The Rural Habitat in the Outer Carpathian Region, an Unsolved Mystery of Our History | The Rural Habitat in the Outer Carpathian Region, an Unsolved Mystery of Our History

I had the chance to work with professors with a vast culture and respect for tradition at the 'Ion Mincu' Faculty of Architecture in Bucharest, among whom the profile of the architect Grigore Ionescu is clearly outlined; from his lectures I have understood the complexity of the processes underlying the phenomenon of crystallization of the habitat in our country over the centuries.

The actual studies on rural architecture began around 1978, with the publication of the work Locuința satească din România (coordinated by architect Călin Hoinărescu), in the realization of which I collaborated with specialists and complex interdisciplinary groups. The work is presented as the first part of a suite of studies that aim to address the components of the rural habitat, starting from the territory and continuing with the other programs present in the territory and in the glasshouses of our villages. This project could not materialize, on the one hand, due to the lack of information (archival documents had not been researched, except for those published at the time - the D.I.R. (Documents on the History of Romania), D.R.H. (Documenta Romaniae Historica) collections, etc.], and, on the other hand, because of the confusion and incoherence of the principles from which the major components of the rural habitat were approached (the configuration of the network of settlements, the relationship between the type of land ownership and the layout of the villages and the related territory, the social status of the peasant as a member of the autonomous estates of the land-owning estates, etc.).

It has taken almost three decades to overcome the above-mentioned difficulties through archival and field studies, as well as by using the historical, social and statistical information provided by the works related to the field under study. This study was limited to the territory of Prahova County, as captured by the map drawn up in 1904, which we used as a cartographic support for the work; the end of the 19th century was therefore considered as the upper limit of the time span in which the object of our research was located.

I effectively began my studies on village architecture around 1978, while coordinating the editing of the paper Locuința sătească din România (The Village Dwelling in Romania), for which I collaborated with several specialists and complex interdisciplinary collectives. The paper was the first part of a series of studies aiming to approach the components of the rural habitat starting with the territory and followed by other programs carried out in the field and even in the heart of the villages. Eventually this project could not be materialized, firstly because of the lack of information (the archive documents had not been researched, except for those published on the relevant dates - D.I.R., D.R.H., etc.), and secondly, because of the confusing and incoherent principles underlying the major components of the rural habitat (the configuration of the network of localities, the relationship between the type of land property and the appearance of the villages and their related territory, the social status of the peasant as member of the autonomous collective land holdings, etc.).

It took nearly three decades to overcome the above mentioned difficulties, through archive research and field studies and the use of historical, social and statistical information provided by the papers relating to the studied field. The study had a limited scope and covered only the territory of Prahova County as presented in a 1904 map, which we also used as the mapping support of our paper. Therefore, the end of the^19th century was considered to be the upper limit of the time period covered by our research.