He had 4 extraordinary daughters who, in their turn, influenced the
\nRomanian culture. His oldest daughter, Cella Delavrancea, was a great and
\nlong-lived pianist and writer, who died at the age of 103. Margareta, his
\nsecond daughter, was a graduate of letters and philosophy, his third daughter
\nNiculina, also known as Pica, was a physician, while his youngest daughter,
\nHenrieta, known as Riri, born in 1894 and dead in 1987, was one of the first women
\narchitects of Romania. <\/p>\n
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Barbu Stefanescu-Delavrancea’s wife, Maria Lupascu, was
\nalso an intellectual, a graduate of philosophy and mathematics, who was a role
\nmodel for her daughters. She was also an amateur pianist. Between 1912 and
\n1927, when she retired, she was the director of the Central Girls’ School.
\nHenrieta Delavrancea’s first thoughts about architecture are linked to this
\nschool, whose building, preserved to this day, is one of the masterpieces of
\narchitect Ion Mincu, who is considered the founder of the Neo-Romanian style. <\/p>\n
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A friend of Barbu Stefanescu-Delavrancea, Mincu was a regular
\npresence in their house, as Cella Delavrancea wrote in her memoir book.
\nHenrieta Delavrancea wanted to be an architect ever since her childhood, when
\nshe was just a first grader. She was only 6 and she never changed her option
\nabout what she wanted to become in life. She started studying architecture in
\n1913 at a time when only three other women before her had dared choose that
\nprofession. <\/p>\n
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Due to WWI she had to continue her studies by mail, and ended them
\nonly in 1927. Meanwhile, in 1919, she married with engineer Emile Gibory in
\nParis. When she retuned to Romania in the 1920s, Henrieta Delavrancea started
\nto work as an architect and her first projects were influenced by the
\nNeo-Romanian style created by her mentor, architect Ion Mincu. Despite Mincu’s
\ninfluence, Henrieta stood out thanks to her original take on architecture and
\nshe managed to create her own style in Romania’s inter-war architecture, inspired
\nby vernacular forms, as Simina Stan, a researcher in architecture history, has
\ntold us: <\/p>\n
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Simina Stan: There are two or three buildings designed by Henrieta
\nat the beginning of her career, in 1927, with Neo-Romanian influences. One such
\nbuilding is a house located in the Cotroceni area of Bucharest, on Dr. Lister
\nstreet. For the rest of her projects, she created a type of architectural
\nvernacular style, in the sense that she created a traditional style of urban
\narchitecture. This style can be identified on the houses that she designed in
\nseveral resorts on the Black Sea Coast, in Constanta, Eforie Sud and Balcik (on
\nthe Bulgarian coast). Henrieta Delavrancea also designed the former city hall
\nof Balcik, which now shelters the city’s History and Archeology Museum. All in
\nall, she designed around 20 villas, of which only 12 or 13 have stood the test
\nof time.<\/p>\n
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In Balcik, Henrieta Delavrancea Gibory also designed several parts
\nof Queen Marie’s palace on the seashore. It was there that she built the
\nRangers’ Pavilion and the Queen’s Tea Pavilion, which Queen Marie’s used to
\ncall her small Mount Athos as it was erected at a certain height, giving the
\nimpression that it floated among the clouds. In Bucharest, Henrieta continued
\nto design private houses, as well as public buildings, such as the fa\u00e7ade of
\nthe Capitol cinema building, which, due to its innovative style, resembled the
\narchitecture specific of New York. Simina Stan has the details:<\/p>\n
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Simina Stan: In Bucharest, we should start by presenting her house
\nlocated on Mihai Eminescu Street, at no. 149. The house of her sister, Cella,
\nwas located in the same yard. It Henrieta’s her first project in Bucharest. In
\nBalcik she started working in 1932 and she continued for about six years. She
\nstarted this stage in her life at around 40. At the same time, she worked for
\nthe Fundeni Hospital in Bucharest and for the Institute of Medicine in
\nColentina Neighborhood. <\/p>\n
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In 1932, Henrieta
\nDelavrancea-Gibory made the blueprint of the palace in Snagov, designed for Prince
\nNicolae, the brother of King Carol II. In the 1970s the building was expanded
\nat the order of Nicolae Ceausescu, to serve as his residence for various
\nofficial meetings. After 1948, when the communists took over power in Romania,
\nHenrieta Delavrancea -Gibory continued designing buildings and restoring
\nhospitals and medical buildings. She also worked on restoring a number of old
\nchurches. She died in 1987 when Cella turned 100. An important collection of
\ndetailed sketches and blueprints was found in her house, proof of the fact that
\nshe worked on a big number of projects and that she was highly meticulous in
\ndoing her job. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A writer, a lawyer and a politician, Barbu Stefanescu-Delavrancea, alongside his generation of intellectuals, was an outstanding personality of the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century, who contributed significantly to Romanias mode<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":125644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[31129,45459,42840],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-168960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-constanta","tag-henrieta-delavrances","tag-queen-marie"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n