"Landscape as an archive": the history of the structuring of the Sinaia countryside

Landscape is a creation of time that calls for retrospective view of the territory shaped with the development of human communities. The natural landscape has been progressively transformed, the social needs determining the gradual evolution of Sinaia, which is constituted by a superposition of visible, hidden and vanished forms, but which influence the present and future urban morphology.

The shaping of the urban form is a continuous process that can be described at a fixed point in ^time1, an approach that invokes the "vertical or plunging view of the aviator or cartographer"² in order to collect the information needed to understand the past hypostases of the ^landscape3. The configuration of the urban landscape is the result of the combined action of natural and anthropogenic factors, of which spatial planning policies play a significant urbanizing ^role4. The limits of the Sinaia urban landscape, its dimensions and forms are the result of the development of the settlement; in the work on the anthropogeography of the ^Prahova Valley5 , the genesis of the rural and urban communes in the mountainous sector of the valley is emphasized by their clustering around an inn or a monastery, which gives them a structure built on terraces. Thus, the urban personality of the resort is of a planned nature, coagulated around the Sinaia Monastery.

Eforia of the Civil Hospitals and its role in the planning of the Sinaiaresort

Often, changes occurring in a particular landscape were triggered in a punctual location and were caused by deliberate action. The initiators of the changes in the initial landscape in which the town of Sinaia was inserted consisted in the decisions and regulations for the establishment of a resort to take over the flow of tourists, polarized until the 19th century by the monastery.

In a first stage, the Sinaia Monastery and its estate came under the administration of the Ministry of Cults until 1864, when it was taken over by the Eforia Spitalelor Civile in Bucharest, whose efor, Dimitrie Ghica, was the promoter of the idea of creating a resort on the Prahova Valley. The shaping of the tourist profile, through the intervention of Eforiei, and in particular the affirmation of the political role of the settlement where the summer residence of the Royal Family was built, contributed to the crystallization of the Sinaia proto-urban form, formalized in 1880. The laws of 1872 and 1880 gave concrete form to this intention, which allowed Eforiei to parcel out the Furnica estate in order to sell lots for the construction of houses.

At the same time, the climatic resort project could not be continued without the creation of a permanent community to guarantee the sustainability of local economic activities. With the aim of populating Sinaia with "villager-inhabitants", the ^Law6 was enacted to authorize Eforiei to give fifty pogoans of land without payment to villagers who wanted to settle in Sinaia, which they could not alienate for 30 years. The settlement of the population on the 'outskirts of this new town' (i.e. the hamlets of Izvor and Furnica) depended on the guarantee of wood for the construction of houses and a ^free grazing area7. The historical ^documents8 attest that the establishment of the settlement around the monastery was accompanied by massive felling of forests from the Bucegi and Baiului mountains; "wood necessary for the consumption of the rural population living in those domains was cut daily. The houses [...] were made of wooden beams, covered with straw, and then they did not use fire at all to heat their houses [...]"^9. The landscape changed with the establishment of new owners from the Bucharest proletariat, who supported the planting of conifers for aesthetic purposes in "places devoid of woody vegetation"¹⁰, and in 1887 the Piscul Câinelui nursery was established. The preference for conifers is also evident in the case of the royal estate, which was landscaped using fir, spruce, including pine species from Austria and Germany, creating a visual link in the resort landscape through the vegetation surrounding the various buildings.

The development of the spa buildings, hotels, casinos and ^parks11 made it necessary to identify models on the basis of which the alignment of buildings, volumetry and building materials could be regulated in a uniform manner. In 1891, a commission was set up to study the installations of bathing establishments, consisting of architect I. Socolescu, head of the Architectural Service of the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry, Commerce and Domains, engineer Constantin Botea, head of the Mineral Water Service, and D. Constandiniu, inspector of bathing establishments. The Commission studied cases from France (Vichy, Aix-les-Bains) and the Habsburg Empire (Karlsbad - the German name for Karlovy Vary, Franzensbad and Marienbad). It materialized in 1892 with the implementation of the Regulation on the Manner of Construction of Private Buildings at the State Bathing^Resorts12, on the basis of which the Ministry could control the conformity of the construction of buildings in Sinaia.

Read the full text in issue 5/2013 of Arhitectura magazine

NOTES:

1 Panerai, P., Depaule, J.C., Demorgon, M., (1999) Analyse urbaine. Editions Paranthèses, Marseille.

2 Claval, P., (1984) Geographie Humaine et Economique contemporaine, Paris, Presses universitaires de France.

3 Pătru-Stupariu, I., Stupariu, M.S., Cuculici, R., Huzui, A., (2011) "Understanding landscape change using historical maps. Case study Sinaia", Journal of Maps, v 2011, p. 206-220.

4 Huzui Alina (2012) Quantitative and qualitative analysis of urban landscape. Studiu de caz, orașul Sinaia, PhD thesis defended at the Faculty of Geography, University of Bucharest, coordinated by Prof. Pătru-Stupariu Ileana.

5 Popp, N.M.A., (1929) Valea Prahovei entre Predeal și Florești, observări antropogeografice, extract from Buletinul S.R.R. de Geografie (1930), Institutul de Arte Grafice "Alexandru Vlahuță", Bucharest.

6 Official Gazette no. 105/1880.

7 "Vocea Sinaei" year II, no. 34, Sunday, May 31, 1894

8 A.N.I.C., M.I. fonds, file 490/1939.

9 Antonescu-Remuș, P.S., (1888) "Esploatarea foresataurilor din Valea Prahovei", Revista Pădurilor, 10, p. 177-183.

10 Mack, F., (1906) "Fragmente din istoriculului melezului și pinului în România", Revista Pădurilor, an XX, București, Tipografia "Gutenberg", Joseph Göbl, p. 304-310.

11 Socolescu, I.N. (1892) "Establimentele de băi din stațiunile noastre stațiunile balneare", Analele arhitecturei, 1-2, an III, p. 8-10.

12 Royal High Decree no. 3.491/17 December 1891, Official Gazette no. 225/15 January 1892.