The Philanthropy and Patriotism of a Forgotten Benefactor of Transylvania: Vasile Stroescu (1845–1926)
The Philanthropy and Patriotism of a Forgotten Benefactor of Transylvania: Vasile Stroescu (1845–1926)

Summary/Abstract: The wealthy Bessarabian boyar Vasile Stroescu constantly supported with substantial sums of money the Romanian cultural institutions first in Bessarabia and Moldavia, and later in Transylvania. We mention here the special attention he paid to the astra Association, founded in 1861 by the elite of the Romanian Transylvanian intellectuals. Building and managing schools, but also churches, was a priority for him. He considered education as an essential factor for the propagation and development of Romanian culture. Although he made an essential contribution through his donations to the preservation and consolidation of the Romanian language and culture, and he contributed directly to the realization of the Great Union of 1918, posterity rarely remembers him, and his name is mentioned all too rarely in both Romania and Bessarabia. His actions were mentioned in the Hungarian newspapers of the time, in the 1910s. Vasile Stroescu remained a constant concern for the media in Budapest, being perceived as an enemy set on to dismantle the country’s stability. After the outbreak of World War I, the government of István Tisza, suspecting that he intended to foment a rebellion in Transylvania, declared him a “public danger.”

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