L’Architecte de la plus grande mosquee de Roumanie : Victor G. Ștephănescu

Abstract

The biggest and most representative mosque in Romania has been for over a century the “Carol I” Mosque of Constanța (Küstendge), built in 1910 after the project of the architect Victor G.Ștephănescu (1876 – 1950), of Bucharest. Son of composer George Ștephănescu (1843 – 1925), founder of the Romanian National Opera, and of his first wife, Caliopi Petrescu, sister of the father of the diplomat Nicolae Petrescu – Comnen, Victor G.Ștephănescu was one of Romania’s most prolific architects before the First World War and during the Interwar Period. He was a member of the second generation of architects – after that of great architect Ion MIncu - of the “Neo-Romanian” current, a sort of Revival style of the medieval architecture of the Danubian Principalities. Among the numerous buildings he planned in Bucharest and in other towns of the kingdom of Romania, there should be mentioned some buildings in the Carol Park in Bucharest (1906), the Geological Institute also in the capital city, the Coronation Cathedral in Alba Iulia, the Anglican Church in Bucharest and many others. The “Carol I” Mosque in Constanța, situated in the center of the town, the capital of the Dobrudja, is a genuine architectural accomplishment and a proof of Romania’s openness, at that time, to all religions and ethnical groups.