A university center on the banks of the Dâmbovița river. Unrealized projects

Heino Schmieden, Victor von Weltzien and Robert Speer. Project for the National Museum, Romanian Academy, State Archives and Library. 1886. Situation plan, Josef Durm, Heinrich Wagner, Handbuch der Architektur-Heft-Museen, Verlag Arnold Bergstrasser, Darmstadt, 1893

One hundred and fifty years ago, when science and culture were a guarantee of breaking out of isolation and opening up to the West, Romanian society paid particular attention to education. In order to establish a modern education system, the state made considerable efforts, drafting coherent legislation, training competent staff and adequately equipping schools. In the latter part of the 19th century, when Romania's economy was flourishing, the state was able to allocate substantial funds to educational construction, even encouraging large-scale works. Unfortunately, some of the projects required such large sums of money that the authorities were forced either to adjust the size and, therefore, the costs, or to abandon the plans. Among the countless initiatives that failed to materialize was the grouping of higher education institutions into a single complex on the banks of the Dâmbovița river. This intention, outlined shortly after the proclamation of the Kingdom, was periodically taken up again, being at the origin of the University Citadel sketched by Petre Antonescu in the 30s.

Twenty-five years after its inauguration in 1869, the Palace of the University of Bucharest - which housed not only the five ^faculties1 but also the Romanian Academy, the Museum of Natural History and Antiquities, the Picture Gallery, the School of Fine Arts, the Conservatory, the National Library, the State Printing House and the ^Senate2 - had become overcrowded. In an attempt to put an end to this situation, the Ministry of Cults and Public Instruction decided to build a monumental complex to which it would transfer some of the institutions. The plan for the complex, drawn up by the Berlin architect Heino ^Schmieden3 in 1886, included buildings for the Faculties of Science and Medicine, as well as buildings for the National Museum, the Library, the Romanian Academy and the ^State Archives4. The need to acquire, at a reasonable price, a large site - which would allow for extensive works and a possible extension - led the Ministry to turn to the plots recently expropriated by the Commune for the regularization of the course of the Dâmbovița. After ceding to the City Hall several plots of land it owned, including the garden in front of the ^University5, the Department of Public Instruction obtained the Mimi Garden, an old night party venue located on the right bank of the river.

Although the final version of the project drawn up by the Schmieden Office reached the Romanian authorities, the work was not realized. We do not believe that the failure of this first attempt to build a university and cultural center on the Dâmbovița riverbank was due to lack of financial means, as it happened on other occasions, as the government provided a substantial loan for the ^{construction6}. Rather, the work came to a halt as a result of an unforeseen reorganization of the architectural service of the Ministry of Cults and Public Instruction in the spring of 1888, when the institution's archives were dispersed and many of the documents kept there ^disappeared7. Fortunately, the solution drawn up by the Berlin office, lost in the shuffle, was reproduced in German publications of the ^time8. Some of the images - showing a vast, symmetrical ensemble composed of three distinct volumes delimiting an elongated courtyard of honor, open towards the Dâmbovița - were later used by Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaș in a group of articles devoted to ^museography9.

Read the full text in issue 4/2012 of Arhitectura.

NOTES:

¹ The Public Instruction Law of 1864, Chapter IV, Section I, Article 249, stipulated that Romanian higher education should have four faculties: Philosophy and Letters; Law; Medicine; Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences. The Faculty of Theology, established in 1881, was included in the University of Bucharest nine years later by the Faculty of Theology Law, published in the Official Gazette no. 74, of July 3/15, 1890.

^2. Nicolae Șt. Noica, Lucrări publice din vremea lui Carol I. Acte de fundare și medalii comemorative, Editura Cadmos, București, 2008, p. 114. See also Valeriu Stan, Senatul României e sediile sale, Anuar al Arhivelor Municipielor București, 1, 1997, p. 69-75; A.N.I.C. - M.C.I.P., dos. 125/ 1864, fol. 189 and dos. 126/ 1864, tab 12; A.N.I.C. - M.C.I.P., dos. 190/ 1868, files 28, 29, 53.

^3. Heino Schmieden (1835-1913), a graduate of the renowned Bauakademie in Berlin. He worked with Martin Gropius, uncle of Walter Gropius, with whom he formed the office Fa. Gropius & Schmieden, one of Berlin's largest architectural firms. After Gropius's death in 1880, Schmieden's partners were Robert Speer and Victor von Weltzien.

^4. A.N.N.I.C. - M.C.I.P., dossier. 733/ 1890, page 91. Schmieden's office was also initially entrusted with the organization of the Botanical Gardens. See Ministry of Public Instruction and Religious Affairs, Construction and Litigation Service, Dare de sémé sur les travaux de bâtiments scolaires et ecclesiastiques exécutés par ce ministère des crédits votées de les corps legiuitóre de la

1880 până la octombre 1898, Imprimeria Statului București,1898, p. 89.

^5. A.N.I.C. - M.C.I.P., dos. 193/ 1887, tab 2. It is interesting to note that the project was realized before the Ministry of Cults and Public Instruction had obtained the desired site. See also A.N.I.C.C. - M.C.I.P., dossier. 451/ 1889, tab 113.

^6. Ministry of Public Instruction and Worship, Construction and Litigation Service, op. cit, p. 89. In 1886, the Ministry obtained a credit of 21,107,892 lei for school and church buildings.

^7. Ibidem, p. 5.

^8. Al. Tzigara-Samurcaș, Memorii, vol. I (1872-1910), Editura Grai și Suflet - Cultura Națională, Bucharest, 1991, p. 209.

In 1897, the project was published in the magazine Deutsche

Also in 1893, a specialized German publication reproduced the site plan of the ensemble.

See Josef Durm, Heinrich Wagner, Handbuch der

Architektur-Heft-Museen, Verlag Arnold Bergstrasser, Darmstadt, 1893.

^9. Some of the drawings were reproduced in Viața Românească, 1906, as well as in the Museum of the Romanian Nation. Ce a fost; ce este; ce ar trebui să fie, published in 1909, and in the volume Muzeografia românească, published in 1936.