|
Wooden Church from
Maramures
 During the Romanian
mediaeval epoch there existed two types of construction, different in
point of both materials and technique, which developed in parallel. The
first is the popular architecture, whose most spectacular achievements
were the wooden churches, especially those in the villages of Maramures,
Banat and Apuseni Mountains, where the tradition is still carried out
today. In Maramures, in Surdesti village, the 54-m high church tower
built during 1721-1724 is among the highest of this kind in Europe. The
second comprises mainly monasteries, as well as princely seats or boyar
mansions. Most of the old lay edifices were destroyed by times, wars,
earthquakes and fires.
In mediaeval
architecture, influences of Western trends can be traced, to a greater
or lesser extent, in all the three lands inhabited by Romanians. Such
influences are stronger in Transylvania, and weaker in Moldavia, in
forms absorbed by local and Byzantine tradition. In Wallachia, Western
elements in architecture were even fewer; there, from the 14th century
architecture was based on the local adaptation of the Byzantine model
(the Princely Church in Curtea de Arges and the Cozia Monastery).
Episcopal church of Curtea
de Arges |
Black Church |
There are monuments
significant for the Transylvanian Gothic style preserved to this day, in
spite of all alterations, such as the Black Church in Brasov (14th-15th
c.) and a number of other cathedrals, as well as the Bran Castle in
Brasov County (14th c.), the Hunyades Castle in Hunedoara (15th c.) a.o.
The Bran Castle (14th c.) |
Hunyades Castle in
Hunedoara (15th c.) |
Transylvania also
developed fortified towns extensively during the Middle Ages; their
urban growth respected principles of functionality (the usual pattern is
a central market place with a church, narrow streets with sides linked
here and there by archways): the cities of Sighisoara, Sibiu and Brasov
are remarkable examples in that sense. Building greatly developed in
Moldavia, too. A great number of fortresses were built or rebuilt during
the reign of Moldavias greatest prince, Stephen the Great (1457-1504).
Suceava, Neamt, Hotin, Soroca and others were raised and successfully
withstood the sieges laid in the course of time by Sultan Mehmet II, the
conqueror of Constantinople, by the kings of Poland and Hungary.
Sibiu |
Sighisoara |
Neamt Monastery
It was during his time that the Moldavian style, of great originality
and stylistic unity, developed, by blending Gothic elements with the
Byzantine structure specific to the churches. Among such constructions,
the monumental church of the Neamt Monastery served, for more than a
century, as a model for Moldavian churches and monasteries. The style
was continued in the 16th c., during the rule of Stephen the Greats son,
Petru Rares (1527-1538; 1541-1546). The main innovation was the porch
and the outwall paintings (the churches of Voronet, Sucevita, Moldovita
monasteries). These churches of Northern Moldavia have become famous
worldwide, due to the beauty of their painted elegant shapes that can be
seen from afar.
Palace of Mogosoaia
The 17th century, the zenith of the pre-modern Romanian civilization,
brought about a more significant development of outstanding lay
constructions (elegant boyard mansions or sumptuous princely palaces in
the principalities outside the Carpathian arc, Renaissance-style lordly
castles in Transylvania), as well as the expansion of great monasteries.
The latter were endowed with schools, art workshops, printing presses,
and they were significant cultural centers. To this period belongs the
church of the Trei Ierarhi Monastery in Iasi, raised in
1635-1639, a unique monument due to its lavish decoration with carved
geometric motifs, colored in lapis lazuli and golden foil, all over the
facades. The architectural style developed in Walachia, especially under
the reigns of Matei Basarab (1632-1654) and Constantin Brancoveanu
(1688-1714), is of a remarkable stylistic unity. The Brancovan style is
characterized by integration of Baroque and Oriental features into the
local tradition. Splendid examples are the Hurezi Monastery in Oltenia (Wallachia
Minor) or the princely palace of Mogosoaia, both of which are lavishly
decorated, with beautiful stone carvings, stucco work and paintings.
The 18th century (the Phanariot rule)
brought to Wallachia and Moldavia elements of Oriental influence in
urban civil architecture, where the number of religious constructions
decreased relatively. In Transylvania, the Baroque dominated both
religious (the Roman-Catholic churches in Timisoara and Oradea) and lay
architecture (Banffy Palace in Cluj and Brukenthal Palace in Sibiu).
Justice Palace
In the first half of the 19th century, urban life grew considerably and
there was a Western-type modernization policy, due to which the
architecture of the Romanian lands became a combination of Romantic and
Neo-Classical elements. In the second half of the century a national
tendency developed, to use to a great extent elements and forms of the
traditional local architecture. Ion Mincu (1852-1912) was founder of
both trends and of the Romanian school of architecture. His works, the
Lahovary House or the Central Girls School in Bucharest, are among the
most prominent achievements of this movement. It is due to an opposite
trend that they designed houses and administrative buildings in the
spirit of French eclecticism (the Justice Palace, the Central Post
Office) or by adapting classicism (the buildings that now hosts the
House of the Men of Science, or the Cantacuzino Palace in Bucharest).
House of the Men of Science |
Cantacuzino Palace |
That was the time when the Romanian
Athaeneum, one of the capitals most famous buildings, was erected in the
same style (1886-1888). All those French-looking buildings raised around
1900 were a reason to nickname Bucharest Little Paris. Other important
architects, like Petre Antonescu (1873-1965), Horia Creanga (1893-1943)
and Duiliu Marcu (1885-1966) stood out by their commitment to simple and
functional forms.
Romanian Athenaeum |
Calea Victoriei |
Sutu Palace |
House of Academics |
"Manuc" Inn |
Musem of the Romanian Peasant |
"M. Minovici" Folk Art Museum |
Cathedral of the Romanian Orthodox Church |
In the first decades of the 20th
century, Romanian towns and cities still had a contrasting aspect,
exhibiting a sharp difference between the downtown sumptuous buildings
and the almost rural outskirts, while the villages remained,
architecturally speaking, mainly unchanged. Nevertheless, the first
signs of town planning appeared in some urban districts (the first two-
or three-storied blocks of flats or one-family houses on two levels).
Industrialization and fast urban growth, forced especially in the last
two decades of the communist epoch, introduced in architecture
long-series typified projects and pre-fib technology in the construction
of 8-10 storied blocks of flats, which resulted in huge living quarters,
leveling up the Romanian townscape. Unfortunately, nationalism,
characterizing the last Ceausescu stage of Romanian communism, did not
reflect in Romanian architecture. Traditional urban central areas and
rural towns were destroyed, and replaced by conglomerates of blocks of
flats, while the same ruler imposed the erection of monumental public
buildings of a dull ecclectic solemnity. Proof of this intrusion of
politics in the life of the city stands the huge palace built on
Ceausescu's order in Bucharest, now the Parliament House, whose
construction necessitated the demolition of several quarters downtown.
As in so many other domains, the post-revolutionary Romanian world will
be bound to find again in architecture the way that best answers its
needs for functionality and outlook. |
