Building nationhood

A recently restored villa set in a carefully planted woodland blends traditions in pursuit of a distinctly Romanian idiom of architecture, as Jeremy Musson explains

- Jeremy Musson

Villa Golescu, Argeş County, Romania

A property of Pro Patrimonio Foundation

ON a hillside above the Romanian city of Câmpulung Muscel, Argeş County, is a handsome early 20th-century villa known as the Villa Golescu. Before it lies the cityWallachia's first feudal capital-and above is woodland largely planted by Vasile Golescu, the man responsible for the building of the villa in 1909. Its architecture speaks of the dawning sense of Romanian nationhood that emerged in the later 19th century and enjoyed a rich expression in art, architecture and literature in the first half of the 20th century. The United Romanian Principalities was established in 1862, with the election of Karl von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as prince of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1866; then, with Romania's independence assured after the defeat of the Ottoman empire in 1878, Prince Karl went on to become Carol I, King of Romania.

The pursuit of a national architectural style was not only an undertaking of the royal house, which brought a German inflection to historicism. A department of architecture was also founded at the Bucharest School of Art, led by young architects. Some of them, trained in Paris or Italy, started looking to the Brâncovenesc (or Wallachian Renaissance) style, historic Romanian vernacular building and Orthodox churches for inspiration. The Villa Golescu is an example of this Romanian Revival (or neoRomanian) style, which reached its peak after Transylvania formally became part of the Romanian Kingdom in 1920. The villa is significant because the Golescu family were also active in political reform, with Vasile Golescu's father, Alexandru, being one of the founders of the National Liberal Party of Romania. Golescu Snr went on to serve as Prime Minister of Romania in 1870, a position that had been held by two other members of his family during the 1860s.