Ctitorii ale oamenilor liberi

Abstract

Foundations of the Free People. The Architecture of Stone Churches of Romanians in the Border Regions between Oltenia, Wallachia, and Transylvania (1700–1850)

The stone churches built by communities of free Romanians or by their representatives in the 18th century and the first half of the following century have, over time, been the subject of numerous studies. With particular attention given to those in Oltenia, these earlier research efforts either emphasized their cultural importance from the perspective of the continuity of Brâncovenesc art and the detailed analysis of characteristic exterior mural paintings, or examined the socio-political context connected to the act of church founding and the changing status of free inhabitants on both sides of the Carpathian Mountains.

Foundations of the Free People is the first unified study of the architecture of stone places of worship in northern Oltenia, Wallachia, and southern Transylvania, framing the entire process of their evolution between 1700 and 1850 within a broader phenomenon—that of the architecture and art of border territories.

Matei Eugen Stoean (b. 1987, Bucharest) is a graduate architect of the Faculty of Architecture within the “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism in Bucharest.

He obtained his PhD in architecture in 2017 with the thesis “Architecture of Border Territories. The Stone Churches of Romanians in Northern Oltenia, Wallachia, and Southern Transylvania (1700–1850),” followed by postdoctoral studies at the Accademia di Romania in Rome, under a “Vasile Pârvan” scholarship, expanding his local research through an investigation of pilgrimage routes and ecclesiastical architecture located on both sides of the Alps.

A practicing architect and faculty member in the Department of Architectural Design Fundamentals at the “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism, he is also co-author of the Romanian Orthodox Church Center Complex in Munich, together with architects Șerban Sturdza and Tudor Elian.