Art Deco monument: Maica Smara statue

Maica Smara statue, Cismigiu Park, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

The central park of Bucharest, Cismigiu, contains a number of memorials of past personalities that imprinted the city’s history. The monument dedicated to Smaranda Gheorghiu (1857 -1944), or Maica Smara, how she was known among her contemporaries, is one of the very few that exhibits Art Deco elements. I believe the statue was erected sometimes in the 1940s, or even the following decade, as a tribute, probably after her death. Maica Smara was active among the nascent women’s rights movement in this conservative country in south east Europe. She was well known in Romania as a literary figure and traveller reaching even North Cape in Norway in her peregrinations, not a mean fact for a Romanian woman of the late c19th and the early c20th periods. The name “Maica Smara” literally means “mother Smara[nda]“, given as a compliment for her educational work and as a writer of children stories and poems.

Maica Smara statue, Cismigiu Park, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

The most prominent Art Deco element of the monument, which is the creation of the sculptor Mihai Onofrei, is the bronze bas-relief at its base showing two school children. The boy and the girl are represented reading and respectively writing attentively passages from Maica Smara’s stories. I especially like the flamboyant flower motif on the left hand side area of the panel, which conveys the serenity and natural world described in this personality’s literary creations, some of which I read and listened to during my childhood.

Maica Smara statue, Cismigiu Park, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

Another Art Deco element of note is exemplified by the three retreating steps at the base of the monument, illustrating the rule of three typical of this style.

iPhone photos from the Sunday 1 April ’12 tour in Cismigiu historic area of Bucharest

Bellow are two iPhone photos, which I took during the architectural history tour in Cismigiu area of of Bucharest. The architecture viewed and examined together with the participants was very diverse, from late c19th Little Paris style to species of Neo-Romanian, Art Deco and wonderful modernism. The iPhone images are telling samples of small period details, which are in a way the salt and pepper of such tours. The first photograph presents a very well preserved Little Paris style doorhandle assembly, dating from the La Belle Époque period, while the second photo shows the name plate of a 1930s window blinds manufacturer, whose products, imported from Munich, still cover the windows of an Art Deco apartment block in the Cismigiu area.

Historic Houses of Romania: Cismigiu architectural tour, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

Historic Houses of Romania: Cismigiu architectural tour, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

Video-invitation to Historic Houses of Romania walking architectural tours: 31 March & 1 April ’12

Book by emailing v.mandache@gmail.com or using the comments section of this post. You will be informed of meeting place on booking.

I look forward to seeing you at the tour,

Valentin Mandache, expert in Romania’s historic houses (tel: 0040 (0)728323272)

Chronicle of the 17 and 18 Dec. ’11 architectural tours

The first photograph bellow shows a quite enigmatic identity message within a decorative panel embellishing the façade of an early 1930s house located in Kisselef area of Bucharest, which was among the buildings examined during my thematic architectural tour entitled “The Late Neo-Romanian Style” on Saturday 17 Dec. ’11. The second photograph presents most of the participants at the Sunday 18 Dec. ’11 architectural walking tour in the Cismigiu historic area of Romania’s capital.

"The Late Neo-Romanian Style" - Saturday 17 Dec. '11 architectural tour: identity panel on Neo-Romanian style house, dating from the early 1930s, Kisselef area, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

The Saturday tour started on a quite unpromising rainy weather, which was probably the reason why the participation came from Ireland, with no natives at all However the conditions improved less than half an hour into the excursion, when we benefited from beautiful sunbursts through clouds crossing Bucharest’s sky. We had the opportunity to examine a great multitude of Late Neo-Romanian style houses, concentrated in the Kisselef area of the city, rounding up our image about this particular phase in the development in Romania’s national architectural style, which unfurled between the late 1920s and the end of the 1940s. As the tour came to a close, the intriguing panel presented here came in our view. It contains the representation of a tree from whose trunk springs out a human arm holding a bucket, having on the other side something looking like a stack of six spheres arranged like the dots on a dice face. This panel could be, in my opinion, a family coat of arms or even a Masonic symbol connected with the first proprietor of the house. I look forward for opinions from you, dear readers, who might have access to better information, to clarify that tormenting, for me, riddle!

"Cismigiu historic area" - Sunday 18 Dec. '11 architectural tour: excursion participants

The Saturday tour in Cismigiu quarter was well attended by a nationally diverse group (Australia, US, Ireland and natives of course). We benefited of a wonderful weather, with a bright sun and a crisp, clear atmosphere propitious to view intricate architectural details. The trip started at Izvor tube station, ending at the Romanian Classical Writers’ Round in Cismigiu Gardens, after an assiduous walk of over five kilometres in three hours, examining at close range a large number of exquisite historic buildings. The photograph shows us toward the end of the tour, all with quite happy faces in my opinion, myself exhibiting a bit of the effects of speaking almost continuously throughout in my quality as a guide. :)

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I endeavour through this series of periodic articles to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural history and heritage.

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

Images from the Cismigiu architectural history & photography tour

Architectural history and photography tour in Cismigiu area, 26 June '11, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

We had a very dense architectural tour last Sunday in the Cismigiu area of Bucharest, with the above photomontage probably conveying something from that reality on the ground. This quarter of Romania’s capital is packed with the remarkable creations of some of the most famous native and foreign born architects, active on the local market starting with the last decades of the c19th; personalities such as Giulio Magni, Horia and Ion Creanga, Ion and Tiberiu Niga, Nicolae Cucu, Gheorghe Simotta, Petre Antonescu or Emil Günes, to cite just some of them. Among the many edifices viewed, I also had the opportunity to show and describe to the participants about the less known or even enigmatic details of this brimful with architectural marvels area. One of them is seen at the centre of the photomontage, the bas-relief, adorning a grand Neo-Romanian style building, depicting King Ferdinand and Queen Marie of Romania in the ceremonial robes from the Alba Iulia coronation that took place in 1922. The panel is very difficult to notice from the street level and probably that is why it escaped the communist era frenzy of destruction of monuments and buildings connected with the royal past. The tour participants were very international, coming from places like Thailand, France and of course this country. I was honoured to see such a high level of interest in this aspect of Bucharest’s identity and heritage. I trust that the participants had thus a nice and productive intellectual day out!

The next Sunday (3 July ’11, 9am-12.00) architectural history and photography tour will take place in Foisorul de Foc (Fire Watchtower) quarter, east-central Bucharest (see a map at this link); meeting point: in front of the Greek Church (the one like an ancient Greek temple from Pache Protopopescu square). I look forward to seeing you there!

Architectural history and photography tour in Cismigiu area, Bucharest (photo: arch. Daniela Puia)

With the participants at the tour, detailing the intricacies of the early Neo-Romanian style of the Ministry of Education building.

Architectural history and photography tour in Cismigiu area, Bucharest (photo: Dana Cernat)

The tour participants walking within the the round of the classics of the Romanian literature in Cismigiu Park, a landscape architecture design, created to lift the morale at the height of the Second World War when the country was losing hundred of thousands soldiers in the senseless alliance with Nazi Germany at the battle of Stalingrad.

Architectural history and photography tour in Cismigiu area, Bucharest (photo: arch. Daniela Puia)

Tour participants together, admiring the majestic outlines of the Cretzulescu Palace (beginning of c20th), a French Renaissance revival style edifice, one of the early creations of the great architect Petre Antonescu.

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I endeavour through this series of periodic articles to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural history and heritage.

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

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

Winter and history in Bucharest’s Cismigiu Park

The classics of Romanian literature bust statues located in the Writers' Circle area (landscaped in 1943) in Cismigiu Park, Bucharest. (©Valentin Mandache)

I could not resist the temptation to post some images reflecting the heavy snowfall affecting Bucharest this winter. Cismigiu Park is Bucharest’ oldest city centre park, laid out in its present state in 1910 by the Austrian landscape architect Friedrich Rebhun, famous as the designer of many public and private gardens in Romania of that period. Then, the park had two main design themes: a formal French inspired garden and a ‘natural state’ English garden style sector. Subsequently, the park had acquired a series of smaller sections in a diversity of styles. The snowy bust statues from the collage I made above were put in place in 1943 and represent the classics of Romanian literature (Duiliu Zamfirescu, Alexandru Vlahuţă, Ion Creangă, Ştefan Octavian Iosif, Ion Luca Caragiale, Titu Maiorescu, Alexandru Odobescu, Mihai Eminescu, Vasile Alecsandri, Nicolae Bălcescu, Bogdan Petriceicu Haşdeu and George Coşbuc). They are made from Carrara marble, a gift from Italy, a wartime Axis ally of Romania. In 1943 the war was still quite far away from the country, in the steppes of Russia, but the change of fortunes for Romania as a Nazi ally was already felt in the air, especially after the Stalingrad disaster where the country lost probably over 150,000 (!) soldiers. The statues are an expression of the nationalism of the period and part of the effort of the authorities to stir up patriotism among the locals. The statues are quite run of the mill type, nothing approaching sculptural master-works, in a style combining some vague Art Deco elements and stern Italian Mussolinian lines. They are very picturesque nowadays, arranged in a park circle, surrounded by rich vegetation, a real delight for contemporary Bucharest people, who are mostly oblivious about the quite dramatic history of these statures.

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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 Contactpage of this weblog.