with engineer Aurel Persu.

In 1941, the princess had a conflict with Marshal Ion Antonescu and was imprisoned at the Târgu-Jiu camp, where she fell ill and was transferred to a hospital. In March 1942, she returned to Călimăneşti-Căciulata to settle in the family's villa, because her apartment in Bucharest had been destroyed by a bombing. She was received with much hostility and reluctance, considered to be ‘’a spy for the Germans’’. In this period, she greatly suffered of loneliness - because of the arrest, she was isolated from her friends. She survived by selling her remaining books and assets. On February 4th, 1949, she was evicted from the villa and transferred to a room in a building on 110 Lenin street (today Calea lui Traian), at the Iepureanu family. She died on December 15th, 1951, at the age of 56. "She died in total anonymity, just as many other great values and personalities crushed by communist oppression," wrote the writer Constantin Mateescu. He had the opportunity to live in the little castle during the communist period, when it was called "August 23 Villa" recollecting it as "an impressive construction due to its archaic architecture and filled with the spirit of the beginning of the century. It had, in fact, the appearance of a medieval castle with towers, thick walls, sharp roofs, but also with large carved wooden porches, all day illuminated by the winter sun coming over Olt. Built under the forest of a rare beauty that borders the resort on the other side of the river, and dominating the road leading to Sibiu, the building defied with its height the surroundings." Today, the imposing building is hidden among the trees, mysteriously watching over the resort. Its structure, partition and surface are suitable both for a vacation residence for several families and a business in the hospitality industry.