Sturdza Castle in Miclauseni, one of the most important historical monuments in Iasi County 
Sturdza Castle from Miclauseni, also known as Sturdza Palace is a Gothic-style castle built between 1880-1904 by George Sturza and his wife Maria in Miclauseni village approximately 20 kilometers away from Roman and 65 kilometers from Iasi.
Currently, the Castle is under the Metropolitan Church of Moldavia and Bukovina and was included on the list of important historical monuments in 2010, next to Miclauseni Monastery. The palace was built on the vast property that used to belong to the Sturdza family since late 17th century. Its history begins long before it was rebuilt by the Sturdza family, precisely at the beginning of the eighteenth century, when a great treasurer of the era, Simion Stroici has erected a mansion in Miclauseni and settled the property on Sturdza family.
The mansion was restored for the first time in 1752 by John Sturdza. Back then, the building, which numbered twenty rooms on two floors, was a famous mansion all over the area. Around 1821, Demetrius, John Sturdza’ son, extended the mansion’s estate, raising a church near the castle. They were surrounded by a park spread over nearly 40 hectares set up in British-style. The mansion was later revamped by George Sturdza, who built-up the new Gothic style building on the former mansion’s place. Its architecture is inspired by the Palace of Culture and the Royal Palace from Ruginoasa.
Sturdza Castle had many valuable collections of books (a collection estimated to 60,000 pieces) and documents of the time, paintings, jewelry, several medieval costumes, weapons and many other valuable items. Many of the rare objects, mostly the books, were burnt by the Russian soldiers. The last heir of the castle, Elena Cantacuzino, who became a nun in the last years of her life, donated the castle and the park that surrounds it to the Roman Episcopacy. During the communist period the palace was turned into a warehouse for explosive material and later on was the establishment of an orphanage; never restored in this period of time, it has gradually degraded.
Only in 2001 when the castle was claimed by the Metropolitan Church of Moldavia and Bukovina the restoration started and with the help of some old photos of the castle it was rebuilt exactly as the original, in a Gothic architectural style with Baroque elements.
Source: http://www.romaniajournal.ro/sturdza-castle-in-miclauseni-one-of-the-most-important-historical-monuments-in-iasi-county/
