Văcărești Monastery, a Wasted Treasure

Thematic Dossier

text: Alexandru PANAITESCU

Demolition of the large church of Văcărești, December 1986, view from the south, photo N. Ionescu Ghinea

By its size and splendor, the VĂCĂREREȘTI MONUMENT has managed, as it was desired at the time of its construction, to surpass all the other religious buildings erected in Wallachia until the first decades of the 18th century, adopting the construction method and the specific style of the place, crystallized in the previous eras, especially in the one of Constantin Brâncoveanu, using the craftsmen, unfortunately anonymous, who had trained to build his monuments. Văcărești Monastery, appreciated by G. M. Cantacuzino as a "testament to traditional Romanian art",¹ was the greatest royal foundation of the 18th ^century2, but above all, it was the culmination of the architectural style developed for about four centuries in Wallachia, which would later go into rapid decline. This was favored, among other things, by the instability of the Phanariote reigns and by the penetration into the Romanian area of Eastern influences and then, from the end of the 18th century and the first decades of the 19th century, of Western influences of neo-Gothic and, especially, neo-classical origin.

Historical landmarks

Situated south-east of ^Bucharest3, near the road leading to the Danube and then to Constantinople, the Văcărești ensemble began to be built in 1716 and then between 1719-1722/1724 on the orders of Nicolae ^Mavrocordat4, the first Phanariot ruler of Walla Walla Wallachia, and was completed between 1732-1736/1739 by his son, Constantin ^Mavrocordat5. The church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was consecrated on September 13, 1724, but since 1721 the monastery has been under the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and the monastic order of Văcărești has depended on it throughout its existence.
With a surface area of 18,000 square meters, the main buildings of the Văcărești Monastery date back to or were initiated during the period of Nicolae Mavrocordat: the large enclosure with the church, the manor house (archon), the priory, the stables, the cells, the cellars and the bell-tower on the west side. However, given the unitary character of the main enclosure, it is safe to assume that all the buildings built here, including the arcaded galleries on the east side of the enclosure and the chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas, built somewhat later by Constantine Mavrocordat, were planned from the beginning of the foundation of the complex, and were all the result of a pre-established plan. The completion of the original stages of the construction of the Văcărești Monastery can be considered to be the consecration of the chapel on February 18, 1739.

Location of Văcărești Monastery, posthumous destiny 1986-2010, photomontage by the author

By that time, Constantin Mavrocordat would extend the monastery on its western side by building a second enclosure and a guard tower. The latter, together with the bell-tower, the dominească church and the paraclis, marked the dominant axis of the ensemble, which, with classical rigor, symmetrically ordered the entire ^composition6. From an architectural, sculptural and mural point of view, the Văcărești Monastery was a brilliant perfection of the Brancovanesque style, standing out for its homogeneous synthesis of traditional post-Byzantine, Renaissance and Baroque elements, to which were added some oriental-Constantinopolitan influences.
Until after the middle of the 19th century, Văcărești Monastery remained one of the main monastic settlements in Bucharest and its surroundings. Despite all the vicissitudes of the Phanariote era, the Văcărești monastery preserved its grandeur, even if, especially at the beginning of the 19th century, it was affected by the Russian and Ottoman military occupations (1805, 1807), but especially by the earthquakes of 1802 and 1838, when serious damage was caused, especially to the church and the manor house. In 1802, the spire over the nave of the church collapsed and was rebuilt in wood. Towards the middle of the 19th century, taking advantage of the periods of prosperity, the cellars in the two precincts were extended and raised, the bell-tower was raised, gables were added to the church and the chapel's belfry, etc., stylistically expressing the neoclassical choices of the period. In the 1850s, in addition to other maintenance works, the interior of the church was repainted in the original style, and by 1864 the pottery covering was replaced with sheet metal.

Văcărești Monastery, 1992 model with the restoration proposal, photomontage by the author

Between indifference and admiration

The first step in the dissipation of the cultural and artistic treasure that the Văcărești Monastery represented took place at the end of 1863, with the adoption of the law secularizing the monastery's ^possessions7. At that time, a quarter of the country's territory, until then owned by the monasteries, a good part of which were devoted (dependent) to the Holy Places, would become part of the state patrimony. However, the indiscriminate application of secularization, coupled with other laws on ecclesiastical and monastic life adopted at the same time, has seriously affected the heritage of the monasteries, which in most cases, once in state ownership, has been squandered due to the negligence of the administration, usually unprepared, but sometimes also indifferent to the cultural values that it was supposed to manage. In the first place, we are talking about churches and other former monastery buildings, most of which are possible architectural monuments. If, in general, churches were taken over by parishes, many monastery buildings were used for schools, old people's homes or administrative headquarters, others were abandoned and then demolished for reasons of city systematization (especially in Bucharest), and some monastic buildings, usually outside the towns, were used as prisons. This was also the case with the Văcărești ^Monastery8, whose buildings became state property and in 1865 were set up as a prison for the city of Bucharest, without ever returning to their original religious and cultural purpose, the beginning of the end for the former foundation of the Mavrocordatii. In addition to the Văcărești Monastery, nine other former monasteries in Muntenia and Moldova will become prisons: Dobrovăț, Galata, Bisericani, Cozia, Plătărești, Mislea, Târgșor, Bucovăț and Mărgineni.

Gradually, the original appearance of the Văcărești Monastery was severely mutilated by parasitic constructions built for the functioning of the prison, without ever taking into account its value as an architectural ^monument9. To accommodate the detention cells, the arcades of the gallery on the east side of the large enclosure (which was initially widened upstairs with a second wooden gallery covering the original one) were bricked up. The rectory and the manor house, including the two porticoes of the latter, underwent repeated extensions and alterations, in particular to the interior partitions and the facades. In the first decades of the 20th century, two buildings were erected outside the east side of the large enclosure, a ground floor and a first floor, which suffocated the delicate volume of the chapel. The buildings surrounding the small enclosure were converted several times and new buildings were erected, dividing the courtyard into three areas. Outside the monastery, another prison-type enclosure wall, four meters high and 60 centimeters thick, reinforced with massive buttresses and nine guard gates, was erected. The church has suffered the least, having been treated with the care befitting a place of worship, and religious services for prisoners were held here until the communist regime came to power, probably helping to keep the church frescoes in a satisfactory state until the time of demolition.
It is perhaps an irony of fate, if it were not the cruel truth, that most of those who had the opportunity to know this monument first hand in the last century of its existence were the guards and prisoners ("the monks of shame", as G. M. Cantacuzino in an ironic metaphor) and not, as would have been natural, the general interested public, researchers and people of culture or young people, who never had free access to the Văcărești Monastery. The ensemble here could not be studied directly, being, unfortunately, only a subject in art history or architecture textbooks. Even when it existed, the Văcărești Monastery was a beautiful unknown, known at most from stories.

Between 1973-1977 most of the parasitic constructions both inside and outside the ^monastery were demolished16, the arcade gallery was restored (the only part of the monastery whose restoration was completed, but eventually demolished in 1986), the chapel's gazebo (partially restored), and work was started on the church, the manor house and the priory, and research was carried out in the former cell buildings. Eventually, on February 23, 1977, a restoration project of the Văcărești Monastery was approved with the qualification "exceptional", the project manager being arh. Niels Auner, unanimously appreciated for the first time for proposing "something coherent and logical" (according to Prof. Răzvan Theodorescu) or for "preserving the spirit of the ensemble, with the appropriate use of modern solutions" (according to architect Aurelian Trișcu^)17.
But it was not to be, in a very short time, the earthquake of March 4, 1977 accentuated the damage to the buildings of the Văcărești Monastery, affecting in particular the dominească church. With the dissolution of the Directorate of Historical Monuments on December 1, 1977, the project became a memory, and the restoration work on the monastery began to drag on, entering a period of uncertainty, with suspensions and restarts on several occasions, until they were finally stopped.

The buildings of the Văcărești Monastery pass into the administration of the Art Museum of the RSR, maintaining the intention to organize a museum of feudal art here. Formally, there was also the question of assigning it other purposes, such as a cultural center of Brancoven, a museum of ecclesiastical art, an ecumenical center or even as the new headquarters of the Patriarchate of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The idea was also linked to the rumor, widespread at the time, about the possible demolition of the Cathedral and the Patriarchal Palace on the Metropolitan's Hill, considered to be too close to the new political headquarters - the People's House. Between 1981-1984, the Văcărești Monastery was practically abandoned, the process of degradation was accentuated, without any protective measures being adopted, and it was left to ruin.

Between January 1985 and December 1986, the destruction of Văcărești Monastery continued relatively slowly, in stages, but with an unshakeable consistency on the part of the communist authorities. With cynicism, forms are sought and documentation is drawn up to legalize and absolve from responsibility the institutions involved in the demolition.
In order to save appearances, insignificant operations were carried out to salvage certain parts of the monument, in particular the frescoes and some of the stonework, delaying the demolition of the church and the chapel. In September - November 1985, a team of teachers and students from the Institute of Fine Arts, led by Dan Mohanu, Oliviu Boldura, Nicolae Sava and Constantin Blendea, in particularly precarious conditions and under constant political pressure, was able to remove only 120-140 square meters (about 5%) of mural painting from the 2,500 square meters that covered the interior of the dominear church. Nothing could be salvaged from the painting of the chapel. The few fresco panels recovered from Văcărești were scattered in various places, the National Art Museum of Romania, the Bucharest Municipal Museum - Melic House or the Institute of Fine Arts. For a while, fresco panels were also stored in a basement of the Scânteii House, where a fragment of about 30 square meters, the largest one recovered, representing "The Assumption of the Virgin Mary"²¹ was practically totally destroyed due to faulty handling.

NOTES
1. G. M. Cantacuzino, Izvoare și popasuri, Fundația pentru literatură și artă Regele Carol II, Bucharest, 1934, p. 189-197.
2. For the historical-social conditions and the urban setting in which the Văcărești Monastery was built, see Bucureștiul fanariot, Tudor Dinu, Editura Humanitas, București, vol. I, 2015, vol. II, 2017. For a general approach to the subject, in particular the juridical-patrimonial aspects well documented archival see Mănăstirea Văcărești din București de la origini până astăzi, Octavian Dumitru Marinescu, Editura Basilica a Patriarhiei Române, București, 2012.
3. In the 18th-19th centuries, the Văcărești Monastery was far outside Bucharest. In the 1920s, the monastery was already included within the administrative boundaries of the city, at the southeastern extremity of the 3rd Blue Sector, in the neighborhood of the suburban commune of Popești-Leordeni. It is only after 1960 that an important urban development south of Văcărești can be spoken of, when the construction of the large blocks of flats in Șos. Olteniței and then Berceni.
4. Nicolae Mavrocordat (b. May 3, 1680 - † September 3, 1730), son of Alexandru Mavrocordat Exaporitul, was a great dragoman of the Ottoman Empire (1699-1709), the first Phanariot ruler, first in Moldavia (1709-1711 and 1711-1715), then in Wallachia (1715/1716 and 1719-1730). He was a complex personality, a skillful and erudite administrator and diplomat, concerned, among other things, with promoting culture and education in Greek in Walla Wallachia; he continued to develop the library inherited from his father, which became one of the best known in European cultural circles of the time, for a time housed in the Văcărești Monastery. He was also the founder of the Paraclis of the Metropolitan of Bucharest.
5. Constantin Mavrocordat (b. February 27, 1711 - † December 4, 1769), son of Nicolae Mavrocordat, was the Phanariot prince who, in an interval of almost four decades, had the most reigns, six times in Walla Wallachia (1730, 1731-1733, 1735-1741, 1744-1748, 1756-1758, 1761-1763) and four times in Moldavia (1733-1735, 1741-1743, 1748-1749, 1769). With a refined culture, with many Western influences, he initiated numerous reforms in the fields of justice, taxation, central and local administration, but above all of a social nature, legislating the liberation of serfs (1746 in Wallachia and 1749 in Moldavia). In addition to the completion of the Văcărești Monastery, he also founded the Monastery of St. Spiridon (old).
6. For a detailed description of the architecture of the monument of Văcărești see Alexandru Panaitescu, Remember Mănăstirea Văcărești, Editura Simetria, București, 2008, p. 95-131.
7. For the movable and immovable patrimony of the Văcărești Monastery, see the catagraphies (inventories) of 1836, 1845 and 1856, published by Octavian Dumitru Marinescu, op. cit. p. 327-345.
8. The first use of the Văcărești Monastery as a place of seclusion, but with the preservation of its monastic rostrums, took place in November 1848 when, after the defeat of the revolution of that year, by order of the Russian general Lüders, the main leaders - Eliade Rădulescu, the Brătienii, Nicolae Bălcescu, the Golescu brothers, C. A. Rosetti, Ion Ghica, Gheorghe Magheru, Cristian Tell, Popa Șapcă and others - are imprisoned here for a short time before going into exile. Also occasionally, in 1861, three journalists accused of press offenses were detained here, although such cases did not yet lead to the monastery being turned into a penitentiary institution, as it was to become in 1865.
9. For a description of the prison at the end of the 19th century, see Bucharest in 1906, Frédéric Damé, Editura Paralela 45, Pitești, 2007, p. 437-438.
10. In this context, it is also worth mentioning the very detailed survey of the state church and chapel of Văcărești, drawn up in 1908 on the initiative of the School of Architecture, the authors being the students, future architects, Constantin Iotzu and Alexandru Zagoritz. The work, of great documentary value, was published in 1926 and republished in 2008, and is today the main graphic source for knowledge of the architecture of the church and the chapel. See in Alexandru Panaitescu, op. cit., plates 1-18.
11. Constantin C. Giurescu, Istoria românilor, vol. III, Editura ALL, 2007, p. 686.
12. For details on the use of Văcărești Monastery as a prison, especially during the communist period, see Dicționarul penitenciarelor din România comunistă 1945-1967, coordinated by Andrei Muraru, Editura Polirom, Iași, 2008, p. 526-534.
13. Since 1976 the responsibility for coordinating the restoration project at Văcărești has changed, the project manager becoming arh. Niels Auner, who collaborated in particular with arh. Sanda Ignat, and some of the execution projects (for the church and the chapel) were also elaborated by arch. Gheorghe Sion.

14. For a description of the architectural details and the first refunctionalization intentions see also "Restoration Dossier. Mănăstirea Văcărești: Research, restoration and valorization of the monument", arh. Liana Bilciurescu, Revista Monumentelor Istorice, series Monumente Istorice și de Arte - MIA nr. 2, 1974.
15. In the summer of 1976, the "party leadership" indicated that, in addition to the medieval art and culture sections, the future museum would also include a space dedicated to "moments in the revolutionary struggle of the Romanian people" from 1865-1940, which included the years when Nicolae Ceausescu was imprisoned in Văcărești. Cf. Dan D. Ionescu, "Etape în evoluția Mănăstirii Văcărești" in the volume Un sfert de veac de la martiriul unui monument bucureșteștean: Mănăstirea Văcărești, coordinated by Anca Beatrice Todireanu, Editura RA Monitorul Oficial, Bucharest, 2013, p. 290.
16. In the years 1975-1976, a "national" site of patriotic youth work was organized at Văcărești, which participated in the demolition of the former prison buildings. For the restoration work at Văcărești, the action was primarily an important propagandistic and much less a practical support. In the summer of 1976, second-year IAIM student architects from the IAIM will be practicing at Văcărești.
17. Cf. Dan D. Ionescu, op.cit. p. 292, 293.
18. On the demolition of the Văcărești Monastery, see Distrugerea Mănăstirii Văcărești, Dinu C. Giurescu, Distrugerea Mănăstirii Văcărești, Gheorghe Leahu, Distrugerea Mănăstirii Văcărești, Editura Arta Grafică SA, București, 1997; Bisericile osândite de Ceaușescu, București 1977-1989, Editura Anastasia, București, 1995, p. 171-186; Enciclopedia lăcașșurilor de cult din București, Lucia Stoica and Neculai Ionescu-Ghinea, vol. I, Universalia Publishing House, Bucharest, 2005, p. 686-689.
19. Some commentators, not without reason, believe that the dominant silhouette, marked by numerous towers, would have been fatal to the Văcărești Monastery. To this may have been added some unpleasant memories of Nicolae Ceaușescu from the inter-war period, when he was imprisoned here. In general, the imposing appearance of the churches seems to have irritated the dictatorial couple, fueling a practically visceral hatred towards everything related to them, going as far as ordering their demolition (as was the case with the churches of Enei and St. Friday).
20. Gheorghe Leahu, op. cit. p. 60-78, 122-127.
21. Gheorghe Leahu, op. cit. p. 95.
22. The demolition operations were particularly brutal, especially since the resistance of the masonry of the former monastery was very high, their destruction requiring heavy machinery, including a three-ton ball crane used to demolish the church. Subsequent statements of works recorded the demolition of 19,500 cubic meters of brick masonry and the transportation of 52,039 tons of rubble by car. However, it should be pointed out that, to some extent, the masonry was dismantled with the greatest possible care, including the protection with planks of the pieces to be salvaged, as was the case with the columns of the church porch. Cf. Gheorghe Leahu, op. cit. p. 108, respectively 90-92.
23. A complete situation with the values recovered from the former monastery does not exist and it seems that it is impossible to do in the conditions in which some of the owners cannot, in other cases even refuse or at least evade, to exhibit or declare everything that comes from Văcărești.
24. An inventory was published by Octavian Dumitru Marinescu, op. cit. p. 388-416.
25. In this sense, an attempt was also made by the City Hall of Sector 2, which in 2005 even built in Plumbuita Park a small and modest aedicule, with an approximate church shape, which should have housed a memorial to the churches that were destroyed/demolished in Bucharest, first and foremost the Văcărești Monastery. In the end, the initiative was abandoned, not having the support of the owners of such vestiges, so that today the building is used as a seniors' club in sector 2 [sic!].

Sumarul Revistei ARHITECTURA, NR.6/2017-1/2018
POST-RESTORATION