Casa Embiricos. History on the Constanța-New York route, the present through ruins…

Source: www.info-sud-est.ro

Many people in Constanţa were not at all impressed by the drama of the British transatlantic ship "Titanic", sunk in the cold waters of the Atlantic in the capricious spring of 1912. The idea of traveling by ocean in luxury, with comfortable cabins, restaurants and bars open all the time and for all bags, with ballrooms and gambling halls, with passengers of all races and speaking in all languages was more appealing than any fear of danger. And then there was the supreme myth of America, of the life in which, quickly, you can fulfill a dream in reality and you can realize yourself beyond the ancient social belts of Europe, where it began to smell, daily, of war.

This is what the brothers Leonidas and Mihail Embiricos, from the Greek island of Andros, thought when, after founding Piraeus in 1908, the shipping company National Steam Navigation decided to move its business to Brăila in 1912, where Uncle Alcibiades controlled the trade with Piraeus. grain through the Danube ports and the import of coal from the Welsh mines of Great Britain. The uncle and the two brothers were quickly convinced that, in Romania, the image is the best advertisement of the business and the fastest way to advance socially and, in the same year, they convinced the architect Lazăr Predinger to build them a small palace, on Belvedere Street, in the heart of the Danube port, from where to further increase the family's fortune. The Embiricos House in Brăila, inaugurated in the same year, 1912, is a jewel of Belle Epoque architecture in Romania and its splendor is, even today, almost unmatched. But even more impressive, Embiricos decided, was to be the opening reception where, in the beautifully arranged garden, were invited hundreds of people, merchants, politicians, teachers, lawyers, doctors, journalists, everything that was most towering to the Greek community. there. Then came the crowd of Greek consuls spread in Galati, Sulina and Constanta, especially to convince themselves of the seriousness of the company and for the good publicity that had to be made in the dynamic ports where they carried out their boring mandates.

The house in Brăila opened for guests on the Annunciation Day, the national holiday of Greece, and the three Embiricos, with 99 ships on the seas of the world in custody, gave the most commented reception in the city's history. The story of Fănuş Neagu, much later, that “in the garden were served, on huge plates, oranges, mandarins, ouzo, rose liqueur, vermouths, Chios mastic, whole fried lambs, and especially entrails, and goat carts, sprinkled with sweet and aromatic wines ”. A troupe of twenty artists brought from the "Britania" cabaret, from neighboring Constanţa, colored the atmosphere, to the delight of the gentlemen and the despair of the Greek women.

The Embiricos family never shyed to show that they remained Greek patriots but also that, at the same time, they respected the land on which they settled. When the First Balkan War broke out, in the autumn of 1912, a few months after the pumice party in the Brăila garden, the two brothers made the ship "Macedonia" available to the Greek army for the supply and rapid transport of troops. It was also normal, Leonidas Embiricos was a close friend of the charismatic Republican leader Eleftherios Venizelos, often a minister and head of government, and for this friendship he had been properly rewarded. Embiricos the Romanian was sent to the Parliament of Athens three times, as a deputy, in 1910, 1912 and 1915 (yes, Greek politics gives short mandates) and, for a short time, during the same First Balkan War, he agreed to leave in Brăila and to become Minister of Supply under the leadership of his good friend Venizelos.

photo: www.romaniaforum.info

Both Mihail and Leonidas Embiricos, however, watched the competition closely. It was clear that Brăila was rapidly losing ground to another city, newer, more modern, with unprecedented luxury hotels in the Balkans, with a rich world coming for the whole summer on holiday, the place where diplomats from all over the world came for baths and secret deals. and where the grain and oil trade flourished. Constant.

On May 1, 1914, during the best periods of Constanta's existence, the Embiricos brothers inaugurated the first transatlantic flight between the Black Sea and New York. There was a mandatory stopover in Piraeus and another, if necessary, in Marseilles. They chose the "Themistocles" ship, built in 1889, weighing 16,000 tons and which could reach 16 knots, ie about 15 days of travel between Constanta and New York. There were no visas yet, passports were easily issued at the myriad foreign consulates in the old city of Thomis, and let's not forget, it was a few months before mankind entered World War II. The transatlantic line was the great blow of the Embiricos brothers, as great as the export of grain and the import of coal. Until the summer of 1916, when Romania entered the war, about 5,000 travelers bought National Steam Navigation tickets to New York each year. That is, over 80% of the passengers from South-Eastern Europe who chose to go to the USA. In addition, at the request of the European Commission of the Danube and the diplomatic and business communities, .

Obviously, the brothers thought it was time to move the company's headquarters from Brăila to the seaside. Unfortunately, however, time was running out of patience: in August 1916 Romania went to war, in the autumn Constanta was occupied and devastated and few were still able to afford, financially, a poor journey by rail, let alone by ship. across the Atlantic.

In 1920, however, racing resumed. The world was recovering hard, Constanta repaired the wounds of the war and announced an even faster development than in the time of the old King Carol I. The ship "Themistocles", also damaged after the entry of Greece into the war (in the summer of 1917) was ship even more modern, and more spacious. "King Alexander", named after the unfortunate young king of Greece, who ruled between 1917 and 1920, died stupid after a monkey bite (some in Athens accused him of plotting even Venizelos), weighed 30,000 tons and could reach 18 knots. Business was in full swing and the Embiricos brothers, who in the meantime had founded the Bank of the National Economy of Greece (1918) and led, since 1916, the Union of Greek Shipbuilders, found it appropriate to move their business to Constanta.

In 1922, at the intersection of the current Nicolae Titulescu and Ion Cantacuzino streets, one of the tallest and most spacious buildings in Constanţa was inaugurated. The city had enough knowledge about luxury, money and architectural splendor, but the Embiricos building seriously rivaled all its smiles in Ovidiu Square and on the seafront. A spacious ground floor, with several entrances, one of which generously opens to two monumental stairs and a hardware elevator, with good speed to the four upper floors, obviously indicates the destination of the building with a large traffic of people. The pediment from Ion Cantacuzino Street is arched, symmetrical, each level consisting of three huge windows, with plenty of natural light inwards, the frames on the first and fourth floors being beautifully arched and the other two, intermediate, with straight geometric shapes. On the first floor there is a huge masonry terrace and, above, beautifully crafted hardware balconies. The sculptural elements in generous clusters, floral, the cartridge above the entrance, with smaller windows framed by small balconies of carved hardware, the huge shell above the attic and the rich exterior works that accompany each window are elements specific to Art Nouveau style, with extremely influences great, however, from the benefits of the old Belle Epoque, dominant before the First World War. The building differs greatly from other similar architectural achievements, such as the Zambaccian house, precisely by the abundant appeal to the compromise formula between this already old, which was built before the war, and what had become new and modern for the city. Obviously, the owners wanted a house close to what they had seen in the big French cities because, when cut, the building quickly sends you to the boulevards of Paris.

The ship Themistocles, in 1915, in Thessaloniki (photo: www.romaniaforum.info)

The hustle and bustle made history on the old Lascăr Catargiu street, the current Nicolae Titulescu 13, another decade almost after the opening, with pomp, of the Embiricos Company from Constanţa. Only the great global economic crisis and the unprecedented collapse of the American economy, which began in the fall of 1929, led to the contraction, then the closure of the transatlantic travel business. In the meantime, however, even in his native Greece, things were no longer what they used to be. The fierce battle fought by Greek soldiers in Anatolia against Mustafa Kemal and the defeat of Greece in this war led to the collapse of the regime in Athens and a new insolvency of the state. The deep crisis could not be overcome and business volatilized, as did profits. Just as in America, after 1929-1930, the times did not send you to the dreams of the previous boom, Embiricos and their National Steam Navigation decided that it is better to close the business in Constanţa. In fact, another war was announced, bigger than the previous one, and the trips were seriously affected by the multitude of visas required by all states for all those who had passports and wanted to go somewhere else. Visas cost money, it took time, governments enlisted men for armies, people found it appropriate to look for better times to leave permanently.

In 1940, Leonidas Embiricos sold the building to a regional bank in Iasi, the Urban Land Loan, which he hoped to earn in Constanta high revenues from loans and deposits for port business. There was no time. World War II came, then, in the summer of 1944, the Soviet occupation of the city. The port was closed to trade, business was gradually expelled and the establishment of the communist regime sealed the fate of one of the most beautiful monuments of Constanta and one of the most resounding businesses on the seashore. Nationalized in 1948, the Embiricos house soon became, for the short time, the headquarters of the Navy Command.

At the intersection of Nicolae Titulescu and Ion Cantacuzino streets, in the old part of Constanța, today you will find a building that accurately reflects the fate of the peninsular area of the city. Casa Embiricos, one of the most representative buildings of Constanța, both from an architectural perspective and for reasons of the history of the places, is suffocated by misery, indifference and illicit "tenants".