Tag: Guided Tour

Tour: Patriarchal See Hill area

Tour: Patriarchal See Hill area

Valentin Mandache

Dear readers,

I would like to invite you, as the author of Historic Houses of Romania – Case de Epoca blog, to an architectural history tour in Patriarchal See Hill area of Bucharest, scheduled to take place this Saturday 10 September, between 11.30h and 13.30h. This cultural excursion is open to all of you who are looking to find out more about the history and identity of Romania’s capital seen through its architectural heritage.

We will explore the urban expanse surrounding what is considered the “Acropolis” of Bucharest, the hill that dominates the old town and is the seat of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the main faith of this country, containing the patriarchal cathedral together with its administrative quarters, reworked in the interwar period by the architect Gheorghe Simotta in neo-Brancovan and Neoromanian styles. The Patriarchal See Hill area also Read more →

Tour in west Cotroceni

Tour in west Cotroceni

Valentin Mandache
Cotroceni west-004
Medical Sciences University, west Cotroceni

Dear readers,

I would like to propose you an architectural history tour, in the western part of the picturesque Cotroceni quarter, which contains the grandiose edifices of the Medical Sciences University and the Palace of the President of Romania. The tour completes my series of distinct walks (east, central and west) covering this architecturally valuable area of Bucharest.

The event is scheduled to take place this Sunday 17 July 2022, between 10.30h – 12.30h. This cultural excursion could be of interest to any of you visiting Romania’s capital as a tourist or on business, looking to understand the character of this metropolis through discovering its peculiar and fascinating old architecture.

The most beautiful baroque revival style palace of Bucharest is the Medical Sciences University, the best such school in southeast Europe, designed by the Swiss architect Louis Blanc, and built in 1902, which is at the centre of west Cotroceni. Its aesthetics is auspiciously put into light by the the surrounding elegant built environment, one of the finest in the capital. You are thus going to sample, under my guidance, many of those examples, displaying a dazzling array of symbolism and messages, typical of the Neoromanian, the national architecture of this country, or the international Art Deco, Modernist and Mediterranean styles. The creators of many of those buildings were part of the golden generations of Romanian architects, people active mostly in the interwar period, when this part of Cotroceni was endowed with the Read more →

Plantelor area of Bucharest tour – video teaser

Valentin Mandache

Here are a series of photos charting the route of my architectural history tour in Plantelor area of Bucharest, showing eloquent buildings, cityscapes, and me, the tour guide, in all a singular cultural experience for those who participate. This is one of the multitude of tours and courses that I offer in person or online, enabling you to find out in an eloquent and structured manner about Bucharest, its architectural identity and history, within its highly peculiar southeastern European context, at the articulation point between the East and the West.

Tour in Piata Victoriei

Tour in Piata Victoriei

Valentin Mandache

Dear Readers,

This is an invitation to an architectural history tour in Piata Victoriei area of Bucharest: open to all of you who would like to accompany me, the author of the Historic Houses of Romania blog, for two hours, between 10.00h – 12.00h, on Saturday 31 July 2021.

I will be your guide through a remarkably rich and architecturally varied area of central Bucharest, where famous public buildings often stand side by side with quaint Little Paris, Neo-Romanian or Art Deco and Modernist style private houses. The character of the local built landscape has been in large part determined by the architecture embellishing two Read more →

Presenting my brand new voice amplifier

Valentin Mandache

An important part of my architectural education work is the guided tours on architectural styles, historic houses, heritage architecture areas of Bucharest, Romania and southeast Europe. The tours are by their nature conducted outdoors, in the midst of the community, with people getting about their business in noise generating cars, buses, trains, roadworks, etc. and is often hard to project my voice for the benefit of the participants to listen comfortably to the information I provide. That is why I have equipped myself with a voice amplifier, which will improve the delivery of my specialist speeches. The device is called “Smart”, designed by Voice Amplifier of Israel, a heavy duty voice amplifier from a country with a rich experience dealing with cultural tours, and came to me as a birthday present, which is next month, from my brother’s family in Canada- reflecting a truly global network, which is also the essence of my architectural history work.

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My aim, through this series of blog articles, is to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania and Southeast Europe, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of world’s architectural history and heritage.

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If you have a historic house project in Romania or other country in Southeast Europe, I would be delighted to advise you in aspects pertaining to its architectural history and ways to preserve as much as possible from its period fabric and aesthetics in the course of restoration or renovation works, or to counsel you with specialist consultancy work related to that project. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this website.

Tour in Gara de Nord area

Tour in Gara de Nord area

Valentin Mandache

Dear readers

This is an invitation to an architectural history tour in Gara de Nord area of Bucharest, open to all of you who would like to accompany me, the author of the Historic Houses of Romania blog, this coming Sunday 4 December 2016, for two hours, between 11.30h – 13.30h!

I will be your expert guide through this architecturally diverse space surrounding Bucharest’s communication hub with the rest of Romania, the grandiose Northern Train Station (Gara de Nord), an edifice combining stern classical outlines with vitalist Art Deco details. The local built landscape is characterised by interesting old hotels and guest houses, former entrainment places, the famous Roads and Bridges School, which is hosted in a remarkable Fin de Siècle, neo-Renaissance style building, a traditional produce market and  a multitude of dwellings built for the railway workers and Read more →

Architectural tour in Targoviste

Valentin Mandache

Dear readers,

This is an invitation to an architectural history tour in Targoviste, renowned as the former capital of the former Principality of Wallachia and one of the seats of Vlad the Impaler, among many other fearsome medieval Wallachian rulers of the Medieval era, located north-west of Bucharest, 80km away, in the foothills of the Transylvanian Alps. The tour is open to all of you who would like to accompany me, the author of the Historic Houses of Romania blog on Sunday 11 September 2016!

I will be your expert guide in this excellently endowed in old architecture town. Targoviste contains a superb selection of period houses and public buildings, reflecting the styles and architectural evolution of Romania’s provincial towns since late Middle Ages. The locals are proud of the city’s heritage and legacy as a former princedom capital, somehow as Winchester is seen in England, if I may draw that parallel, with ample medieval ruins poignantly reminding its Read more →

Tour: Bucharest’s great allegorical panoplies

Valentin Mandache

Historic Houses of Romania - Case de Epoca architectural tourDear readers,

I am organising an after working hours thematic architectural tour on Thursday 28 July 2016, between 18.30h – 20.00h, on the subject of the great architectural allegorical panoplies adorning some of the most prominent buildings in the centre of Bucharest. This cultural excursion may be of interest to any of you visiting the city as a tourist or on business, to discover the hidden messages and identities displayed by the beautiful, but often neglected richly decorated panels that Read more →

Tour in Calea Calarasi area

Valentin Mandache

Dear readers,

This is an invitation to an architectural walking tour in Calea Calarasi historic area of Bucharest, open to all of you who would like to accompany me, the author of the Historic Houses of Romania blog, this Sunday 24 April 2016, for two hours, between 11.30h – 13.30h.

I will be your guide through this quaint Bucharest quarter, reminiscent of its heydays as the Little Paris of the Balkans, but also containing a multitude of fine Neoromanian, Art Deco and vernacular architectures. Apart from those designs, there are also a few old houses from the Ottoman era displaying forms and motifs encountered in the wider region, from the Balkans to Anatolia. Calea Calarasi area is located in the centre-east part of the old Bucharest, which took off as a Read more →

Tour in Carol Park: the 1906 Exhibition

Valentin Mandache

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 Read more →