The urban island that contains the Enescu Museum sponges on the beat of its built nucleus, the Cantacuzino Palace. Withdrawing from the rush on Victoriei Avenue, the living space looks for a slower pace on the secondary streets, introverting itself in its own world by means of blind alleys and impasses. Intrarea Dumitru Lemnea [Dumitru Lemnea Impasse], once called Simons or General Manu, is one such micro-universe born with the modernization of the area, around 1935. The lock between General Manu Street and the actual entrance comprises two standard rounded corner buildings disposed symmetrically and facing each other. Once inside this lock, we see that the buildings follow the modernist fashion and that they all use identical tools, with slight variations to individualize each unit.

The building at no. 6 is the most austere decoration-wise, the purity of its façade thus preserved. The horizontal lines that clearly delineate its registers contribute to directing one’s gaze towards the entrance’s distant extremity. It is in this building that composer and musicologist George Sbârcea lived.

Andreea Mihaela Chircă