History special: Luigi Cazzavillan, the Italian who founded one of Romania’s most famous newspapers

Almost 140 years ago, Italian journalist Luigi Cazzavillan founded the daily newspaper Universul, which some say was the Romanian equivalent of the New York Times. Indeed, Universul changed the game in the print media industry back then, becoming one of the most famous newspapers in Romania's history.

Born in Italy in 1852, journalist Luigi Cazzavillan is remembered today for his essential contribution to the Romanian news industry. After fighting as a volunteer in Giuseppe Garibaldi's army, in the French army and in the Italian Legion, he came to Romania in 1877 as a war correspondent for some Italian newspapers. He decided to settle here, however, working for a while as an Italian language teacher at high schools in Bucharest and founding the Italian School.

Still, Cazzavillan also continued his journalistic activity, contributing to several newspapers and magazines of the time. Today, however, he is mainly remembered as the founder of Universul, the daily that in a short time became the most read and influential newspaper in Romania. Politically independent during Cazzavillan's life, Universul appeared in two stages, with a break during World War I, namely August 20, 1884-November 5, 1916 and November 31, 1918-July 20, 1953.

On November 1, 1937, the Vestitorul newspaper, as quoted by Wikipedia), wrote: "Universul became the most popular newspaper thanks to the worthiness of its founder, Luigi Cazzavillan. He made it cheaper, multiplied its columns, developed the news reports, made it available to many with amazing speed. During the famous Dreyfus trial, he set up a direct connection with Paris to bring the news that fascinated the crowd on the same day. He also set up prizes such as earrings, bracelets, watches, and so on for subscribers. In this way, for example, he managed to reach more than a thousand subscribers in a small town like Mizil."

One of the reasons for Universul's success was that this daily appeared in the morning, while all the other similar publications appeared in the afternoon. It also added new columns and started publishing various supplements for children, literature, travel and popular science.