Tag: Glazed Entrance

Victorian era coloured glass in Bucharest

Valentin Mandache
Victorian era coloured glass, Dacia area, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

The photograph above shows a sector of one of the picturesque Bucharest glazed entrances that adorns a Little Paris style house, dating from the 1890. The structure still preserves some of its beautiful coloured glass panes, artifacts used with great effect in that era to decorate doorway windows, conservatories or wall windows. The coloured glass sheet was quite an expensive item more than a century ago, compared with its transparent counterpart, still not yet mass produced. The palette of colours available was usually reduced to four strong hues: red (ruby), blue (dark blue), yellow (amber) and green (moss), which are all included,  a rare such instance for Bucharest, within the iron frame of this particular conservatory type entrance. From my field observations of edifices built between 1880s – 1910s, the ruby glass is most frequently encountered, followed in order by the dark blue, amber and green panes.

Glazed ironwork entrance from the La Belle Époque years

Valentin Mandache

The weather is still excessively wintry at the time when I write this post, with heavy snowfalls and blizzards affecting Bucharest and the surrounding region. I like to think that the following pictures of a flowery decorated glazed ironwork house entrance, which I photographed during a milder winter a couple of years ago, would cheer up the spirits 🙂 The artefact dates from the La Belle Époque years, which in the British world correspond with the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. I like its agreeable proportions and quality of material and craftsmanship, facts that would make it a straight forward restoration job, if ever someone would undertake such a travail, a very rare occurrence in this part of the world. I wrote another article a few days ago about the wonderful Fin de Siècle architectural ironwork creations, as is the one presented here, which embellish Bucharest; link here. The entrance comprises two beautiful side lamps, the second one not being visible from the angle in which I made the photograph. The house exhibiting this entrance is a wagon type one, a standard in house architecture in the Bucharest of that time: the building is positioned on a narrow strip of land, with its small side bordering the street, while the main façade and the entrance face the courtyard, or what remains from the unoccupied land, giving it somehow the appearance of a “wagon”, hence the difficult angle of photographing this piece of ironwork from the street.

Glazed ironwork entrance, Little Paris style house dating from the 1890s, Gara de Nord area, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)
Glazed ironwork entrance, Little Paris style house dating from the 1890s, Gara de Nord area, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)
Glazed ironwork entrance, Little Paris style house dating from the 1890s, Gara de Nord area, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

Glazed house entrance from the La Belle Époque era

Valentin Mandache
The 1900s glazed entrance structure affixed to a house dating from the late 1920s. Floreasca area, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

The well proportioned glazed wrought iron structure in the photograph above is typical for many entrances of Bucharest “Little Paris” style houses built between the late c19th – mid-1910s, such as in the example found at the following link. In this particular case, the house is more recent than the glazed structure, dating from sometimes in the late 1920s, of a basic Neo-Romanian style, which probably replaced an older Fin de Siècle dwelling built initially on that plot of land. The owners preserved probably a few bits from the former building, among them this magnificent vestige. I very much like how the original late Victorian/ La Belle Epoque era ruby and dark blue glass panes imprint the whole assembly with an intense personality.

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I endeavor through this series of daily 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 a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in sourcing the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contactpage of this weblog.