House Ana And Marinache Popescu

LOCATION

Strada 1 Decembrie 1918 3-5
910040 Calarasi

DESCRIPTION

The House Ana and Marinache Popescu functions as a headquarter of the County Department for Culture and National Heritage of Călăraşi.[1] The site is an ensemble of two buildings, of which the main building comprises a partial basement, a semi-basement, a hochparter and a partial attic, while the secondary one is made up by the ground floor and an entrance staircase. One of the most impressive features of the Popescu family house is the rich ornamentation that decorates it both outside and inside. All the elements were severely damaged by time and lack of maintenance and needed restoration. The terracotta ornaments on the exterior of the main building have been cleaned and varnished, now contrasting with the yellow facade and thus emphasizing the cornice line and the void dimensions. Inside, the decoration is even more opulent. The ceiling in the main hall and conference room is painted with oil paintings. With the removal of postwar paintings, decorative ones below them were found. Even the second building, which originally housed down the carriages and servants' quarters, was beautifully decorated externally, but the detachment of some of the ornamentation components imposed their completion on the basis of some recovered molds during the restoration process.

The only contemporary interventions visible on the outside are the ensemble consisting of a metallic door and a perforated sheet metal entrance to the basement of the main building and shutters made of metallic wooden blades and a balcony metallic balustrade inserted at the level of the second building.

In terms of inner architecture, it is the result of a successful dialogue between the historical substance and the newly introduced contemporary elements. The lower level access staircase, the ground floor balustrade and the walkway that crosses the basement to facilitate access to the garden of the compound, make up a single metal object that connects all the points of interest of the annex space. The same elements were also used for the main building body in the basement area: a transparent metal walkway, introduced for functional reasons, reconfigures the relationship between the main staircase of the house and the basement access staircase.[2]

HISTORY

Around 1890, Marinache Popescu, a merchant and landowner in Ialomita, decided together with his wife Ana, to build an opulent, eclectic style building in Calarasi, whose structured and rigorous part contains generous spaces with a proper separation of functions. Over three decades, their descendants donated the building to the town hall to be used for cultural and educational purposes, a donation respected until the change of the political regime in a1945. In the 1950s, the building became the Headquarters of the Propaganda and Agitation Section of the Romanian Communist Party, and in the 1970s it housed a Kindergarten, followed by the Institute for Design and Engineering for the Metallurgical Industry. On the occasion of the territorial redeployment in 1981, the house was administered by the Culture and Socialist Education Committee of Calarasi County, and after the Revolution it became headquarter of the County Department for Culture and National Patrimony, so the will of the donors was fulfilled once more.[3]

Over the course of time, there were three kings in this building: H.M. Carol I, H.M. King Ferdinand and H.M. King Michael I. On May 2011, a cultural plaque was installed on the complex, which reminds of the kings.

SITE SIGNIFICANCE

House Ana and Marinache Popescu, is one of the first villa type buildings of Călăraşi

VISITOR INFORMATION

Working hours:

Monday: 10:00 to 16:30

Tuesday: 10:00 to 16:30

Wednesday: 10:00 to 16:30

Thursday: 10:00 to 16:30

Friday: 8:00 - 19:00

Saturday: -

Sunday: -

* Work schedule varies by season

OTHER INFORMATION

The museum is listed on the Historic Monuments List. Calarasi is the administrative center of the county with the same name, Muntenia, Romania. Calarasi is known for the food industry, the melamine chip industry, the steel industry, the paper industry and the prefabricated industry.

CLASSIFICATION

Ethnographic historical site

[1] Direcţia Judeţeană pentru Cultură şi Patrimoniul Naţional Călăraşi, http://www.umpcultura.ro/investitii-finalizate_doc_25_directia-judeteana-pentru-cultura-si-patrimoniul-national-calarasi_pg_0.htm

[2] CASA ANA ŞI MARINACHE POPESCU, https://www.igloo.ro/casa-ana-si-marinache-popescu/

[3] CASA ANA ŞI MARINACHE POPESCU, https://www.igloo.ro/casa-ana-si-marinache-popescu/