Death and Life of the Garden of Blanduzia. Film sequences

Architects in the making

CINEMATOGRAPHIC SEQUENCES

Text: Răzvan DEJU

Blanduzia's last life

In 1937, news of the demolition of the buildings at 7 Doamnei Street reached the Bucharest press. The death of the Blanduziei Galleries was announced. The garden, the shop windows, the fountain and the terraces were to disappear, and with them, a whole world.

The last fragments of the old city were doomed to assimilate the demands of a new, Western urbanity. The Blanduzia Garden was sacrificed to a new architectural and urban vision, closely linked to the architectural direction of the new palace of the National Bank, a vision that never materialized.
In what follows, I will try to highlight the evolution of the city starting from the destiny of a place, following "Bucharest in a parcel", to show how, by recomposing the chronology of the parcel at the intersection of Doamnei and Academiei Streets, we can understand the multiple "changes in the face" of the city center.

The Petrovici houses and shops

After the revolution of 1821, Scarlat Petrovici had bought from Alexandru Mavrocordat the houses in Doamnei Street, which were probably inhabited by the family. A great merchant, landlord and banker, Scarlat Petrovici was ennobled in Austria with the predicate "von Armis".¹ In the second half of the 19th century, the houses became the property of Scarlat's son, Ștefan Petrovici-Armis, who converted them for trade.
At the same time, with the Organic Regulation, the Bucharest City Council (1831) and the City Beautification Commission (1836) appeared in Bucharest, which undertook the reconstruction of 19th century Bucharest, seeking a new image of the city, on a par with that found in the West. Alignments of streets, paving, demolitions, sanitation operations, expropriations, sacrifices and the birth of architectural programs, all occur at an accelerated pace, along with the transformation of society, following the modern-European model.
Mahalaua Doamnei, along with the neighboring slums, became an administrative and banking district, trade expanded from the fair to the north, replacing the former dwellings, and the St. Sava Monastery replaced the new University. The old shops in the narrow streets of the market were opening their shop windows onto the reinvented streets and boulevards of the new town.
So did Stefan Petrovici, who, in 1868, asked for "new, large windows for his shops" on Doamnei Street, shortly before the alignment plan for Doamnei Street was published. Ștefan Petrovici's father, Scarlat Petrovici, was a member of the City Council2 and certainly a connoisseur of modernization plans for the center of Bucharest. Did Scarlat Petrovici advise his son to build ahead of time, thus postponing the imminent 'drawing of the line'?
The commercial function of the Armis property was confirmed a decade later, when the architect Carol Benisch applied for authorization to build a "franzeliery establishment" at the back of the property at⁵³ Doamnei Street.

It would be 25 years before, in 1893, Stefan Petrovich was given an ultimatum to demolish the out-of-alignment building on the street. Following a request for "small repairs for the maintenance of the plasterwork", he was informed of the partial expropriation of the land facing the street "in the interest of the alignment of Dómnei Street". The building was, at that time, among the last remaining structures of the former St. Sava slum.
The expropriation process was finalized in 1897, when Stefan Petrovich demanded compensation for the land (79.10 sq.m.) taken from his possession. The old house with its shops is demolished and the curb at the intersection of the streets is created

In the summer of 1902, Alexandru Andronescu, general secretary of the National Theatre, rented the land - now known as the Blanduzia Garden - and improvised a stage where plays were staged. The center became a place for parties, the "gardens" multiplied and the streets opened up to their new use as promenades. Between 1890 and 1904 the buildings in the middle of the plot were demolished.
The Volta Cinema, built in 1909, a building narrower than the 19th-century shop-house and attached to the north side, was immediately set up at Blanduzia. In the area, films were shown in improvised spaces, gardens or adapted shops. Although nearby, on 9 Doamnei Street, in a building constructed in 1895, there was already a theater-cinematograph - Terra, Volta is the first building in Bucharest dedicated exclusively to film projection. It is important to understand the exoticism of the idea of a "cinema building" at a time when a motley society was enjoying entertainment in any form and in any setting, and the Bucharest public was probably not too demanding. But with Volta came the emancipation of the spectator.
In 1912 Ștefan Petrovici died and bequeathed the plot of land at 7, Doamnei Street to Nicolae Kretzulescu, his brother-in-law. He demolished all the buildings except the Volta Cinematographe.

In the same year, Kretzulescu leases the land to Mitică Georgescu, a Bucharest cinema magnate, who builds the Apollo Cinematographe, designed by architect Camil Sarvasy. This small Pantheon, replicated and adapted to the site, with its classical pediment concealing a metal roof, marks the flowering of the core of Bucharest's cinema. Although no further demonstration of this was needed, the building perfectly illustrates the French filiera through which architectural influences were borrowed.
Three years later, with the two cinemas marking the beginning of film projection in an organized setting, the same tenant requested the construction of a portal "with two iron pavilions" between the two buildings to sell tickets. So the idea of a 'flow' of spectators emerges. The request is approved subject to the condition that, at the possible request of the town hall, the pavilions would be dismantled, 'without claim for compensation'. There is no certainty that the pavilions were ever built, as the file is stamped at the end with the words 'CANCELLED'. What is noteworthy, however, is the importance given to the ironwork details. The project was carried out by Haug, 'the Royal Household's supplier' (at the time, the ultimate confirmation of quality).
The same Haug company also made the ironwork for the Marmorosch Blank Bank and the Chamber of Commerce Palace, the latter being located a little to the east of the Blanduzia Garden.
During this period, the name "Blanduziei Passage" also appeared, the plot having a second entrance through a house located between the two buildings of today's General Society Palace (the current Palace of the Commercial Bank, on Toma Caragiu Street).

Neighbors get moving

The element that appears on the pediment of the building that housed the Terra Theater-cinematograph, the eagle perched on an altar-relief of the terrestrial globe, is later replicated on the facade of the Lux Cinematograph, which operated on the site of the present-day Tehnoimport building - the former Adriatica building, improvised in the building designed by Gottereau in 1873 for the Romanian Financial Society, with banking functions. The facade of the Lux Cinematograph was remodeled in 1930, when it changed its name to "Doina".
In 1913, the owner of the land opposite, L. Berkovitz, asked for a building to be built on top of it. In view of the alignment plans to widen this corner, the request was not approved. In the face of the refusal, the owner Berkovitz and engineer H. Steinbach propose the construction of a new building specifically for the Lux Cinematheque, set back according to the alignment.
Several variants were proposed for the treatment of the facade, of which the one that was approved was the one distinguished by an academic decoration marking the upper extremities of the corner, represented by two eagles with spread wings.

Towards a new shape for the Garden

In 1922, the Blanduziei Garden was redesigned. The tenant, N. Stănescu, asked for a summer cinema to be built in the garden. The plan shows the stage at the bottom of the plot, the orchestra seating with a stage treated in the same classicizing language. Entrance was through a series of articulations between the two buildings on the street, which housed the ticket office in the center, the cloakroom and the restroom on the two sides. The question of the flow of spectators is put in a much more complex way, with projection from a centrally-located, one-story building. The cinema could seat about 1,400 people, and spectator seating was prioritized for the first time.
Although we do not have iconographic evidence of the short existence of this summer cinema, the furnishings in the project appear to be the same as those preserved in the garden of the Doina Cinematograph, which operated until the mid-1990s.

The first nucleus of Bucharest cinema

At the beginning of the 20th century, at the intersection of Doamnei and Academiei Streets, there were four buildings dedicated to cinema projection, constituting the first nucleus of cinema in Bucharest.
In order to understand its creation, we need to consider the way in which these entertainment spaces function. During this period, silent films were predominantly screened and the movie theater was more like a cabaret hall with movie projections. There was an orchestra playing tunes in close connection with the movie. Between screenings, artistic "numbers" were performed, and backstage, reels of film were sent from one cinema to another for a new screening. This routing of films from one cinema to another also explains their side-by-side location.
Thus, in the 1920s, the cinema core of Bucharest migrated to Bulevard Regina Elisabeta, where it remained for almost a century.
Among the last cinemas to appear in the vicinity of Blanduziei is the Pathé representative office cinema, built in 1921 at 18 Blănari Street. It is worth noting the correction made by the city hall architects of the time, who drew attention to the colossal order on the façade.

Blanduziei Galleries

In the same 1920s, Nicolae Kretzulescu sensed the financial potential of the area and the fact that a series of shopping arcades built on the boundaries of the plot would bring more profit than a cinema or an 18th century shop-house. In 1925, Kretzulescu obtained a provisional building permit (for six years) for 35 shops on the property at 74 Doamnei Street. The Blanduziei Galleries were in fact a street, and the places rented were marked by numbers, like cadastral numbers.
The Galeriile Blanduziei are listed on the plot at 7 Doamnei Street, marking the persistence of commercial interest in the area, which had become, par excellence, central. The aerial view of Bucharest in 1927 shows the galleries in their complete form.
The complete horseshoe shape lasted for 12 years. It was the meeting place of Bucharest's socialites, in particular, the place frequented by the functionaries of the Bucharest banking district. The fountain, also visible in 1927, took the place of the orchestra stage of yesteryear and may also have marked a connection with the dramatic work "Fântâna Blanduziei"5, written by Vasile Alecsandri, which had its heyday at the end of the 19th century.

The denouement

At the end of the 1930s, the intersection of Doamnei and Academiei Streets was unrecognizable: on the site of the former Lux Cinematograph, the corner building - Adriatica (later Tehnoimport), the modernist cylinder dictated by the speed of the car, had appeared, an accent that reinforced the Western image of the Bucharest banking district. In the meantime, plans were being made to erect the new palace of the National Bank.
In 1937, the news of the demolition of the Blanduziei Galleries reached the press, as we have shown. After the expiry of the building permit, which had already been extended after the first six-year period (1925-1931), the demolition deadline was set for July 25, 1937. A few months after the publication of the article, Nicolae Kretzulescu asked the City Hall to rebuild the galleries; he was told that any possible reconstruction must be closely linked to the study for the square behind the National Bank, with "the regime and architecture to be established in this square".
At the same time, the Bank of the Central Commercial and Industrial Circle was operating in the remaining building on the south side. We also learn from the press of the time that, in 1942, the Banca Românească set up a canteen and a reading room for the bank's staff in the buildings remaining on the plot.
With the advent of communism, the state confiscated everything owned by the banks and the management of the National Bank was arrested. The glamor and bustle of the worldly, business and banking world fades away in the galleries of Doamna Street. The building on the south side of the plot is preserved until the early 2000s. The footprint of the old galleries is occupied by various temporary buildings. In 2003, all the buildings on the plot were demolished, and for several years the site has been occupied by a parking lot, which is of course useful for the historic city center. This image, still present in the collective memory, will soon change - on the site of the former Galleries there will be intense construction. The question is whether the new construction will be able to perpetuate the memory of the place.

Archaeology and memory

Looking at the chronology of the plot at 7 Doamnei Street, I hypothesize the existence of the cellars of the house of Stefan Petrovich von Armis, built before 1844. These possible archaeological structures, although they do not represent an architectural value in themselves, represent the only remaining structure of the former St. Sava slum, given the losses resulting from the excavation works carried out between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, as well as from 21st century interventions, such as the works for the realization of the parking lot in the University area.
Collective memory works. As proof of this, the parking lot in Strada Doamnei in recent years retains the name "Blanduzia". The fountain placed by Kretzulescu in 1925 on the site of the former stage and the preservation of the name Blanduzia were two extremely valuable acts for the perpetuation of that first moment at the beginning of the 20th century, a catalyst for entertainment in Bucharest. Underneath the cars parked today on the land cleared by the construction, the footprints of that fountain are preserved.
In some documents from the first part of the 20th century, the name "Blanduziei Passage" also appears, most probably due to the secondary entrance to the site from the building (1912) located at the bottom of the lot. Subsequently, the passage was obstructed with the advent of the building articulating the two buildings of the General Insurance Palace (today's Commercial Bank). The reactivation of this passage, from Doamnei Street, through the recovered Blanduziei Garden, through the Palace's courtyard of honor, towards Toma Caragiu Street, could represent a direction of memory recovery.

The bill

Beyond the purpose of this study, that is to substantiate the diploma project, I would like to sound an alarm signal on the irreversibility of an inappropriate intervention on this land.
I firmly believe that a possible intervention on this site should recover something of the previous world of the Blanduziei Galleries: the urbanity, the garden, the fountain, the shop windows, the fashion, the passage, the movement, the rest, the bustle of the city. I believe in the possibility of recovering a decency of urbanity, far from the stridency of reusing the reuse of European historic centers.
At the same time, I would like to draw attention to the importance of archival research, which should play a fundamental role, not just in a niche within the school of architecture, but in everyday design, with the power to bring to light the meaning of a place, lost worlds too little known or, as in this case, an archaeological potential. Historical study can and must be more than a formality. Historical research is not a hindrance to the contemporaneity of the proposal, but a tool that comes in our favor, sometimes having the power to direct the architectural project.
Far from advocating a nostalgic vision of the lost Bucharest, I believe that there should be a certain historical responsibility, especially with regard to the core of the city. In order to make it possible to authorize a building in a protected built-up area, which most architects and beneficiaries consider to be a thorn in the side of progress, this responsibility lies in an interest in what was here before us, a view of the history of the everyday city that is free of prejudices and stereotypes, which differs from the sterility of the simplistic historical analysis that is currently practiced, the consequences of which can be irreparable.

NOTES

1.See [Grigore Lăcusteanu], Amintirile colonelului Lăcusteanu, Bucharest, Polirom, 2015, p. 102. Scarlat Petrovici (1796-1875) was originally from the Romanian commune of Târnava, in Macedonia. When he came to the country as a young man, he married the daughter of the Greek ethereist Scuffa.
2. "Documente Bucureștene privitoaree la proprietățile Mănăstitierii Colțea", p. 338.
3. https://arhivadearhitectura.ro/arhitecti/carol-benis/
4. "Taking into consideration the report of the architectural service [...] of Str. Doamnei no. 7 (Galeriile Blanduziei) [...] Considering that on the basis of work no. 21797/925, the named owner has obtained authorization for the construction of 35 shops at that property, with the condition that the said constructions are to be done provisionally for 6 (six) years according to the declaration authenticated under no. 10111/925, after which they will be demolished", Article 29 of August 1937, Official Gazette.
5. The genesis of Alecsandri's play in three acts (1883) is to be found in his vacation readings in Mircesti, where he rediscovered Horace. Impressed and inspired by the writings of the Roman poet, Alecsandri managed to write "an ancient comedy" in which Horace plays the title role, a dramatic work that Maiorescu considers Alecsandri's most valuable poetic creation. The name Fântâna Blanduziei comes from Horace's poem in Ode III.13, dedicated to the spring/fountain Bandusia: O fons Bandusiae splendididior vitro/dulci digne mero non sine floribus,/[O Bandusia, O clear fountain,/Demanding of flowers and new wine,...]. Bandusia was presumably a spring in rural Italy, possibly in Apulia, the poet's birthplace. In the poem, Horace promises to sacrifice a calf to the spring in order to have enough water throughout the hot summers in the region. From Bandusia to Blanduzia is but a linguistic step! (ed.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCES

National Archives of Romania, P.M.B. Technical Fund
Bucharest City Hall: Direcția Arhive acte administrative, Fond Sector I Roșu
Bacalbașa, Constantin, Bucureștii de altădată, vol. III (1885-1888), Albatros Publishing House, Bucharest, 2000
[Lăcusteanu, Grigore], Amintirile colonelului Lăcusteanu, Editura Polirom, București 2015
Mucenic, Cezara, Streets, squares, houses in old Bucharest, Vremea Publishing House, Bucharest, 2004

ARHITECTURA MAGAZINE, NR.1/2019
Arhitectură. Film. Cinema