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Famous Brancusi’s childhood home in Hobita, Romania has collapsed

While famous Constantin Brancusi’s works are sold for tens of millions of dollars abroad, his childhood home in Hobita village, Gorj county in Romania has collapsed amid controversies over the property rights on the house.

Hobita has become famous due to Brancusi. The internationally renowned sculptor, known as a pioneer of modernism (1876-1957) was born in Hobita, a small village in Pestisani, Gorj county, southwestern Romania.

The last wooden beams of the house has recently collapsed, while the courtyard has also degraded over time, becoming a chicken coop of the locals.

Moreover, Brancusi’s real house is a no man’s land, as neither the town hall nor his heirs are assuming the duty of restoring the place.

The town hall of Pestisani says it is willing to release a title deed to allow the heirs to use the land and the real house where Brancusi was born. Otherwise, the authorities might take over it.

According to the town hall’s representatives, Brancusi’s 13  heirs have not been so interested to become owners so far and that the authorities insisted they would come and take their documents on the property. As there are so many of them, 13 heirs, they have to debate the legacy. Brancusi’s sister had no children, only an adopted daughter and she inherited it all.

After the artist died in Paris in 1957, his sister, Farsina Branzan, has relocated the childhood home on a plot of land that she owned. However, due to the relocation, the wooden structure has been affected and many of the original elements have been lost.

During the following years, the heirs made no acts of succession on the house and left it in decay.

In 2001, there was a sculptor from Bucharest willing to buy the abandoned house, but when it came to change the roof, the authorities halted the works for there was no permit. Roofless, the wooden house has rapidly fallen into decay.

As the heirs and authorities have come to no terms on the house, the town hall focused on Brancusi’s memorial house, a replica of the original house, which is still luring tourists.

Brancusi’s memorial house

The curator of the memorial house Doina Pana says that over 10,000 tourists visit it every year.

This house was set up here in 1968. The authorities back then decided to place Brancusi’s memorial house here in Hobita. This house was bought from here from Hobita, for it resembled with the house where Brancusi had been born. So, it was brought and remade here on the venue of his former family home,” the curator explains.

It is a oak wood house, consisting of three rooms (bedroom, kitchen and storeroom) and preserving the interior design of 1850. Next to it there is a cellar housing a brandy boiler and the corn facility.

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