Radio România Internațional

Tag: Queen Marie

  • Romania and the Roots of the 1919-1920 Peace Conference

    Romania and the Roots of the 1919-1920 Peace Conference

    At the end of WWI, the victory of the Alliance (formed by the UK, France, the US, Italy, and Japan, which Romania had joined in 1916), did not mean that peace was easily come by. Theoretically, the war had winners and losers, but the peace had to provide a balance, to eliminate the possibility of another war in the future. An idea emerged according to which an international organization could manage local conflicts, preventing them from becoming global crises. The protection of minorities in the newly formed states had to be taken into account, much more seriously than it had before. The Great War was followed by regional conflicts which would prolong the war locally. For instance, the Romanian-Hungarian war of 1919 lasted for about half a year, but the Greek-Turkish War started in 1919 lasted until 1922. Peace was very difficult to achieve, proportionally to the amount of animosity involved.

    Romania had to fight for its national aspirations to be recognized by the Allied powers, which were playing a balancing game of their own, either among themselves or with the newly emerged states. Romanian diplomacy was trying to obtain at the negotiation table what it had managed to gain on the field of battle with great sacrifices. Historian Ioan Scurtu proved that the PM of Romania, and one of the main artisans of the French-British alliance, Liberal politician I. C. Bratianu, had the difficult mission of defending his countrys interests in the Supreme Council formed by the US, France, the UK, and Italy:

    “When I. C. Bratianu went to the Paris peace conference, he had in his pocket the political convention signed with the Allies based on which Romania had joined it in the war, an act that established very clearly what the boundaries of Romania were to be after the war, based on the Austro-Hungarian territories inhabited by Romanians. Also, he was holding the union acts signed in Chisinau, Cernauti, and Alba-Iulia. Last but not least, he was banking on the blood shed by Romanians in aiding the Allies gain their victory. Bratianu fought with acrimony to impose equality of treatment, and initiated a collaboration between the delegations from Romania, Czechoslovakia, the Serbian Kingdom, Croatia, Slovenia, and Greece, so that they could take common action that would be taken into consideration by the Allies. Unfortunately, of the members of the coalition, Greek leader Venizelos declared that he did not consider himself the head of an independent and sovereign state like Greece, so that the rest of them stepped aside too. Bratianu was left to his own devices in the struggle to have Romania treated properly. What was memorable was the confrontation with the members of the Supreme Council, including American President Woodrow Wilson, and the support he had for the rights of Romania, including in the matter of minorities.”

    In places where the Romanian politicians did not succeed, the one who succeeded was a formidable woman, Queen Marie, who, alongside her husband, King Ferdinand, had risked it all in order to win. The queen of Romania was where she was needed, and took part in the writing of one of the most glorious pages in the history of 20th century Romania. Here is Ioan Scurtu:

    “Bratianu had managed to antagonize all the members of the Supreme Council, who could not abide contradiction, and would not accept arguments against their decisions. Then Bratianu suggested to King Ferdinand to send Queen Marie to Paris, and she showed up right away. In the Central Station in Paris, asked by the journalists why she had come, she said that she wanted to display the beautiful face of Romania. She was received at Elysee Palace with an honor guard and decorations. US President Wilson was the star of the conference, and the queen approached him to be received in order to plead the cause of Romania. However, the American President sent her word that his schedule started at 9, and so she waited for him at 7 in the morning at the Ritz, in order to have the discussion she wanted. And Wilson did show up, with his wife, at 8:30 at the Ritz. A discussion took place, in which the American president pleaded for peace in the Society of Nations, in order to remove war, for a happy world, as he envisioned it. Queen Marie was almost shut out of the discussion, given the passion with which the president was speaking. As the time to leave approached, the queen addressed him: Mr. President, I hope you wont be so impolite as to not invite me for breakfast tomorrow. To which Wilson looked at his wife, and did invite the queen. This time, the tables turned: Queen Marie was the one speaking, and spoke mostly about the rights of minorities. She concluded by saying: President Wilson is the most appropriate person to speak about the rights of minorities, given all the rights that black people have in the US. Wilson was left speechless.”

    This is how history is written, with Messianic personalities from small countries that changed huge decisions. In that regard, Romania was lucky.

  • Architect Henrieta Delavrancea

    Architect Henrieta Delavrancea

    He had 4 extraordinary daughters who, in their turn, influenced the
    Romanian culture. His oldest daughter, Cella Delavrancea, was a great and
    long-lived pianist and writer, who died at the age of 103. Margareta, his
    second daughter, was a graduate of letters and philosophy, his third daughter
    Niculina, also known as Pica, was a physician, while his youngest daughter,
    Henrieta, known as Riri, born in 1894 and dead in 1987, was one of the first women
    architects of Romania.






    Barbu Stefanescu-Delavrancea’s wife, Maria Lupascu, was
    also an intellectual, a graduate of philosophy and mathematics, who was a role
    model for her daughters. She was also an amateur pianist. Between 1912 and
    1927, when she retired, she was the director of the Central Girls’ School.
    Henrieta Delavrancea’s first thoughts about architecture are linked to this
    school, whose building, preserved to this day, is one of the masterpieces of
    architect Ion Mincu, who is considered the founder of the Neo-Romanian style.






    A friend of Barbu Stefanescu-Delavrancea, Mincu was a regular
    presence in their house, as Cella Delavrancea wrote in her memoir book.
    Henrieta Delavrancea wanted to be an architect ever since her childhood, when
    she was just a first grader. She was only 6 and she never changed her option
    about what she wanted to become in life. She started studying architecture in
    1913 at a time when only three other women before her had dared choose that
    profession.






    Due to WWI she had to continue her studies by mail, and ended them
    only in 1927. Meanwhile, in 1919, she married with engineer Emile Gibory in
    Paris. When she retuned to Romania in the 1920s, Henrieta Delavrancea started
    to work as an architect and her first projects were influenced by the
    Neo-Romanian style created by her mentor, architect Ion Mincu. Despite Mincu’s
    influence, Henrieta stood out thanks to her original take on architecture and
    she managed to create her own style in Romania’s inter-war architecture, inspired
    by vernacular forms, as Simina Stan, a researcher in architecture history, has
    told us:


    Simina Stan: There are two or three buildings designed by Henrieta
    at the beginning of her career, in 1927, with Neo-Romanian influences. One such
    building is a house located in the Cotroceni area of Bucharest, on Dr. Lister
    street. For the rest of her projects, she created a type of architectural
    vernacular style, in the sense that she created a traditional style of urban
    architecture. This style can be identified on the houses that she designed in
    several resorts on the Black Sea Coast, in Constanta, Eforie Sud and Balcik (on
    the Bulgarian coast). Henrieta Delavrancea also designed the former city hall
    of Balcik, which now shelters the city’s History and Archeology Museum. All in
    all, she designed around 20 villas, of which only 12 or 13 have stood the test
    of time.






    In Balcik, Henrieta Delavrancea Gibory also designed several parts
    of Queen Marie’s palace on the seashore. It was there that she built the
    Rangers’ Pavilion and the Queen’s Tea Pavilion, which Queen Marie’s used to
    call her small Mount Athos as it was erected at a certain height, giving the
    impression that it floated among the clouds. In Bucharest, Henrieta continued
    to design private houses, as well as public buildings, such as the façade of
    the Capitol cinema building, which, due to its innovative style, resembled the
    architecture specific of New York. Simina Stan has the details:








    Simina Stan: In Bucharest, we should start by presenting her house
    located on Mihai Eminescu Street, at no. 149. The house of her sister, Cella,
    was located in the same yard. It Henrieta’s her first project in Bucharest. In
    Balcik she started working in 1932 and she continued for about six years. She
    started this stage in her life at around 40. At the same time, she worked for
    the Fundeni Hospital in Bucharest and for the Institute of Medicine in
    Colentina Neighborhood.






    In 1932, Henrieta
    Delavrancea-Gibory made the blueprint of the palace in Snagov, designed for Prince
    Nicolae, the brother of King Carol II. In the 1970s the building was expanded
    at the order of Nicolae Ceausescu, to serve as his residence for various
    official meetings. After 1948, when the communists took over power in Romania,
    Henrieta Delavrancea -Gibory continued designing buildings and restoring
    hospitals and medical buildings. She also worked on restoring a number of old
    churches. She died in 1987 when Cella turned 100. An important collection of
    detailed sketches and blueprints was found in her house, proof of the fact that
    she worked on a big number of projects and that she was highly meticulous in
    doing her job.