The House of Lions. A century of discretion and forgetfulness with Armenian, Hungarian and Romanian nababi

The house with Lei and the fame of the aristocrat Loniay, a cohabitation from Constanţa during the First World War, is another unknown story of the city.

After the capitulation of Constanta and the installation of the German administration of Marshal Mackensen, on October 22, 1916, the House of Lions was requisitioned by Austro-Hungarian troops who established here the headquarters of the Imperial Board of Directors for the Eastern Provinces. It was the chance of the building to be protected from the usual devastation of Bulgarian soldiers and officers but also the will of Count Pal Loniay, the civil administrator of Austria-Hungary in Dobrogea, to find a sumptuous residence. Coming from one of the oldest European and Hungarian families, with a residence attested since the 13th century (Medieşu Aurit Palace, Satu Mare County), the count knew politics well: his father had been Prime Minister of Hungary between 1871 and 1872 he himself had been close to the old Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary (which was to die just one month after the occupation of Dobrogea). In the building on Titulescu Street, in the spring of next year, confidential telegrams from Vienna announced that the count's cousin, Elemer Loniay, had married Princess Stephanie of Belgium and that, therefore, the new emperor, Carol, had raised the brave son-in-law to the rank of prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Undoubtedly, there was a distinguished reception in Constanta, then, to celebrate the emperor's decision but, especially, the entry of the family among the ruling houses of Europe.

In fact, the House with Lei was given a certain historical discretion of the owners in going out in public with facts and events that took place inside. The Austro-Hungarian count was not a party-goer and his regular visits to the German Command (in the Royal Palace) and to the Austro-Hungarian military (in the "Royal" hotel) kept him out of worldly obligations.

But the story of the House of Lions began two decades earlier.

Two years had passed since the unfortunate episode of the first Armenian massacre, when Sultan Abdul Hamid II had already killed an impressive number of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire between 1894 and 1896, when an Armenian near the Hotel d'Angleterre rich began the construction of the building that would go down in the history of Constanța as one of the most beautiful architectural achievements by the sea.

In those times of the end of the 19th century, a construction of such magnitude represented an important event in the city of Constanta. The city much loved by King Carol I and Queen Elizabeth was learning to exist in Romanian, to align with the new requirements of the Old Kingdom and to forget, slowly, the chaotic customs of the Ottoman administrative life of the old Kustenge.

At that time, the modern port of Constanța was not yet inaugurated, and the representative buildings of the city were counted on the fingers of one hand.

Two hotels - Carol and d'Angleterre, two places of worship, one Orthodox - the Greek Church Metamorphosis and another Muslim - the Hunkiar Mosque, and an Administrative Palace where the mayors of Constanta carried out their activity - that's all you found representative of the seaside in terms of architectural.

Constanța needed a new breath, a revival of everything that was beautiful. Western touches did not take long to appear, when rich businessmen, from different nations, began to build in Constanța in various architectural styles, to build private houses, hotels, restaurants, pubs and shops of all kinds.

In the still dusty and poorly endowed city in terms of infrastructure, the balance of the past two centuries was the beginning of the effervescence of social, cultural and architectural life.

In the northern corner of the central square - Independence (today Ovid), in 1900, the house of the Greek Hrisicos was built, in an eclectic style, an abundant mixture of neoclassicism and timid Art Nouveau tendencies, on the eastern side of the same square the rich Armenian Torosian He built, under Adolf Linz's staff, the house that housed, on the ground floor, the famous luxury restaurant Bristol, and at the end of the east seafront, towards the sea, rose the jewel with Arabic motifs sculpted by Grigore Cerchez for Prince Sutu.

The competition was fierce among the rich investors, who felt the development potential of the city, along with the development of the port, and wanted to dominate, through their investments, the maritime landscape of Constanța.

Among them was the rich Armenian merchant Dicran Emirzian, who completed, in 1902, his residence known today as the House of Lions.

There were not many Armenians in Constanța at the end of the 19th century, but they played an important role in the development of the city. The mercantile spirit, the good taste, the love of art and architectural styles, borrowed from all over the world, left to Constanța the testimonies that today represent important tourist objectives at the seaside. The Armenian community in Constanța was not as numerous as the one in the other Dobrogea residence, Tulcea, where their number amounted to over 2,600 souls at the turn of the century. However, ordinary merchants and craftsmen had settled in Tulcea, who had set up an entire Armenian slum around St. Gregory's Church, on Concordiei Street (built in 1882) and along Armenian Street (now Al. Ciucurencu). Financial modesty and diligence established, for Tulcea, a more active community spirit compared to its southern neighbors. In Constanţa, the Armenians differ, a good part of them, by the exceptional material condition and, also, by the buildings built in the city, each one a real architectural jewel. Part of the financial, cultural and administrative elite, the Tomitan community imposed Armenianness a little less as an identity dimension than it sought a competition with energetic Romanian, Greek and Jewish neighbors. Hence the real estate results of this elite and, obviously, the modesty of the Armenian Church compared to its sister in Tulcea.

At the time of the construction of the Armenian Church of St. Mary, at the end of the current Callatis Street, financed by the rich Torosian, in 1881, Constanța hosted 175 Armenian souls. Although a small community, Armenians, also known as the "Jews of the Orient," had exceptional financial potential.

The architectural heritage left by the Armenians in Constanța is, perhaps, the most impressive compared to the other minority communities. Only the rich Greek merchants could compare with the Armenian merchants in terms of imposing buildings.

The Armenian buildings in Constanța, all built at about the same time, at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries, are extremely imposing, among the largest in the city. All of them also have perfect architectural tastes, becoming landmarks of the city. The Damadian House, the Zambaccian House, the Emirzian House (House of Lions) or the Manissalian Palace are all testimonies of the good taste of the Armenians and the skill of the architects of those times. The cultural heritage of this community by the sea is extremely valuable, representing a very important episode in its almost millennial evolution in the Romanian space.

When the rich Armenian merchant Dicran Emirzian inaugurated his residence, in 1902, Elena Street was not without luxury, good taste and rich inhabitants. A few meters to the seafront, opposite the newly completed Armenian house, the good people have been staying everywhere, since the early 80s of the nineteenth century, in the Hotel d'Angleterre, an equally impressive achievement for the early years of Romanian Constanța. A little further down the line, in line with Dicran Emirzian's residence, another imposing, eclectic-style building with predominantly neoclassical elements had been completed for three years, with money from Greek merchant Take Manicatide, a prominent member of the Conservative Party and chairman of the Chamber of Deputies. Trade and communal councilor. The old Hellenic Street was located in the luxury area of the city and coveted by people with money who built their residences and moved their businesses to Constanța.

The house of the rich Emirzian, at the intersection of Diana and Elena streets (now Lascăr Catargiu and now Nicolae Titulescu), is positioned spatially distinct from all the other houses on Titulescu Street. Facing north, with the main entrance on the small Diana alley and not towards Titulescu Street, as are the other buildings in the area, Emirzian's house looked, at the time of construction, directly at the central square of Constanța Vechi. Today, the image of the square is barred by an imposing interwar construction and a ugly communist bloc, which forced the entrance on Titulescu Street to be made through a smelly gang.

Built according to the plans of the architect Ioan D. Berindei, who built, two years later, the Manissalian Palace, destroyed in 1941 by the Soviet bombings, or the Palace of Culture in Iasi, the two-storey building and attic was built in a superb eclectic style, with touches of Italian neo-renaissance and neoclassical elements.

The talent and skill of the Berindei architect made this superb building enter the memory of the city from an architectural point of view and represent an emblem of the peninsular area.

It is interesting that the Constanta building of the House with Lions has an equally famous smile, in Bucharest, on Calea Victoriei, also a House with Lions, ordered and inhabited by, probably, the richest Romanian of all times, Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino. Known especially as "Nababul", the Bucharest sponsor was president of the Conservative Party and prime minister of Romania twice (1899-1900 and 1904-1907) and his palace served, for a long time, as the seat of government. , until the completion of the construction of the current headquarters in Victoriei Square, at the end of the 1930s. of external structure. The size and frames of the windows, the entrance, the characteristic lions, the superior structure of the House of Lions from Constanţa are more modest reflections from the point of view of the extension towards the Nabab property. Why not, the competition with the Damadian family convinced the Emirzian not to be tight at all when he decided to pick up Berindei's beautiful creation. The four lions that majestically guard the entrance to the House on Titulescu Street have long been a symbol of Romanian neoclassical architecture, establishing an extremely privileged place for Constanţa.

Taking its name from the four lions that have been resting for more than a century on the capitals of the entrance columns, the House with Lions is now guarded. A warning tape, which stretches in front of the entrance to the building, from the base of the second column to a foul-smelling public toilet, propped in front of the base of the third column, and a poster in the door that announces that "it is forbidden to climb the steps" will quickly wake you up to reality, before you can admire the impressive touches given by Ion Berindei to this symbol building. The spell is quickly lost and you are trying to figure out why this building came to such a state rather than imagining the bohemian times of long ago, when the history of modern Constance was just beginning to be written.

The façade from Titulescu Street does not look better either, it is even noticeable through an elbow that comes out of the belly of the plywood that used to be a door.

Throughout its history, after Dicran Emirzian decided to move his residence elsewhere, Casa cu lei was the residence of a magistrate passionate about art, the tenant Lazăr Munteanu. Legend has it that a walk in front of the House with Lions, an open window of the building and some paintings from Lazăr Munteanu's room planted in the soul of the Armenian Krikor Zambaccian the love for art. One of the most representative Armenians for Constanța, Krikor Zambaccian was a collector and art critic, corresponding member of the Romanian Academy, a lover of beauty who invented the concept of art consignment. Krikor Zambaccian held the position of deputy mayor of the city in 1925. The collection of Romanian and French modern art, donated to the state, is in the museum that bears his name in Bucharest. Krikor Zambaccian wrote a time and a plastic chronicle for the newspaper "Curentul", and even some short stories published in "Universul literar". In the last period of his life, the Armenian also wrote a volume of evocations and autobiographical testimonies - "Notes of an art collector".

Immediately after the First World War, at the beginning of the 20s of the last century, Casa cu Lei became the bank's headquarters, and after the rehabilitation in the 70s, it became a restaurant. The years of democracy after the Revolution were not mild either for the House of Lions, which today is thrown into anonymity. The paradox is that this building is owned by the man known as the most important businessman in Constanța and one of the most powerful investors in Romania.

However, this cohabitation between a millionaire and the House of Lions, a building entered in the architectural heritage of Romania and declared a historical monument of category A, has not been, so far, auspicious.

As in the case of many of the heritage buildings of Constanța, the House with Lions is forgotten by the rich owners.

Who better to tell the story of a city than its constructions? And what can better characterize a city and its inhabitants if not the condition of its buildings?

Casa cu Lei reveals to us, in abundance, both the success stories of the last century and the toxic relations between builders, investors and the patrimony of Constanța today.

Source: www.info-sud-est.ro