1900s Roof Eave with Local Dissemination

Roof eave adorning an early 1910s trader's house in Buzau, eastern Romania. (©Valentin Mandache)

I photographed the above exquisite roof eave in the old commercial quarter of the city of Buzau in eastern Romania. It is a creation inspired from the roof eaves of the Buzau Commune Palace, built in a peculiar Art Nouveau – Neo-Romanian style in 1903, about which I posted a short video-article some weeks ago. There are also some vernacular elements used in this roof eave decoration, like the protruding fusaiolles on the horizontal arm of the eave, a decorative feature encountered throughout the old Ottoman Balkan realm, of which Buzau together with southern and eastern Romania have been once part. What I found very interesting is the quite wide dissemination of this type of roof eave (where the main distinguishing element is the circle sector taming the harsh right angle between the eave’s vertical and horizontal arms) throughout Buzau county area. It can be found adorning a number of old vernacular architecture houses in some of the local villages. I know that in my birth village, Goldeanu-Silistea, in southern Buzau county, that there are at least two houses (built in the early 1930s by local wealthy peasants) that use a variation of this type of roof eave. It represents a very interesting  phenomenon of architectural style transfer/ dissemination from a prestige edifice, built in a high architectural style, to the aspirational craftsman built houses belonging to wealthier and more educated local traders and peasants.

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I endeavor through this daily image series to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural heritage.

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If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in locating the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contactpage of this weblog.

Daily Picture 27-Feb-09: Art Deco Spa Building in Saxon Transylvania

The 1929 Art Deco style of the 'mud-bath" pavilion in Bazna spa town (Baussen in local German dialect) in Saxon Transylvania, central Romania. (old postcard, Valentin Mandache collection)

Bazna is located in the region known as Saxon Transylvania, traditionally inhabited by ethnic Germans from the c12th until c20th. This industrious and highly civilized community was forced to emigrate during the communist period to West Germany because of the harsh economic conditions and unbearable nationalist policies against ethnic minorities of the state of Romania. This is also an important natural gas producing area, known as the Transylvanian salt domes region, endowed with a geology that contains large such hydrocarbure deposits, which in the inter-war period made Romania one of the main European gas producers and today makes this EU region much less dependent on the capricious Russian gas supply. That complex geology favoured the development of an important spa resort town in Bazna during the Victorian period, when the area was within the confines of the Habsburg Empire. The old post card above shows the mud-bath pavilion (“Schlammbad” in German) during the brief inter-war flourishing of the local German community. It is built in an attractive minimalist, essential early Art Deco style (the year 1929 as is mentioned on the central tower). I like the “Salve” inscription on the pediment of the Art Deco doorway which greets the customers, a typical cheerful spa town decorative artefact used since the Roman times. The photograph is a glimpse of a long gone happy epoch reflected in architecture. Bazna nowadays is littered with ugly modern buildings of uncouth architecture, a consequence of the wild Romanian property boom of the last few years. It is also an expensive place, despite its run down infrastructure in terms of holiday resort. That makes even more poignant the contrast with the beautiful inter-war atmosphere and architecture depicted in the postcard above.

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I endeavor through this daily image series to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural heritage.

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If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in locating the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contactpage of this weblog.

Daily Picture 26-Feb-10: Art Deco Doorway of Innovative Design

A splendid innovative and top notch quality design of a doorway dating from mid-1930s, embellishing an Art Deco style house from Arc de Triumf - Piata Scanteii area of Bucharest. (©Valentin Mandache)

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I endeavor through this daily image series to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural heritage.

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If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in locating the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.

The Central School for Girls: Woes of An Architectural Landmark in Post-Communist Romania

The architectural heritage of a country is an essential part of its cultural identity, defining the local communities, making them recognisable to the outside world and generating civic pride among the locals. The Neo-Romanian style is the only original architectural order that had emerged in Romania and as a consequence is a vital part of the national heritage and modern cultural identity.

The style has been initiated by the remarkable architect Ion Mincu (1852 – 1912) with the construction of the Lahovary House (1886) in Bucharest, followed by a number of outstanding designs and finished buildings. Unfortunately Mincu’s output was very small when compared with other seminal architects in Europe and elsewhere that put the basis of new styles or other architectural innovations. That was because of the fairly poor economy of Romania in that period, a newly independent country that emerged from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, not a very propitious environment for the development of innovative architecture, and a still crystallizing modern Romanian cultural identity that was more concerned with following Western models, perceived as more prestigious, than developing its own heritage. Micu has thus planted the first seeds in the field of national architecture, which grew into the vigorous Neo-Romanian current that then developed effervescently throughout the country for following five decades until the WWII.

Architect Ion Mincu, title page of his biography book by Mihail Caffé, published in 1960, Editura Stiintifica, Bucharest.

This is why the first Neo-Romanian style buildings created by Ion Mincu are monuments of architecture of extraordinary importance for the national heritage, listed on the heritage registry and in theory protected by strict laws and regulations. The largest and in my opinion the most innovative Neo-Romanian style building designed by Mincu is the Central School for Girls in Bucharest (works started in 1890), a boarding school open to deserving girls from all social classes, emulating the Victorian modernising and democratising principles that permeated Romania at that time. I have here an old postcard, from the early 1930s, showing an aerial image of the building, which gives a good idea about its size and proficient layout, in many aspects ahead of its times.

The Central School for Girls, Bucharest, aerial photograph from early 1930s (old postcard, Valentin and Diana Mandache collection)

The Central School for Girls, together with the city around it, has withstood many vicissitudes in the century and a score since its first foundation stone was laid: the Great War and the enemy occupation of Bucharest, the World War II with bombing air raids by both Allied and German forces, followed by Soviet troops that swept through the city, nearly five decades of harsh communist regime, a bloody anticommunist revolution in 1989 and finally twenty years of chaotic and rapacious transition to a market economy. The sad irony is that the school and the architectural heritage of Bucharest have suffered most in the last

Daily Picture 25-Feb-10: County Hospital Building in Art Nouveau style

The once magnificent Art Nouveau and c19th rococo style Buzau county hospital building (named "I.C. Bratianu" after the prime-minister of that period ) in Eastern Romania, inaugurated in 1896. (©Valentin Mandache)

The beautiful edifice in the photograph above lays now empty in an extremely deteriorated state, with a near collapsing structure. Although the building it is still impressing and is also an essential part of Buzau city and county heritage, it is just ignored by the  public and authorities alike, which seem more interested in putting in place characterless and badly designed modern constructions, perceived as more prestigious. Perhaps that is the reason why the old hospital is left to fall apart, as the only legal means to secure a demolition permit for listed buildings…

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I endeavor through this daily image series to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural heritage.

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If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in locating the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.

Daily Picture 24-Feb-10: Neo-Romanian Style Columns

A photomontage of ornamental columns and capitals, which I selected from among the myriad of such beautiful artefacts that adorn the Neo-Romanian style houses of Bucharest. (©Valentin Mandache)

This remarkable architectural order, the Neo-Romanian style, which is the national style of Romania, was very popular in the country over a  period of 60 years, between 1890s and late 1940s, constituting an essential and valuable part of the local heritage and identity, today very much ignored and in a rapid process of destruction by rapacious property developers and speculators, under the indifferent eye of the authorities and a public largely ignorant about its own heritage.

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I endeavor through this daily image series to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural heritage.

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If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in locating the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.

Daily Picture 23-Feb-10: Compact Design Apartment Building from Art Deco Era

An early 1930s Art Deco style block of flats of a very compact design imposed by the small available building space and street corner location. Unirii area, Bucharest. (©Valentin Mandache)

Bucharest is a large city in terms  of population (about 3 million inhabitants, including the numerous unregistered internal migrants), but extremely compact in terms of available space for its people. The lack of building plots is a perennial problem especially in the central areas that overlap with the old chaotic and high density urban spread dating from the Ottoman times. The inter-war architects were extraordinary talented and resourceful when faced with those limitations, making ingenious use of the minuscule and arcane shape space available. A telling example is the Art Deco style apartment building in the image above, which I found in Unirii area hidden behind a huge row of communist era brutalist block of flats. The 1930s architect has managed to provide an aesthetically pleasing façade that incorporates many Art Deco hallmark elements like the ocean cruise liner motifs of round window and flag post, together with the glazed stairs tower. The famous Art Deco ‘rule of three’ inspired from the then fashionable Egyptian antiquity legends is also conspicuous in the number of floors or bedroom window sections, etc. What I like very much are the fine touches that sooth and tame the building compactness like the delicately rounded street corner or the ingenious geometry of the 1st and 2nd floor bay-windows (on the left hand side façade). The building is in a poor state today as most of Bucharest’s architectural heritage, waiting for elusive better times and prospective more careful and history aware custodians to bring them back to their former glory.

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I endeavor through this daily image series to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural heritage.

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If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in locating the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.

Daily Picture 22-Feb-10: Servants’ Quarter and Larder of Bucharest Grand House

The outbuildings that once served as the servants' quarter and loft larder of a Bucharest grand c19th "Little Paris" style house, Mantuleasa area. (©Valentin Mandache)

I was somehow surprised to find and photograph in Bucharest a quite well preserved servants’ quarter completed with a large loft larder, shown in the image above. It belonged to a grand town house built in late c19th in the then fashionable “Little Paris” style (what I call the French architectural styles provincially interpreted in Romania). This type of outbuildings within a grand house’s grounds are a relatively rare occurrence now in Romania’s capital. A majority of them were demolished in the course of time to make room for extensions, sold to pay off  debts and subsequently redeveloped or after the WWII given by the communist regime to their followers among the lumpen proletariat for habitation and still used for that purpose nowadays by the descendants of those individuals, etc. What I like in this particular example is the salvageable aspect of the living quarters, giving an idea how the Victorian era servants in Bucharest might have spent their private time, and also the excellent state of the loft larder, looking like a textbook example for this type of food preservation amenity used before the era of the freezer. The circular and vertical bar window air vents that helped to keep the food stuff fresh can be seen at regular intervals along the roof base, also the large access door to the loft, which once might have had a pulley to lift the packs from the ground level, is still present. Most probably the grand house’s kitchens were within the same buildings (I would be curious if any of the old kitchen equipment and installations is still surviving).

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I endeavor through this daily image series to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural heritage.

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If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in locating the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.

Daily Picture 21-Feb-10: Art Nouveau Style Property Defaced by Ignorant Owner

One of the countless examples of defacement and destruction of historic houses in Bucharest by ignorant nouveau riche owners. (©Valentin Mandache)

I made the montage above from photographs taken at a distance of one year from each other (autumn 2008 – ’09) of the doorway of a superb 1907 Art Nouveau style house in Cismigiu-north area of Bucharest. The owner has replaced the original and valuable Art Nouveau glass and wood door with an unsightly mass produced, modern metallic one, which does not have anything to do with the style of the house. The owner is from among the class of nouveaux riches that emerged in post-communist Romania and have started to acquire historic property in central areas of Bucharest. The lot, as a rule, is very arrogant and ignorant in cultural and historic matters, with devastating consequences for the properties which fall into their hands. In a majority of cases they abusively demolish the historic buildings in order to have them replaced with modern characterless houses or in ‘best instances’ deface the period property replacing the original artefacts with modern mass production equivalents, perceived as more prestigious and valuable. In the instance pictured above, the owner is most probably convinced that the market value and aesthetics the house were greatly enhanced by replacing the despised old ‘strange looking’ door. The phenomenon has reached dangerous proportions in Romania, threatening the integrity of the built heritage and identity of the local communities.

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I endeavor through this daily image series to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural heritage.

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If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in locating the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.

Daily Picture 20-Feb-10: ‘Violin’ Shape Art Deco Stairs Tower

The stairs tower of a mid-1930s Art Deco style house in Arc de Triumf - Piata Scanteii area of Bucharest. It has the very peculiar stylized shape of a 'violin' or similar string instrument, presumably an allusion that the house was the residency of a musician, etc. (©Valentin Mandache)

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I endeavor through this daily image series to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural heritage.

***********************************************

If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in locating the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.

Daily Picture 19-Feb-10: Alpine Chalet in the Carpathian Mountains in the 1910s

Villa Cantacuzio in Calimanesti spa town, an Alpine type chalet very popular in pre-Great War Romania among wealthy Bucharest families. (old postcard, Valentin Mandache collection)

The Victorian era and the period until the Great War has seen the development of numerous spa towns in the Carpathian Mountains, the Alpine geology chain that straddles Romania on a length of over 1,000 km. I wrote a blogpost last week about the Sarata Monteoru spa town detailing this developmental process. The old post card above, dating from 1910s, shows a newly finished grand chalet, of an architectural type similar with contemporary examples form Switzeland or Southern Germany, located in Calimanesti spa town in the Transylvanian Alps (the southern section of the Carpathian Mountains). The house servants, local peasants among them, together with some of the owner’s family, the Romanian branch of the Byzantine imperial family of the Cantacuzene dinasty, pose for the photographer in front of the building. The villa is still standing nowadays, as many such buildings throughout Romania, but in a very precarious state because of the last two decades’ lack of maintenance, ownership disputes or affected by the usual unprofessional renovations, which are unfortunately the trademark of a majority of Romania’s post-communist historic house owners.

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I endeavor through this daily image series to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural heritage.

***********************************************

If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in locating the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.

Daily Picture 18-feb-10: The Restored Gothic Interior of Iasi Railway Station

The freshly restored Gothic interior of Iasi railway station photographed in the summer of 2009. (©Valentin Mandache)

The city of Iasi is the beautiful historical capital of the principality of Moldavia, which through its union with Wallachia in 1859, in the favourable international circumstances following the Crimean War, formed the core of modern Romania. The city has been a bitter rival of Bucharest ever since, very much hampered in its development because of more difficult communication lines with the rest of the country. The railway came to the town in 1869 and alleviated in part that situation. The Iasi people had until that date to take uncomfortable horse drawn coaches in order to travel to Bucharest, through a very difficult 250 miles dirt road. The wealthier Iasi citizens even preferred to travel to Bucharest via Vienna, a huge detour, but a much more comfortable trip through Cernowitz in Bucovina, to the Austrian capital and from there to embark on a steam boat all the way down on the Danube to Giurgiu, nearby Bucharest. Consequently the train has a great importance for the Iasi people and the grandiose architecture of the local railway station, perhaps the most beautiful such building in Romania, reflects that sentiment. Its Venetian Gothic inspired architecture is very monumental and also well proportioned. Recently the station has been professionally restored with stunning results. I was amazed to admire its numerous ogee windows and arcades and the fresh majesty of its lines and airy interior; even the ticket counters are provided with ogee windows. I took the photograph above in the summer of last year, when the restoration work was on course, and I hope that it conveys at least in part my favourable impressions.

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I endeavor through this daily image series to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural heritage.

***********************************************

If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in locating the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.

Daily Picture 17-Feb-10: Bucharest Art Nouveau Architectural Ornaments

A photomontage of beautiful Art Nouveau style architectural ornaments and details that embellish exquisite Fin de Siècle (last part of 1890s - 1900s) building façades, which I encountered in the central areas of Bucharest. (©Valentin Mandache)

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I endeavor through this daily image series to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural heritage.

***********************************************

If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in locating the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.

Daily Picture 16-Feb-10: Neo-Romanian Style Lines in Reinforced Concrete

Reinforced concrete decorations of an early 1930s Neo-Romanian style house, Domenii area, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

The reinforced concrete began to be used on a large scale in the building industry in the inter-war period, being the ‘natural’ material for the Art Deco and International Modernist styles. The Neo-Romanian style, with its heavy structure and intricate decorative register derived from Romanian and South East European historical architecture had obvious difficulties in adopting the new technology. The example above shows a particularly interesting creative use of the reinforced concrete as structural and decorative material for a Neo-Romanian house dating from the early 1930s. I especially like how the veranda poles and their decoration, inspired from the veranda wooden poles of traditional Ottoman Balkan houses, are rendered in this more unusual, for this style, building material.

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I endeavor through this daily image series to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural heritage.

***********************************************

If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in locating the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.

Daily Picture 15-Feb-10: Superlative Bucharest Art Deco House

The image shows one of the finest Art Deco style houses of Bucharest, built in mid 1930s. The design quality, construction technique and materials used are just impressive. Arc de Triumf - Piata Scanteii area. (©Valentin Mandache)

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I endeavor through this daily image series to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural heritage.

***********************************************

If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in locating the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.