Lahovary remains thrown aside for Vanghelie family tomb...

This is such an outrage I can hardly believe what I am reading... "The old remains were thrown away". Surely not. The remains of the Lahovary family as old and respected as the foaie verde tossed aside onto the scrapheap so Vanghelie could lay his family to rest. And he's not alone either. Catalin Voicu appropriated the mausoleum of one of the best known generals from World War One. No wonder the country has gone to the maidanezi when one's defunct historical figures are treated like rubbish. It is unthinkable, incomprehensible that this could have been allowed to happen. It is two fingers up at history, patrimony and honour. Shame. Shame. Shame. Words really do escape me at this point. I am so revolted, so disgusted, i'll just let you read the article below.

Lahovary family tomb vandalized for Vanghelie to bury his own relatives

Just like his arrested friend Catalin Voicu, Marian Vanghelie buries his relatives at Bellu, in the crypts of leading figures of Romania. The chapel of the family of former War and Foreign Affairs Minister Iacob Lahovary (1846-1907) is now a resting place for two relatives of Sector 5 mayor Marian Vanghelie, Gandul reports. The chapel was built in 1905 by reputed architect Ion Mincu.

"In 1905, this holy chapel was built to host the earthly remains of the best and most beloved son Jacques I. Lahovary" is written at the entrance into the chapel. Lahovary served as minister of war and foreign affairs in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

He was supposed to be laid to eternal rest in the same chapel. Only that eternity in this case lasted a hundred years as he chapel now hosts the remains of Vanghelie's relatives - his grandfather Constantin Niculae and another relative, Liana Bojan. According to witnesses, Lahovary's remains vanished the same day when Niculae was buried.

An employee who worked at Bellu Cemetery 40 years told Gandul that he witnessed the act of vandalism. "When the two were buried in 2008, workers took out everything that was inside the crypts. The old remains were thrown away." The man looks bitterly at the Lahovary tombs. "Their last heir, who attended to the grave, was a descendant of the Mavrocordat family. This lady died about 20 years ago. Since then, nobody has been taking care of the place. Until 40 years ago, Lahovary's relatives, most of them moved to the Soviet Union, were coming to this grave every year to have a religious service. They were singing the religious songs in Russia, dressed in traditional costume."

How were the dead removed from the grave?

According to an investigation run by Gandul reporters, the end of Lahovary family's 'eternity' and the beginning of Vanghelie relatives' 'eternity' were planned by Radu Dumitru, 42, a party colleague with Vanghelie and a close acquaintance. In 2003, Dumitru, as head of the Human Graveyard and Crematory Administration (ACCU) canceled the 1950 concession act of Lahovary descendants, using an ambiguity in the former graveyard operation rules. He declared the Lahovary crypt abandoned and granted it on the same day, with the dead people buried there, to a Vanghelie employee, Nicolae Dan Cristea, who currently heads the Sector 5 Public Domani Administration.

The final beneficiary of the crypt was to be revealed only five years later. On July 17, 2008, Cristea donated the chapel to Mircea Sorin Niculae, Vanghelie's cousin. The day of the donation coincided with the day the two cousins' grandfather was buried - Constantin Niculae, dead at 86 and buried in the Lahovary crypt.

But Mirceea Sorin Niculae, 33, was used by his cousin Vanghelie for another unorthodox business. In September 2003, the mayor bought Bucharest Store but put his cousin's names in transaction documents. Thus, Vanghelie kept hidden for a while the fact that he was the real beneficiary. This, until he included shares in the company that had bought the store in his wealth statement. Just like his cousin, Mircea Sorin Niculae refused to offer a point of view on the 'Bellu affair.'

Bucharest Herald

For more info on this dispicable act of profanation, see also Vox Publica, 9am News, Adevarul and this article from Realitatea which reports on Vanghelie deciding that it was a sin against God after all and giving the tomb back following a public outcry through both press campaigns and public radio (Guerilla Radio). not that it made any difference, for the remains of the Lahovary family had already been disposed of. With so little mmorals on the part of Vanghelie, Voicu, the head of administration of cemeteries and crematoria well, it shows that literally anything can be bought for the right price. My God... i think now I have seen it all. Nothing more can shock me.

Comments

[catalin]

As alway written with heart, good sense and understanding. As always well documented. Congratulations. Bravo and thank you for being our memory

[madalina]

The huge difference is that the communist took the heroes houses (and many preserved them dearly and appreciated them) while these new hill billies try to stole the identity of the great families of Romania and sneak even into their graves, like worms.Shame its not a word they ever learned.Whip is the only argument they know. I don't know wht will happen when they shall erase all memories and put their pictures and instead of Romania.But I know we must repet and repeat and repeat the truth not to be heard, but to be momerised by yung one. One day it will come to light.

[valentin]

You apprecite few pwople if you need just a bus:)) You are right BUT its better to throw them out of this country than leaving it to them nd their offsprings!I am stubborn.

[sairj]

Power in Roumania does not equal wisdom, honour or respect. power means doing what you like to advance yourself, riding rough shod over patrimony and national history, not giving tuppence ha'penny for the individual, letting people drop dead in hospitals for best put the money in useful things like ugly carparks and ridiculous 'pedestrian motorways'... the country has morally collapsed. There is no goodness in the hearts of those that rule it and no courage left in the hearts that do not. poor dear country of my heart. When did it happen? When did things go beyond the point of no return. Destroying graves, throwing away human remains of someones husband, wife, father, mother, son or daughter as if they were dealing with crap from a hoover bag. There is truly nothing more repugnant to prove a point. Vanghelie, Voicu... they are sadly far from being the only ones. For shame. A country now ruled by such filthy, immoral, debased scum... I wish I had the ability to appear in Bucharest with a bus and get everyone I love out of there, out from the greyness, the corruption, the inhumanity to man, the fear of getting sick, the uselessness of the vote, the worry of job loss and salary cuts, the horrors of getting old. I can't write anymore. Bawlin' so much I can't see the screen...

[Nicole]

It is the most despicable thing I could ever imagine that it could happen in that country. Not that he is a gypsy or that he is the head of the Bucharest PSD party, no, it is because someone dares to dispose of a part of Romanian history. Any school child learns in school about the Lahovaris and what this family did for the country. What did vanghelie do? Or voicu, besides stealing and embezzling? The act itself is so OUTRAGEOUS, it is nauseating.And he has the nerve to say that ... he cannot pronounce Lahovary's name. I wonder if there are any descendants left but, anyway, the chapel built by Mincu should be declared national patrimony and be cared by Aministratia Cimitirelor, not sold to relatives of the mayor. What country is that, that allows the desecration of the past? The people in power today have absolutely NO SHAME.