Eskenazy House

Owned by the Eskenazy family, the Eskenazy House was built at the end of the 19th century in the center of Craiova, and is located on Calea Unirii at no. 42. The building is located on the right-hand side of the street, in the direction of the traffic (descending from the hotel New York to the Mântuleasa Church), opposite Diamantopol House.

House Eskenazy is part of a series of houses in closed construction (row houses), similar or identical constructions built to the right-left of a common wall, after a symmetrical design. What is specific to this construction is the fact that it was erected by and for two owners, as the plaques indicate that it houses two historical monuments: on the right, at number 42, is the Eskenazy House, and on the left, at number 44, is the Boicescu House.
The building is structured on two floors (ground floor and upper floor). On the ground floor there are two commercial areas (patisserie - confectionery in the Eskenazy House and key copying shop in the Boicescu House), separated by the main entrance into the building, which gives access through a walkway to the spaces placed symmetrically on the upper floor, as well as to the inner courtyard.

House Eskenazy was named after the Eskenazy family (or Eschenazy / Eskenasy / Eschenazi), one of the Jewish families in Craiova who gave the city many intellectuals at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century: doctors, lawyers, but also personalities in the banking domain. Prior to becoming their property, the edifice housed the Settelin Pension, according to reports by Th. I. Ionescu from the book "Short History of the Private Education in Craiova" from 1906. In 1885, the Așer and Lazăr Eschenasy brothers owned a drapery shop in Unirii Street, no. 40, on the place of the current Eskenazy House, called the "Eskenasy Așer Brothers".

source: www.monumenteoltenia.ro