Dear readers, I would like to invite you to a thematic walking tour, to take place on Sunday 28 May 2017, between the hours 12.00h – 14.00h, on the subject of the late c19th – early c20th French and western historicist inspired architecture of Bucharest, which made the city known to the rest of world as the “Little Paris … Read more Tour: Bucharest as the Little Paris of the Balkans
I am very much enjoying your site on the buildings of Romania – one of the very few countries, which Nikolaus Pevsner never really explored! I am sure he would have been fascinated by the evidence you present on the Romanian spirit as it influences Art Nouveau and the other movements that interested him so much. … Read more Testimonials
Articles in newspapers and online-based media, books, radio and TV programmes where I was invited to contribute or my blog is specifically mentioned (click the links for access): Article in the Bucharest cultural events monthly magazine Be Where the CityIs about the Historic Houses of Romania thematic tour “Ecclesiastical Bucharest“, on 30 Nov. 2011. [magazine, in Romanian] … Read more In the media
Historic Houses of Romania – Case de Epoca is the liveliest and most professional online resource dedicated to the architectural heritage of this region, written by me, Valentin Mandache. I am an architectural historian, based in Bucharest, trained in the history and civilisation of Southeast Europe at the London School of Economics and Political Science, with a wide international experience in the field of cultural studies and consulting.Read more About
As part of the one-to-one interaction with the interested public, I organise architectural scheduled and private walking tours in Bucharest and other towns and parts of Romania or abroad, together with a series of courses, envisioned to spreading the knowledge and appreciation of the local heritage, architectural styles and history, which together represent a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European patrimony.Read more Tours
A historic house is an aesthetic product embodying the fashions of the time when it was built, together with the social and artistic aspirations of its proprietors, often an object of art resulting from the meeting of minds between the architect who designed it and the initial owner. It is also an expression of identity, such as national, regional, cosmopolitan, religious, professional, or ethnic, , reflected in its architectural style and decoration.Read more Consulting
The introduction, for the benefit of the participants, at the Historic Houses of Romania walking tour in west Cotroceni area of Bucharest, the 21 May 2017 edition.
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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 Contactpage of this weblog.
I would like to propose you a new architectural history tour, in the western part of the picturesque Cotroceni quarter, which contains the grandiose edifices of the Medical Sciences University and the Palace of the President of Romania. The tour completes my series of distinct walks (east, central and west) covering this architecturally valuable area of Bucharest.
The event is scheduled to take place this Sunday 21 May 2017, between 11.30h – 13.30h. This cultural excursion could be of interest to any of you visiting Romania’s capital as a tourist or on business, looking to understand the character of this metropolis through discovering its peculiar and fascinating old architecture.
The most beautiful baroque revival style palace of Bucharest is the Medical Sciences University, the best such school in southeast Europe, designed by the Swiss architect Louis Blanc, and built in 1902, which is at the centre of west Cotroceni. Its aesthetics is auspiciously put into light by the the surrounding elegant built environment, one of the finest in the capital. You are thus going to sample, under my guidance, many of those examples, displaying a dazzling array of symbolism and messages, typical of the Neoromanian, the national architecture of this country, or the international Art Deco, Modernist and Mediterranean styles. The creators of many of those buildings were part of the golden generations of Romanian architects, people active mostly in the interwar period, when this part of Cotroceni was endowed with the bulk of its houses. Some of them are still being mentioned in name tablets on the walls of the residential edifices they designed, akin to the signature of a painter on canvass, people like Read more →
I would like to invite you to a Historic Houses of Romania walking tour, in the area centered on Mathias Berthelot Street, just north of Cismigiu Park, which is a repository of some of the most representative period architecture imprinting the personality of Romania’s capital, akin to an open air museum of its built heritage.
The tour is scheduled to take place this Saturday 20 May 2017, between the hours 11.30h – 13.30h. This cultural excursion could be of interest to any of you visiting Romania’s capital as a tourist or on business, looking to understand the character of this metropolis through discovering its peculiar and fascinating old architecture.
Mathias Berthelot, whose name is given to the main street in the area, was a French general of the Great War era, who in 1916 became the commander of the Allied mission tasked with reorganising and equipping Romania’s Royal Army, thus enabling it to effectively oppose the Central Powers and hinder their plans to occupy the country. For his achievements he was made a honorary citizen of Romania and is considered a hero of both countries. The French influence is also prevalent in the architecture of Berthelot urban space, seen in an array containing quaint Little Paris style residences, displaying Art Nouveau decorations besides, palazzos, and the best of them all, the French Renaissance inspired Kretzulescu Palace, one of the town’s iconic buildings, erected in the early 1900, designed by arch. Petre Antonescu. The Radio Broadcasting House is another important edifice, built at the height of the Stalinist era, but designed during the Read more →
A short presentation of CEC building in Bucharest, a bank edifice, iconic for the town, erected in 1900, a Beaux Arts style design by the French architect Paul Gottereau. It is one the buildings, which gives weight to the fame of Bucharest as the Little Paris of the Balkans.
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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 advise 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.
The historic architecture is in a much larger proportion conditioned by the local geology than is the case with the modern one. The availability of local stone, clay, pigments and other materials found in local quarries or ground influence the motifs and design of buildings in a location. In this video I discuss how the geology of the western shore of the Black Sea, especially the area around the seaside town of Balchik in Bulgaria, which in the interwar period was a sort of “Saint Tropez” of neighbouring Romania, conditions the architectural designs there.
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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 advise 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.
There is amazement among participants at my architectural tours who come from Spain or Portugal of how familiar the architecture of 17th and 18th centuries of Bucharest, the Brancovan or Wallachian style, look to them, similar with designs from the same period in their countries. This video puts forward the most likely explanation for this intersting convergence of architectural forms between the Southwestern and Southwestern corners of Europe.
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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 advise 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.
A brief about the building hosting Radio Romania, the national broadcasting station in that country, which is a Mussolinian/ Italian Fascist era design, but built at the height of Stalinism in that part of the world, in 1952. It shows through this architectural example that there is a convergence of ideas and forms between those two ideologically messianic dictatorships, and that the architects serving one of those regimes can find employment in the new dictatorship.
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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 advise 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.
Examination of structural details exposed on a Little Paris style house in ruin, in Berthelot area of Bucharest. Although this is a tragedy for the local heritage, at least among the complete indifference of most of the local public, the few of us who care about the built heritage can examine at close quarter how those houses were built and what type of material were used more than a century ago during the La Belle Epoque period. This knowledge can prove useful when the tide of public opinion will turn into the favour of preserving such buildings.
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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 advise 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.
The customary introduction given to Historic Houses of Romania’s architectural walks. This one is for the walk in east Cotroceni area of Bucharest, organised on 1 May 2017.
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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 advise 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.
An interesting case of three Art Deco panels symbolising economic activities insured by an insurance company, permuting on the facade design of the building which in the 1930s headquartered that Bucharest insurance company on Edgar Quinet Street.
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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 advise 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.
Dear readers,