Silvestru Rafiroiu (1903-1961)

Recognized as a modern and innovative architect even during his ^activity1, although he has a smaller number of works and, perhaps, not as visible on a national level as those of his contemporaries, the architects Marcel Iancu, Horia Creangă, G. M. Cantacuzino, Henriette Delavrancea-Gibory, the quality of some of his works could give him the legitimacy to appear alongside them in the history of the interwar period of Romanian architecture. The architect Silvestru Rafiroiu was one of the representatives of the new modernist movement in the Arad-Timisoara area, covering a wide range of programs: systematization, individual and collective housing, bank headquarters, places of worship, public monuments and funerary monuments, swimming pools, cinemas.

The stylistic approach differs according to the program. The residential and leisure buildings are designed in an avant-garde style for that period, compositions of clear, almost austere geometric volumes, without using any kind of decoration, while for the places of worship and public monuments and funerary monuments he approached sobriety, interpreting the Romanian style in his own way. Even here, in some churches (UTA Square, Agriș) the use of decorations was minimal, the architecture standing out for its volumetric composition and the full-hollow ratio.

Silvestru Rafiroiu was born on November 28, 1903, in Araci, jud. Trei Scaune (now Vâlcele, Covasna County), the fourth of seven brothers. Silvestru showed his inclination for beauty since childhood. He began his primary education at the school in Araci, and then went on to the Orthodox High School in Brasov, now called "Andrei Saguna". He went to school with his brother Iosif during the First World War. In order to consolidate their education, the two brothers completed their secondary education at the "Constantin Diaconovici Loga" High School in Timișoara, graduating in 1922. Silvestru then went on to study at the Higher School of Architecture in Bucharest, graduating in 1929.

In 1934 he married Elisabeta Silagy (1900-1985), a civil servant at Arad City Hall. They had no children.

Silvestru Rafiroiu was a member of the Corps of Architects (1933-1949), having the license of free practice 297/09.05.1933. He carried out his professional activity at the Mocsonyi Domaiile, at the Arad City Hall, being a member of the building committee of Arad (1929-1932), as a freelance between 1932-1939, then architect at the Timișoara City Hall between 1936-1948, between 1950-1953 architect designer at the I.P.I.V. Timișoara, site manager at Sovromconstrucția between 1950-1952, and from 1953 - architect referent at D.R.D.T.

He died in Timișoara, on November 10, 1961, and was buried in Elisabetin Cemetery, next to his family.

ARCHITECTURAL AND URBAN PLANNING PROJECTS

In his registration file in the UAR under Professional Activity, architect Rafiroiu listed: 14 dwelling houses, 3 cinemas, 1 swimming pool, 2 primary schools, 1 canteen club, 3 caves, 11 churches, 3 competitions: Timișoara Cathedral, Arad swimming pool and Oravița Prefecture.

To date they have been identified:

Urban Planning

Arad: sketch of the layout of the city grove - Podgoria-Pădurice-Obor (1931) and sketch of the BUJAC district (1932)

Timișoara: documentation and sketch for the systematization of the city (1947)

Competitions

Timișoara: Orthodox Cathedral, Arad Swimming Pool and Oravița Prefecture

Housing

Arad: 7 Nicolae Grigorescu Street - 1932, 20 Nicolae Bălcescu Street - 1934, 8 Vasile Alexandri Street - 1933, 8 Vasile Alexandri Street - 1933, G-ral. Praporgescu, nr. 3

Timișoara: Take Ionescu street, no. 35 - 1934, Pietatea Bănățeană, two buildings, Bd. Revoluției din 1989, 26-28 - 1935

Places of worship

Arad: Piața UTA - 1934, Iuliu Maniu, nr. 124 - 1930, Tudor Vladimirescu - 1930, Agrișul Mare - 1936, Bata - 1947, Bodrog, summer chapel - 1935, Sofronea - 1939

Public and funerary monuments

Arad: Cross of the martyrs of Arad, Eminescu Park - 1936; Halmagiu: Monument of the Heroes of the Nation - 1933; Demetriu Bonciu Chapel, Eternity Cemetery - 1932; Vasile Goldiș monument, Eternity Cemetery - 1934; Ștefan Albu monument, Eternity Cemetery - 1932, entrance gate, Pomenirea Cemetery - 1932

Public institutions

Timișoara: Banca Victoria - transformations, Bd. Revoluției, nr. 1 - 1938, Banca Albina, 2 Mercy Street - 1939

Others

Lipova: Lipova Baths bathing pavilion - 1936; Arad: Neptun Bathing entrance gate (demolished), Central Summer Garden, on the banks of the Mures, behind the Casino (demolished), improvised shopfitting, 1 Metianu Street (demolished)

Housing

Although the number of dwellings designed by the architect Silvestru Rafiroiu seems to be relatively ^small2, compared to the cult buildings realized, they need to be analyzed, as housing was a favorite program of the Modern Movement. Analyzing the housing projects allows us to understand the variants adopted and the degree to which they adapted to the local context. It can also help to decipher professional ethics in relation to components of the architect's personality.

At first sight, his works belong to the radical direction of the Modern Movement, which is distinguished by significant aspects such as: the assumption of the social task of solving the housing problem, the rejection of the traditional urban order, the rational and complex approach to the design of housing from the inside outwards, through successive levels of integration up to urban control, the use of new technologies and their expressive values, and the rejection of academic dogma and ornamentation.

A closer look reveals several departures from the "hard" principles of modernist housing. The program, as perceived and promoted by the architect Rafiroiu, contains several distinct main ideas, derogating from the primary theme-concept, which signify different approaches:

- privileged individual dwelling, the preferred program for asserting the architect's personality;

- collective housing, subject to constraints that allow a development with stronger urban implications;

- low-income housing, involving the greatest constraints;

- Careful integration into the characteristic urban context (support of the street frontage, adaptation to the plot, including its geometry);

- operating with a volumetric and formal register oscillating between modernism and contextualism.

Through these observations, it is possible to approximate the way in which, in general, modernism was perceived in the Romanian space. In the inter-war period, with few exceptions, the insertion of dwellings into the urban fabric of the major cities was done with a profound sense of context. The pylon-buildings in Bucharest, Craiova, Galați, Brăila, Timișoara, Cluj, etc. are carefully shaped in relation to the street frontage, plot angles, often with the height regime and propose - when the implants are of the "cul-de-sac" type - small ensembles reminiscent of earlier spontaneous developments. All in all, we believe that it is important to approach "as a whole" and not "as a piece" of architecture, meaning both the insertion into an existing ensemble and the creation of a new ensemble, in all these cases the coherence of the final product being the priority.

In his work, Silvestru Rafiroiu has tackled all housing programs: urban villas, buildings of a high standard of comfort.

The projects will be analyzed from the following points of view: the relationship with the urban context, the functional-spatial configuration at the level of the building and the apartment, the compositional syntax at the level of the volume and facades, architectural procedures and specific morphological elements of language.

Religious buildings and monuments

The issue of the new generation of Romanian Orthodox buildings of worship dominated the inter-war period, from a doctrinal, political and religious point of view. Another circumstance in relation to which this issue must be discussed is the dispute between "modernism" and "traditionalism" in the sphere of architecture, which began in the 1920s and intensified from the 1930s onwards. The issue of religious buildings, which defined the characteristics of the Romanian civilization, could not fail to be integrated into it, remaining the most "visible" object of Romanian architecture, still preserved in large numbers, in an area that has massively recycled its architectures.

The issue of this new generation of Romanian Orthodox churches must be understood as a mixture of different tendencies and points of view. As in the case of "neo-Romanianism", which was still producing major architectures, the direction of the search was to be the Romanian medieval tradition, revealed (even if fragmentary and sometimes distorted) by foreign personalities, accompanied by a large number of local personalities. It can be said that, after the Great Union, a set of models of a national character tended to emerge, adding elements that were defining for different regions and periods, but which could be integrated into the new context. It is not surprising that the source of inspiration for the major stage of the program in western and central Romania was the Byzantine edifice, but also Moldavian and Brâncovenetian architecture. We have in mind the "cathedrals" of Alba Iulia, Sibiu, Orăștie, Cluj, Satu Mare, Timișoara, "monumentalized" in terms of proportions and size, to which is added the choice of significant sites (major squares, viewpoints, etc.). The same sources can also be found in the rest of the country (Bucharest - "Sf. Elefterie Nou", Sinaia, Galați, Craiova, etc.), producing a veritable stylistic mixture, impossible to localize and, frequently, to date. Attempts to work in the modern spectrum, with forms and technologies adapted to the moment, almost do not exist, noting only a few isolated cases of churches more carefully shaped and elegant in terms of proportions and elements used ("St. Nicholas" on Horea St., Cluj - arch. G. Cristinel, and the church in Calea Șagului, in Timișoara), to which, as we shall see, we add those by the architect Rafiroiu. Constantin Joja's solution in the competition for the Chisinau Cathedral remains unique, at least in the unusualness of the solution.

Architect Rafiroiu's church projects must therefore be seen and understood in this context. We can imagine his effort to seek and find viable landmarks in a context dominated by the 'national style', which had already produced some great edifices that marked the tastes and mentalities of the patrons and communities. This may be the explanation for the fairly faithful transposition of a Brancovenetian model of the treflate church in the case of the churches in Vladimirescu and the Micălaca district of Arad. The same applies to the church in Șofronea, an adaptation of an inscribed Greek cross. The religious buildings are well-proportioned, with accurate and elegant details, but nothing more. "The 'remodeling' of the church in Bata, originally Baroque - the architect changed the west tower to a Byzantine-style tower with a Byzantine-style ending and redesigned the facades in a manner close to neoclassicism - is again limited in terms of program and aspirations for renewal.

The churches of UTA Square and Agrișu Mare, which can be considered veritable manifestos, are his greatest achievement. Here, the architect operates in a manner unparalleled in the period and in the area, attempting to bring together diverse medieval traditions: Walla Wallachia, 17th century Moldavia, Romanesque Transylvania, Byzantium at the turn of the millennia. The elegance of the volume and the successful proportions are associated with details of great finesse, and all of them succeed in re-establishing a unity similar, we might say, to the era of Romanian "Paleo-Christianity", a seeker of solutions and models. We believe that the solution he arrives at should have been a new beginning of Orthodox architecture in the south-west of the country and not a mere pastiche of a particular style or church. This also explains the ease with which he operates, changing proportions and compositional elements, which can be seen by comparing the churches in Agrișu Mare and UTA. Both have volumetrically similar formulas for the main access area, which, with its strong, massive base and the two cylindrical towers at last, seems to be an interpretation of a Romanesque formula also found in northern Transylvania. But if, in the first church, the nave is surmounted by two low, powerful towers, reminiscent of St. Sava in Iași, in the second church the triad (common in medieval Montenetian architecture) is recreated by the tower dominating the superstructure of the nave, which, in its details, refers to the architecture of Brancovenetian and his followers. While the architect proposed a simple recessed vestibule as the entrance to the Agriș, the UTA Square has a porch, and the details are equally Byzantine, Romanesque and Brâncovenetian. In the end, it can be said that the two churches, in addition to the chapel in the Eternity Cemetery (of the Bonciu-Demian families) and the one in Hodoș Bodrog (the summer chapel) are exercises in refinement and value, deserving a special place in the history of Romanian architecture.

Like other architects of the modern period, Silvestru Rafiroiu also tackled the funerary monument. To the chapel in the Eternitatea Cemetery we must add the access gate and the fence of the Pomenirea Cemetery, as well as the monument to Stefan Albu in the Eternitatea Cemetery (all in Arad), where the dominant sculptural pieces are of the Brancovenetian style, placed in modern contexts and with modern auxiliary elements. The monumentality that a simple cross can have is often found in the cemeteries of the mountains,

Rafiroiu's inspiration for the two commemorative monuments in Arad (the Martyrs' Cross) and Hălmagiu (the Heroes' Cross) came from the inspiration of the two monuments in Arad (the Martyrs' Cross) and Hălmagiu (the Heroes' Cross), where the scale of the staircase, the immediate context and the perfect proportions were sufficient to create quality public monuments that have stood the test of time as a plastic solution.

This overview of the works of architect Silvestru Rafiroiu, together with a brief biography and some representative works for some of the programs addressed, are part of a larger material which, accompanied by photographs and drawings, will appear as a monograph.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

*** ARCHIVES OF THE DIOCESE OF ARAD

*** ARAD COUNTY MUSEUM ARCHIVES

- Map of Arad, 1931;

- Timpul Transilvaniei, December 1, 1943;

- Știrea, August 28, 1932 and August 24, 1935;

- Buletinul Municipiului Arad nr. 7, February 13, 1933, p. 7;

- Almanahul Arad, 1935, p. 119;

- Monument leaflet: Halmagiu Heroes' Monument, June 7, 1953;

- Monument file: Agrișul Mare Orthodox Church, June 16, 1953.

*** NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF ROMANIA - ARAD COUNTY SERVICE, ARAD TOWN HALL, 1929 - 1931

*** NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF ROMANIA - TIMIȘ COUNTY SERVICE, TIMIȘOARA TOWN HALL, 1934 -1946

*** MINISTERUL CONSTRUCȚIILOR, COLEGIUL ARHITECTISTS DIN ROMÂNIA, Tabloul Arhitecților membri ai Colegiului Arhitecților din România înscriși în Colegiu până a 19 februarie 1949, p. 42

Anghel Emil Anghel, Influența căilor ferate asupra dezvoltării urbanistice a orașului Arad, Studii și comunicări ale Muzeului Arad, volume III, 1996

Brătuleanu Anca, Timișoara, Szeged and Subotița, Regional Identity between 1918 and 1941

Demșea Dan, Implicațiile Economice și Culturale ale Banca "Gloria" din Lipova în funcționarea estațiunii balneare, Ziridava XXI, 1998, p. 292

Dublea Eugeniu, Romanian Cities in Images. Municipiul și județul Arad, Editura Concordia, Arad, 1938

Lanevschi Gheorghe Lanevschi, Dezvoltarea urbanistică a Aradului, de la începutul century al XVIII-lea și până la sfârșitul century XX-lea, Monografia orașului Arad, 1999

Mager Traian, Ținutul Halmagiului. Monografie. Cadrul Istoric, Part II, Tipografia Diecezană din Arad, 1937

Opriș Mihai, Timișoara, Mică Monografie Urbanistică, Arhitectura de-a lungul veacurilor, Editura Tehnică, București, 1987, p. 178, 213

Popa Eugen Victor Popa, Un sfert de veac din trecutul "Băilor Lipova'', Ziridava XVIII, 1995, p. 385-405

Tolan Isaia, File din istoria Aradului, Editura Semne, București, 1999

Truță Horia, Demsea Dan, Monumente de For Public, însemne memoriale, construcții decorative și parcuri din județul Arad, Editura Poudique, Arad, 2008

NOTES:

¹ Știrea, August 28, 1932

² according to current information