One Day Near the Palace

Probably the most beautiful and attractive place in my city, Bucharest, Romania, is outside it. About 15 km from the city center and less than 4 km from my house. I was lucky to live for the last 30 years in a suburb, in the northern part of the city, considered the greenest because there are several important parks and many green spaces.

The place I am referring to is called Mogosoaia Palace, it is a palace whose construction was completed in 1702 and originally belonged to the ruler Constantin Brancoveanu.

Romanian countries at that time were under the domination of the Ottoman Empire, as were most of the Balkan and Eastern European states.

The Turks did not interfere much in the internal affairs of the occupied states than to put the leader and receive a large sum of money (gold) every year. The leader was chosen from among the local boyars, usually from the richest. These local boyars were not united at all, moreover, they hated each other and plotted against the ruler, with the intention of taking his place. To achieve this goal, they sent false information about the leader to the Sultan, and when he believed these tricks, he replaced the leader and, most of the time, killed him.

This was also the fate of Constantin Brancoveanu, who was the richest in the country. I forgot to say that with the assassination of the leader, the Sultan took all his property. Constantin Brancoveanu's fate was cruel, he was beheaded in Constantinople with his four sons. He received the promise that he would not be killed if he renounced his Christian religion and became a Muslim, but he refused.

Constantin Brancoveanu was a ruler who supported the development of culture and spiritual life, which was in fact religious life. During his reign many monasteries were built, all in a new style, a kind of Romanian renaissance, which was called the Brancovenesc style. The palace I present today is an example of this style.

Mogosoaia Palace

This palace is the main construction of an entire area, bordered on one side by Lake Mogosoaia, and is located in Mogosoaia, I guess you guessed it. The small town of Mogosoaia is close to Bucharest, the capital of Romania. In fact, Mogosoaia is now close to Bucharest and will soon become part of the city.

Constantin Brancoveanu was the first to connect this palace, Mogosoaia Palace, which was his residence, with the center of Bucharest, the old center, to the Prince's Palace through a road paved with wood, therefore called Mogosoaiei Bridge. Why do I remember that? Because Mogosoaiei Bridge will become in time the most beautiful boulevard of Bucharest, my favorite, called Victory Avenue.

Returning to Mogosoaia Palace. I usually visit this tourist complex very often, several times a month, especially for the huge park, for the beauty of the landscape and the buildings, of course. I have written many posts about this place, especially travel blogs. Although obviously, the buildings are the same, I tried to photograph as differently as possible and I try not to repeat myself in the description and now I thought of presenting this place from an architectural point of view rather than a tourist one. The novelty of this presentation is that my granddaughter, Ilinca, also intervenes here. Ilinca is one year and nine months old and loves to walk in the park and Mogosoaia Park is fabulous with its space, trees, and lake.

I somehow try to describe why such a small child appears in this story. I'm making a comparison now ... a gourmet who likes, say, hot peppers to use in all foods. A painter who has a favorite color will use it in all paintings. My favorite now is my only granddaughter, I'm crazy about her and I want her to be with me all the time. The way she discovers the world cannot be described in words ... I sit, I observe her, and I can't believe how great is the desire to see, to know, and to learn in such a small child!

Now let's get to the subject. Regarding the architecture, Romania does not have anything specific and recognized apart from the Brancovenesc style and the architectural style of the painted churches from Bucovina. I think so, without being a specialist. I mean, I didn't hear anything else. At that time, the most important buildings were the palaces of the rulers, churches, monasteries, and mansions of the boyars. The architectural style that was beginning to develop was an eclectic style formed by the influences of the Middle East and those of Western Europe, ie Italy, Greece. The end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modernization happened late in the Romanian Lands and because of this, it could only be a copy of the culture of the more developed countries. There has always been a gap, which, of course, remains in the present age.

This is the palace seen from the front, back, and sides.

A characteristic of these palaces is that they were built on a waterfront, especially lakes. This is the facade from the lake, with the balcony where I imagine that the ruler's family was having coffee. Turkish coffee must have been fashionable then.

A characteristic of the Brancovenesc style is given by the way of construction. The walls are made of thin bricks with a layer of thick mortar, the thickness of a brick, between them. This gives a succession of colors, reddish-brown of the bricks and white of the mortar, horizontal parallel stripes.

The Brancoveanu style is distinguished by the expressiveness conferred by the architectural volumes of the exterior stairs, of the gazebos or loggias, which picturesquely vary the appearance of the facades. The traditional system of decoration with bows arches is still applied, but the rich ornamentation of the frames, columns, and balustrades betrays the baroque influence through the vegetal motifs composed in sticks. The proportions become slimmer and more harmonious, they prove a more careful elaboration of plans. Both the decoration and the free spaces, structured by columns, deny the massiveness of the architectural forms; the open porch, for example, becomes a representative element of the buildings. The vaulting is usually done in a semi-cylinder or with hemispherical domes. The decoration can be carved in stone or applied in the form of stucco reliefs. In the stone decoration, the floral motifs predominate, in the stucco oriental ornaments are often found.
Source-Wikipedia

As I said, I am not a specialist and I was looking for a description of the Brancovenesc style. I will just try, with my photos, to prove that this is so ...

Exterior stairs, gazebos, or loggias

Vaulting in a semi-cylinder or with hemispherical domes.

The open porch

Ilinca liked it the most here.

The palaces were built in the Brancoveanu era, especially near some water canvases, in rectangular enclosures. The gate and the outbuildings are usually located on the opposite side of the residence, which is organized on two levels, above high cellars. The base of the buildings usually includes the ground floor. The palaces have on the side from the courtyard a gazebo with stairs, on the side from the lake a loggia. Equipped with a water supply, bathrooms, and toilets, the royal residences offered unprecedented comfort.
Source-Wikipedia

On the opposite side of the Palace is the gate and the entrance tower, where, of course, there is a guard. On the left, a special building, called "cuhnia", was the kitchen that served the palace.

On the right, the guest house.

Now the palace is a museum, on the ground floor exhibitions are organized and on the first-floor have exhibited the furniture and clothes from the time of Constantin Brancoveanu. Cuhnia is also an exhibition hall and the guest house is a restaurant and hotel.

Little Ilinca was attracted to this impressive building, I didn't expect that. The desire to see as much and as quickly as possible was close to hurting her ...

It's time to show what Ilinca liked. Because he liked it very much there, he wanted to enter the palace but because it was Monday, the palace could not be visited inside. Unfortunately, I couldn't explain this to Ilinca, because she couldn't understand.

Eventually, she contented herself with observing the outside of the building.

Equally important and impressive is the palace garden, a huge park open to all. In fact, the frequent visits I make here are especially for the park and for the island, which has a place to play. Because the park is very big, bigger than any other park in Bucharest and it is very little crowded. Outside the weekend it's almost deserted and that's much to my liking. Ilinca has the freedom to play without any worries.

The Park

The lake, the meadows, the secular trees ...

A wonderful and unknown place. unknown to many inhabitants of the city who have no idea what beauty there is next to them. It is difficult for tourists to get here again without a guide and guidance. I'm sorry but it's good that it happens, so this place will not be too crowded to not want to walk there. Nor to disturb the sleep of the old owners, in the family grave located in the park.

After reading about the owners, not Constantin Brancoveanu but his descendants who renovated this palace and gave it its current appearance, I thanked him and went home. It was already too hot outside.

I will ask my granddaughter Ilinca to announce that it's over.