Summer came. For many, it is also the holiday season. Fortunately, we can travel more than last summer and I used this opportunity to visit my favorite place on the Black Sea again. The small town of Balchik, located in Bulgaria, is a relatively short distance from the city where I live, Bucharest in Romania. The fact that it is accessible and can be reached in about four hours by car makes me visit this city every year, even a few times every summer.
This is my favorite and safe vacation spot. Not only do I get there relatively quickly. Mainly because it matches my desires for rest and relaxation because the history of the city is related to the history of my country because it is small and a little crowded and the sea is wonderful.
I have written dozens of times about the city, the sea, the beach and the main tourist attraction, the Castle of Queen Maria of Romania which is here. There were travel blogs and they will be, but now I want to bring in front of you a building, a short story about a building and its history. Because I address architecture lovers. Because this building fascinates me.
Cuţescu-Storck House
A short history.
This region of Bulgaria, called South Dobrogea or Quadrilater belonged in the first half of the last century to the Kingdom of Romania, Greater Romania as it was also called. It was the period, until the Second World War, when Romania had the largest area, including, apart from Quadrilater, Bessarabia (currently the Republic of Moldova) and Bukovina (currently partially in Ukraine).
Queen Maria of Romania fell in love with Balchik and bought a large area of land where she built a castle, in fact, a holiday villa, and arranged some beautiful gardens all around.
Following the Queen's example, many of her friends, politicians, businessmen, and especially people of culture (writers and especially painters, sculptors) built holiday homes in Balchik, a small town and port on the Black Sea. inhabited mainly by Turks, Tatars.
Henriette Delavrancea-Gibory, the sister of Cella Delavrancea and the daughter of Barbu Delavrancea, an important Romanian writer and politician of the last century, was one of the first women architects in Romania.
Cella Delavrancea was one of the best pianists of the time and was a good friend of Queen Maria. Thanks to her, Henriette came to design for the Queen's castle and then designed 22 villas for those who wanted to be near the Queen in Balchik. Superb villas, including Cuţescu-Storck House.
History was troubled in the twentieth century, especially in the first half, with two world wars in which Romania was also a part. In 1940, under German pressure, the Quadrilateral (South Dobrogea) was returned to Bulgaria. In this situation, the Romanian properties were taken over by the Bulgarian state and the inhabitants of the castle and the villas we talked about were forced to leave Balchik.
Queen Maria's castle was transformed into a museum, the gardens formed a beautiful botanical garden and the villas built by Henrieta Delavrancea-Gibory became the property of the Balchik town hall. Some of these villas were restored, others were demolished and Cuţescu-Storck House was abandoned. Unfortunately, this beautiful villa has deteriorated in almost 80 years since it was abandoned.
This beautiful villa is built on the hill next to the sea, the same hill on which the Queen's Castle is built as well as the other villas in the gardens. Now, between the villa and the seafront is the main promenade in Balchik, the place for tourists to walk.
The house belonged to the family of plastic artists Frederic Storck and Cecilia Cuţescu-Storck. Frederic was a sculptor and his wife was a painter. They were important artists, both professors at the art academy, moreover, Cecilia was the first woman in Europe to teach at an art academy! A collage with the two artists and some images inside the house.
Both were progressive and daring artists for the time in which they lived. They both loved this house in Balchik, they loved Balchik and led a bohemian life there. They worked a lot in this villa, having a large workshop for sculpture and painting. Cecilia Storck was also a mural painter and painted the walls of this villa, but the paintings have deteriorated over time and are no longer visible.
Another collage with photos of the villa. These collages were exposed on the fence of the villa but I don't understand what the intention was. At first, I thought the villa was for sale but it is not. Then I understood that rehabilitation and repair are wanted in order to set up a cultural center. However, things are moving very slowly and the years go by and the house deteriorates even more.
This villa covered with vegetation, in fact, an open sea loggia with eight columns, is an exceptional and singular construction, I have never seen anything like it.
Architecture is defined as traditional Romanian, but I don't think so. It is a combination between the Romanian and the Bulgarian style and with many Mediterranean influences. Roman arches, the opening to the sea, and the construction in steps on the rugged terrain plus the garden in terraces, towards the sea, just like at the castle of Queen Maria.
The small terrace garden is another special element of the construction. Here I think Frederic Storck also contributed, being a sculptor he knew how to arrange stones, benches, and arches.
A remarkable construction and I don't understand how it has been abandoned for so many years. More images and viewing angles.
Immediately next to the Storck house, there is another villa, designed and built by the rector of the Faculty of Architecture in Bucharest, which was renovated and now belongs to a local businessman.
Although this villa is super finished and super neat, I prefer the old Storck house. It seems to come from another time and another era. The style of the architect Henrietta Delavrancea-Gibory tried and succeeded in combining the atmosphere and the oriental elements with Mediterranean elements.
The notables and inhabitants of Balic should be grateful to the architect Henrietta Delavrancea-Gibory. There are many who say that she invented the new Balchik, taking care not to disturb the old one, but to continue it. I think these things should be written somewhere, on a monument so that everyone knows the history of these buildings. I didn't know anything about this architect and I found it hard to document myself for this post.
In the end, I will let the architect talk about her work (excerpt from a 1980 interview).
The windows, the dusty stone paths, the squares with fountains, the overflowing houses, the porches with wooden porches, the roads in the stairs of Balchik proved to be a fascinating place for Romanian art and architecture. My houses have a Romanian flavor, but they are also modern in appearance and function, meticulously deepened, which made my clients happy ”.
I can say nothing more than that I hope that next year when I arrive in Balchik again, I hope to see that the renovation work has begun.
