CALIFORNIA CRIMINAL DEFENSE

I. The Bellu Manor is a mid-19th century old Romanian style architecture monument. It belonged to the family of Baron Alexandru Bellu. The family were originally Aromanians from the Macedonian Pindus, from the town of Pella (birthplace of Alexander the Great), who had settled in Romania around 1780. Apparently, the buildings of the initial complex date back to about the same time -- only perhaps a few decades later. The residence in Urlati was closest to the hearts of the Bellu family.

In Wallachia, the Bellus made a fortune and became related to important local families of boyars (local aristocrats), such as the Cantacuzino, Vacarescu, Campineanu, Sturdza, and other old Romanian families. Thus Alexandru Bellu's grandfather, who lived in the 1900s, married Irina Vacarescu, then concluded a matrimonial alliance with Eliza Stirbei, daughter of Prince Barbu Stirbei -- and the examples may continue.

Alexandru Bellu (1850-1921), one of the family's last important members, was a man of culture, a lawyer, coin collector, and photographer -- one of the forerunners of Romanian photography (his photographs of Romanian peasants were reproduced in the album "La Roumanie en images", published in Paris, in 1919).

Endowed with a refined taste, and good friends with famous Romanian painter Nicolae Grigorescu, Alexandru Bellu collected various porcelaine items, paintings, silverware, and furniture pieces from all over the world. All the items that are found now in the Museum are special and of priceless value. Some of them date back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries.

Bellu and Grigorescu were such good friends, that they had come to influence each other in everything they did. There seems to be even a serious question about the latter's "Oxen cart": was it actually Bellu who photographed it first and then Grigorescu painted it, or did Grigorescu paint it and Bellu was inspired by it upon admiring the work? Hard to tell, as this seems to be a dilemma that not even specialists have been able to sort out.