A short presentation of the environment of the Lower Danube Prairie as seen in an example from the south of Buzau county, Romania.
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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 advise 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.
I photographed the small flock of sparrows, seen above, during yesterday’s architectural history and photography tour, in front of the Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau styles Cantacuzino Palace on Calea Victoriei, Bucharest. The birds are like a messenger of the changing of seasons period going on now at this latitude, with the autumn starting to be felt all around here at forty five degree north in continental Europe. These are juvenile house sparrows (Passer domesticus) judging after their plumage and dusty sullied look. The second one, from the right, was loudly singing, in tone with the music festival hosted by the building 🙂 The huge stock of period houses in Bucharest, which are as a rule in a dreary state of repair, provide an excellent environment for these beautiful birds to nest and proliferate. They are thus an unassuming, but important part of city’s environmental identity, together with the crows or species of trees such as acacia or lime trees.
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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.
***********************************************
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.
I have encountered in the last few days a few glorious sights of luxuriant fruit and flowers in Bucharest, a few photographs of which are presented bellow. This sort of wonderful natural spectacle was very common in this city before the communist industrialisation and construction of the huge quarters of grey and overwhelmingly ugly concrete apartment blocks built to house the huge workforce brought in from the countryside. Today the city still suffers form the same industrialisation no matter what syndrome, with still little regard for promoting, let alone expanding, the remaining green areas. Bucharest of yesteryears has been an Eden like place not only from the point of view of its historic architecture, but also because of its luxuriant trees, fruit and flowers.
Glorious cherry plums - Bucharest high summer 2011 fruit and flowers (photo: Valentin Mandache)Half mature quinces, getting ready for the autumn harvest - Bucharest high summer 2011 fruit and flowers (photo: Valentin Mandache)Exuberant flowers, species Albizia Julibrissin (info: Athena Dumitriu) or Persian Silk Tree, Bucharest high summer 2011 fruit and flowers (photo: Valentin Mandache)Blossoming tree (see above for flower detail), species Albizia Julibrissin (info: Athena Dumitriu) or Persian Silk Tree - Bucharest high summer 2011 fruit and flowers (photo: Valentin Mandache)
After a long and boringly cold winter, the spring has again been late to arrive this year in Bucharest, at 45 degree North latitude in continental Europe. Today it might be that elusive turning point toward the spring as I have been thrilled to discover and photograph the exquisitely beautiful butterfly pictured above. The creature was sunning itself to gather strength in the bright light of what looks as the first proper spring day of the year in Bucharest. I hope that this encounter is a good omen for the rest of the year!
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I endeavour through this daily series of articles to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural history and heritage.
***********************************************
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.
Crows coming home to roost 🙂 in the early evening hours in the Kiseleff park Bucharest among a snowy landscape at -8C temperature. The whole scene is very evocative of Bucharest’s environmental identity in winter and is typical to prairie/ steppe regions of Eastern Europe encountered from Romania, Ukraine to Russia.
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I endeavor through this daily 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.
***********************************************
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.
Valentin Mandache, architectural historian 