In the old part of Romania’s capital city,
\nnear the centre and its main thoroughfares, like Lasc\u0103r Catargiu boulevard and Calea
\nVictoriei, we find the Romanian Academy’s Archaeology Institute, hosted by the
\nMacca House. A building of highly refined architecture and rich ornamentation,
\nMacca House is one of the most fascinating buildings in Bucharest. Its history combines
\nthe cosmopolitism of those times, via the Swiss-born architect John-Elisee Berthet, with the biography of old local
\nfamilies, because the building was commissioned by Col. Petru Macca and his
\nwife Elena, a well-known philanthropist, who also donated the house to the
\nEducation Ministry after his death.<\/p>\n
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Since then, the Macca House
\nhas hosted a number of institutions, including a museum of antiques in the
\ninterwar period, and it eventually became the permanent home of the Archaeology
\nInstitute. The art historian Oana Marinache has studied both the history of the
\nbuilding, and its architectural plans, and she gave us details about the
\narchitect John-Elisee Berthet’s masterpiece.<\/p>\n
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Oana Marinache: Basically it was a building commissioned
\nprivately by a very rich family. All of Mrs Elena Macca’s revenues actually
\ncame from her estate in Miro\u0219i, as the village was called at the time. With the
\nhelp of her second husband, col. Petre Macca, with patience, with a huge
\nfinancial effort and with the help of outstanding entrepreneurs, most of them
\nforeigners as most works were commissioned in Paris and Vienna, they managed to
\ncomplete this architectural jewel. The building brings together all the
\nHistoricist styles of the late 19th Century. The architect Berthet was
\ncommissioned the project in 1891, and the works were completed around 1894. This
\nis when the family moved into the new house. There were good times and bad
\ntimes for the building, for instance the stables and outhouses burnt down
\ntwice, in 1894 and in 1897. So some changes were bound to take place, but in
\nspite of this the original architecture and art is largely preserved to this
\nday. And modern restoration works still produce surprises, unknown frescoes and
\nother decoration or furniture pieces come to light, which provide new insights
\ninto the lifestyle of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.<\/p>\n
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The building has 4 floors, including the basement and the loft. The
\ninterior and outdoor decorations include Baroque elements like festoons,
\npilasters and heraldic symbols. Preserved on ceilings and walls are also some
\nof the original frescoes, and some stucco fragments are gold plated. At some point, the balconies were
\nadjusted to the Art Nouveau style, and turned into beautiful winter greenhouses
\non the first floor.<\/p>\n
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When we talk about the Macca family, we mean,
\nfirst and foremost, Elena Macca, the art historian Oana Marinache says:<\/p>\n
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Oana Marinache: It was her estate, and the house was built using
\nher financial resources. I would say she was the epitome of a lifestyle and the
\nimage of the philanthropist ladies of the late 19th Century. She had
\noutstanding role models in her family, especially her mother and her maternal
\ngrandmother. She followed in the footsteps of these female role models who
\nobviously had a certain social and economic position, but who were also taking
\ncare of their servants, of the peasants on their estates, of the small
\nentrepreneurs and tenants on their properties. I would say Elena is a role
\nmodel truly worth being brought back today, over 100 years after her death.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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After the Macca house was donated to the Romanian state, it hosted the
\nNational Antiques Museum between 1931 and 1956, and since then it has belonged
\nto the Romanian Academy. Because of
\nthe Macca House’s state of disrepair, a decision was recently made to start
\nrestoration works on the building, coordinated by the National Heritage
\nInstitute. (AMP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Macca House is currently hosting the Romanian Academy’s Archaeology Institute<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":780207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[42746,45573,32037,116716],"coauthors":[115854],"class_list":["post-621921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-architecture","tag-building","tag-family","tag-macca"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n