He was born in the village of Humuleşti, located in the foothills of the Eastern Carpathians, in northern Moldavia, in 1837 as himself describes :

    "I am born at March 1 1837 in Humulesti village, Neamt county, from Romanian parents: Stefan of Petrea the shoemaker and his wife Smaranda, born David Creanga, from Pipirig village, Neamt county..."


The house in the picture above is the house in which he was born and lived before leaving for school.



This is the wooden cradle in which his mother was lulling him as a baby while she was spinning the wool.



As the first child of eight, Creangă's mother wanted him to be educated for Orthodox priesthood, traditionally a prestigious position in the village community.



Details of Creangă's youth can be extracted from his greatest autobiographic work Amintiri din copilărie ("Memories of My Boyhood"). He began his education in Humuleşti, then he studied briefly at Broşteni before returning home and enrolling at a school in the neighbouring Târgu Neamţ. After a year at the seminary in Fălticeni, Creangă left for Iaşi, the Moldavian capital, where he continued to prepare for priesthood at the school of the Socola Monastery.



The house from Humulesti was built by Petrea Ciubotariul, Creangă's grandfather in 1830.
From 1951 it was turned into a museum opened to the public.