Wallachian Style – Valentin Mandache, architectural historian

The early Wallachian style of Balteni church (1626)

14/11/2022Valentin Mandache

This is a brief examination of the emergence of the Wallachian architectural style in the example of Balteni church, 20km north of Bucharest. The nave dates from the early 17th c, and is of a transitional architecture between the old Bulgarian style (the north Balkans Byzantine style) and the indigenous Wallachian one, which emerges properly in the mid-17th c. Here we can also see what I consider elements of Moldavian style (a Byzantine architecture imbued by the Gothic) influence. All of these give tantalising clues about the roots of the architecture native to the principality of Wallachia, the Wallachian style, aka Brancovenesc.

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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 Contact page of this weblog.

Tour: the Ottoman Bucharest & the Wallachian style

09/11/202215/11/2022Valentin Mandache

Dear readers,

I would like to invite you to a walking tour on the subject of the unique to Romania, Wallachian architecture, also known as Brancovan, an enthralling artistic current of fusion between local Byzantine traditions, Islamic ones of the Ottoman Empire, together with European Renaissance and Baroque elements, an expression of this land being at the juncture of the European and the Oriental civilisations. It emerged in the Principality of Wallachia, chiefly in the 18th century, in an age of stability and prosperity for this frontier province of the Sublime Porte. Bucharest became firmly established as its capital in that period, and, as a result, is endowed with a great assembly of architectural monuments displaying this singular style.

The tour is scheduled to take place on Saturday 12 November 2022, between 13.00h – 15.00h. 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, and the social and economic processes underlying it.

Although Bucharest is now a national capital within the European Union, linked primarily with Central and Western Europe, for most of its history, until the last quarter of the 19th century, the town was part of the Ottoman world, of the same mighty empire as Mecca, Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo or Tunis. That will give you a perspective of the enormous influence of the Turkish sultanate in this corner of Europe. Add to those geopolitical and cultural coordinates, the remarkable situation of Wallachia, together with neighbouring Moldavia, as the only Christian protectorates of the Islamic empire of the Porte, with their own Christian princes and aristocracy, not colonised with Muslim populations. The mix constituted a civilisational Petri dish inside which the Wallachian (Brancovan) art and architecture got crystallised and evolved. Its European Renaissance and Baroque inputs came via the circuitous route of Istanbul too, through the absorption of Enlightenment ideas by the cosmopolitan Ottoman capital, fanned over to its provinces, and not how one would expect, from the next door Austrian Empire, present over the Carpathian mountains, in Transylvania, where their rugged crest was not only a geographical obstacle with Europe, but also a cultural barrier. Read more →

Otesani church – a presentation of the late Wallachian style

04/07/2022Valentin Mandache

The Otesani church in Valcea county, Oltenia province, has been built in 1740, extended and repainted in the mid-19th c, in what I would term the late Wallachian style. It is one of the best preserved such examples, and a visual delight and exuberance of colours in the peculiar natural environment of the southern Romanian countryside.

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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.

Rural Wallachian style – Maldaresti Church

22/05/2022Valentin Mandache

The architectural style native to the former principality of Wallachia, the Wallachian, which manifested itself throughout the 18th c especially, as a local interpretation of the Ottoman baroque developed on older Byzantine and Western traditions, is expressed in high forms, such as town churches and monasteries, but also in rural, near vernacular versions, which nevertheless are intensely charming, with an intrinsic aesthetics and artistic value. Such an example is the Maldaresti village church, signalled in this video, from the Oltenia province of southwestern Romania, built in 1774 – 1790, which is still in a remarkable state of conservation, although in great need of care.

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Wallachian style veranda (late 17th c)

20/05/2022Valentin Mandache

This example of a living quarters for princely family veranda is at the Monastery from One Piece of Wood in the Oltenia province of southwestern Romania, and it exhibits the Wallachian style’s exuberance of colours and Ottoman baroque architectural elements, such as the keel arch and the inverse slant roof eaves.

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The Ottoman Baroque in Wallachia and Bulgaria

04/03/2022Valentin Mandache

In this video I chart the influence of the Ottoman baroque from its centre of radiation, Istanbul, to the European northern parts of the empire: in Wallachia and Bulgaria, a process which started in the late 17th c and unfurled until the mid 19th c. There are marked differences in how this influence took roots and materialised in the region, most paradoxically being the fact that it started on the frontier, in Wallachia, a relatively long distance from Istanbul, and a century later in Bulgaria, which was practically next door to the great Ottoman capital. That influence materialised into the emergence of the Wallachian and the Bulgarian Renaissance styles in art and architecture, which imprint the identity of these regions/ countries. The way I look at those phenomena is in the wider regional and historical context, and not in the local Romanian and Bulgarian ones as is most often the case with such analyses.

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The historic peasant cemetery of Cotorca, Buzau county

16/11/2020Valentin Mandache

In the middle of the Baragan Prairie, of southeast Romania, there is a historic peasant cemetery conserving Wallachian style stone crosses from the 19th c to the early 20th c. The place is an extraordinary time capsule and a testimony of a long gone way of life, traditions and culture of the rural communities in the plains at the foot of the Great Bend of the Carpathian Mountains.

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The Tulip Period and the Wallachian Style

19/05/2020Valentin Mandache

The Wallachian style in art and architecture, which is usually known as Brancovenesc (an incorrect term, in my opinion), was developed in the geopolitical and cultural context of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 17th century, culminating with the first decades of the 18th century, a period in the cultural history of the Ottoman Empire, called the Tulip Period. It is an era of Europeanisation of the Istanbul’s empire’s elite, and experimentation with new artistic models, and their synthesis in what will become the Ottoman Baroque and Rococo. The Wallachian style is a repercussion of those major trends in the special cultural conditions of Wallachia, with its Byzantine heritage, and its political autonomy as an Ottoman vassal, at the frontier of the sultan’s realm. In this video I articulate the broader phenomenon of the Tulip Period, to its narrower and more peculiar manifestation as the Wallachian Style, highlighting its wide international and complex cultural context of those times. Only through such a broad perspective we can understand the meanings and manifestations of the architectural style of Wallachia, that principality’s most important contribution to the world culture.

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Ottoman world influences on the Wallachian style

12/04/2020Valentin Mandache

A brief review of the artistic and architectural influences from throughout the Ottoman Empire into the making of the Wallachian style, the highly original Christian architecture with Islamic overtones of the Principality of Wallachia, the nowadays southern Romania, between the late 17th c and the early 19th c.

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Considerations on the Wallachian architectural style (aka Brancovan)

28/06/2018Valentin Mandache

The Wallachian style, is a highly original architecture and decorative arts design, which developed within the confines of the Principality of Wallachia, a Christian protectorate of the Ottoman Empire, during the period of stability and prosperity of this great state between the late 17th c and throughout the 18th c. It is a synthesis between local Byzantine traditions, together with Islamic ones, at which is added European Baroque and Renaissance elements. The style is usually named Brancovan or Brancovenesc, which in my opinion is incorrect, not properly and precisely reflecting its geographical and civilisational locus in Wallachia. This video details for you this important chapter of the arts and architecture of the early modern southeast Europe, which has been crucial for the development of the the later Neo-Romanian style, the national style of Romania.

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	Valentin Mandache on Neo-Romanian Roof Finials
	Camil Isacov on Neo-Romanian Roof Finials
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