Revistă de gândire, tradiție și cultură masonică 143 The criticism of founding the first lodges in Romania (The Principality of Moldavia, historical region of Romania) Gheorghe Bichicean PhD 141 Abstract 140 years after the founding of the Grand National Lodge of Ro- mania (8/20 September 1880 - 8/20 September 2020), we consi- dered it necessary to bring to the attention of historians, resear- chers and readers interested in the history of Freemasonry in Ro- mania - anger, some important and contradictory aspects, even confusions regarding the date and the way of establishing the first Masonic Lodges in the Romanian space, especially those from the Principality of Moldavia at the beginning of the eighteenth century, with critical analysis and interpretations that to pave the way for in-depth studies related to their formation, but also on other as- pects, which we will mention in the paper. Of course, by going through the general historiography regarding this event, because a precise analysis has not been done yet. I confess that I myself fell into this trap of data and characters re- lated to the history of the founding of the first Masonic Lodges in Ro-mania, especially those in the Principality of Moldavia in the first decades of the eighteenth century, and without a critical ap- proach I retrieved data published by I.T. Ulic and other historians who have written in this field. At the same time, I cannot deny that then, as now, I was concerned about this problem, I was all per- 141 Historian, Member of the Ernest Renan Lodge no. 417, in Sibiu. Grand Spokesman of the National Grand Lodge of Romania.