The Christian Association of Romanian Women and the ‘BIG House’ of Queen Maria of Romania / Asocia?ia Cre?tină a Femeilor Române ?i Casa Mare din Bran a reginei Maria a României

The Association of Christian Women of Romania (A.C.F.R.) was founded in 1919 in Bucharest and Iasi, under the patronage of Queen Maria of Romania, and under the active leadership of its President Maria Filipescu. Through this organization, modeled after the Young Women's Christian Association ? YWCA (the feminine equivalent of the Young Men’s Christian Association ? YMCA), Queen Maria intended to provide the youth with a balanced physical, intellectual and moral education, according to the traditional customs, training them to be of service in their community. After the passing of Queen Maria, Princess Ileana inherited the building, at the same time becoming the Honorary President of the Association of Christian Women. Based on the 1948 site plan of the properties from Bran that belonged to Princess Ileana of Romania, the ‘big house’ was allotted to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Following the 1948 inventory of the mobile objects present in the ‘big house’, a few of them were handed over to the Ministry of Arts and Information, some of these belonging today to the inventory of the National Museum of Bran: a few pieces of pine wood furniture, painted during the 18th and 19th centuries by Saxon craftsmen from Rupea and surroundings, and a series of pieces of Neo-Rococo furniture, some made at Mainz at the end of the 19th century in the workshop of August Bembe. Today, the ‘big house’ is the headquarters for the Military Unit 0458 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.