Dear Readers,
I would like to invite you to a Historic Houses of Romania tour in Carol Park, which apart from intellectual fulfilment, would also offer the possibility to take a breath of fresh air and witness the onset of spring season at this latitude. The tour is open to all of you who would like to accompany me, the author of this blog, for two hours, on Sunday 21 June 2015, between 11.30h – 13.30h.
We will identify and examine the fascinating vestiges of the Great Exhibition of 1906 (also known as the Royal Jubilee Exhibition, see the pictures presented here), held in that park created specially for the event, when the Neo-Romanian architectural style was popularised to the wider public, contributing to the inception of its mature phase of development for the next two decades and its large scale adoption throughout Romania and neighbouring regions, where the country had a direct influence, especially during the interwar period.
The 1906 Royal Jubilee Exhibition has been the largest such event in south east Europe, modelled after the great universal exhibitions that took place in the western capitals or America starting with the mid c19th. The event was a proud gathering place of some of the best creations Romania had to offer at that date, celebrating 40 years of King Carol I’s glorious rule that saw the economic advancement, and achievement of the country’s independence, and also 1,800 years since what are now the Romanian lands were conquered by the Roman Empire (what in historiography is known as Emperor Trajan’s second Dacian War), which thus ignited the formation of the Romanian language and community. The exhibition whose remains we are going to admire in this special tour, was the equivalent of the TV or the websites of its day, immensely contributing to the spread of design fashions, especially Neo-Romanian architectural models throughout the whole of the then Romania.
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)
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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 