Bellow is a fascinating cubist-like design embellishing a wrought iron gate structure, which I encountered in Cotroceni quarter of Bucharest and have also shown to the participants at my architectural history tour, which took place in June past. It is another testimonial of the effervescent creative years of Bucharest that span the inter-war period, considered as a golden age for this city. The gate is in a run down state and needs urgent caring attention, but I doubt that it would ever receive any attention from the contemporary Bucharest people, having in fact a much higher chance to reach the scrapyard and be replaced by a new and “beautiful”, in their uncouth eyes, production line gate from a DIY shop.
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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.
Valentin Mandache, architectural historian 
I bet those wrought iron gates looked very jazzy when they were first installed. You mentioned the cubist pattern belonged to Art Deco style house dating from the mid-1930s.
Do you know whether the house itself had a deco style? If so, the gates could easily be restored and it would be well worth while.
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Thank you for your comment Helen!
Quite probably the gates were painted in livelier colours during their glory days in the late 1930s. The building to which they belong is an apartment house displaying a quite mundane Art Deco façade, which contrasts with the exquisiteness of the gates. That may be because Bucharest had two catastrophic earthquakes, over 7.0 degree Richter (1940 and 1977), since the structure was built, and incurred extensive damages, followed by sloppy repairs. Also there was lack of proper maintenance throughout the communist period and in the last 20 years since the fall of communism. I doubt that the actual proprietors would appreciate these gates as people in Australia or West and Central Europe would appreciate them. The long decades of dictatorship and terrible quality educational system that followed have seen a dramatic lowering of the general level of culture in the country, with the result that contemporary Romanians are much less aware about their architectural heritage and history in general than their inter-war forefathers, when these gates were built. I myself was not aware of these things until I studied about them and lived in Britain for some good years, before coming back to Romania and chronicling about them in this blog.
Best regards, Valentin
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