NEAR THE RADIANT OF
THE NEO-ROMANIAN STYLE

-text and photos Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
design Florin Alexandru Stancu-

2014 March 18 was a special day for me because,
after an interesting morning twilight in my quarter,
I decided to attack a new cultural theme.

Thus, on the same day I moved to the small square
named after King Mihai I
(a hero who saved the Romanian national state
and shortened World War II with a few months).

In fact, this square is the intersection of two streets from which,
on both sides of the Kiseleff Boulevard,
the Kiseleff Park begins.

In a corner of this park, a historical building appears,
the Doina House
(named after a traditional Romanian song of sadness,
included in the UNESCO immaterial heritage today),
which has a fascinating story.

Thus, in the 1880s a talented architect, Ion Mincu
(who had returned from Paris, where he had received a prize from
the Central Society of French Architects),
put the bases of the Neo-Romanian style
(the continuer of the “Brancovenesc” style -
launched in the 17th century by Constantin Brancoveanu,
a martyr “voievod” and “domnitor” of Christianity -
in combination with the style of the old Moldavian churches).

More or less enriched in time by others,
this style has as central element the model of
the Wallachian fortified mansions from the 17th century
and the Moldavian churches from the 15th century,
adorned by short columns, tri-lobed arches, solar-floral decors
and roof-towers in forms of prisms.

Ion Mincu projected such a mansion (in fact, a real palace)
to be the Romanian Pavilion for the 1889 Universal Exhibition in Paris,
but the funds appeared too late,
so he could made only in 1892 this emblematic building
right here, in the Kiseleff Park.

The Kiseleff Park is the oldest in Bucharest,
being inaugurated in 1832 and named after the chief of
the Russian military administration in Wallachia and Moldavia
in 1829-1834,
installed for 5 years after a Russian-Ottoman war.

(General Pavel Kiseleff received such a moral recognition from the Romanians
because he made very good things
for the modernization of the two Romanian countries).

I toured the Kiseleff Park in two different periods:

1. In 2014 March 19:

2. In 2017 September 14:

I found here a monument of Romanian Infantry…

…and three statues representing literary personalities:

-the Romanian writer and dramatist
Barbu Stefanescu Delavrancea (1858-1918),
well-known for “Sunset”, his drama from “The Trilogy of Moldova”,
dedicated to “Voievod” and “Domnitor” Stefan the Great (1457-1504)…

-the Latin poet
Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC- 8 AC),
who lived his last years on the territory of current Romania…

-the Persian poet, astronomer and mathematician
Omar Khayyam (1048-1131)…

…and, in 2018-05-28,
the recent monument dedicated to the American militaries
who served in Romania during World War II…

Then I thought to end the project combining
Delavrancea’s “Sunset”,
Ovid’s “Tristia”
and Khayyam’s “Rubaiyat”
in a photo-poem with the view of a sunset
over the Doina House (2014 March 18):

I am sad because I feel
I daily lose a better train.
I am glad because I know:
Tomorrow the Sun will rise again.

Then I wanted to add over the Doina House
two other heavenly bodies which are reproduced
on the Romanian coat of arms:

the Moon (2018 May 28):

…and Venus (also 2018 May 28):

But it was not enough for me, so I used as epilogue
a sunrise series which I took in 2014 March 20
from the kitchen of my childhood
(my parents’ apartment, central Bucharest):

…just because I think that
the Neo-Romanian style is another terrestrial try
to embrace the Sun.

NEAR THE RADIANT OF THE NEO-ROMANIAN STYLE

NEAR THE RADIANT OF
THE NEO-ROMANIAN STYLE