About Bazil Assan
Bazil George Assan was a Romanian engineer, explorer and economist. Belonging to a wealthy family in Bucharest, Assan was an important figure in the industrialization of the Kingdom of Romania. He studied engineering, commerce and economics, which impulsed him to discover the globe. In 1896, he became the first Romanian to travel to the Arctic, and between 1897 and 1898, he became the first Romanian to travel around the world. His travels were later presented to King Carol I of Romania. Assan died on 16 June 1918 in Montreux, Switzerland. His father, George Assan, a Romanian from Moldavia, settled in the city and built the first steam mill in Romanian history (known as the Assan Mill) on the shore of the Colentina Lake in 1853. Assan, together with the aviation and automobile enthusiast George Valentin Bibescu and the baron Barbu Bellu, was the first person to bring an automobile to Romania. Since Bibescu did not have time to register it, Assan became in 1900 the first person to receive a plate, 1B.
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