Bucharest is more than Romania's capital. It's more than the People's House, busy traffic, hurried people, Cotroceni, Herăstrău and the Triumphal Arch! Bucharest is story, history, love, past and future!

Here are some cool things worth knowing about Bucharest, whether you live in the capital or are just passing through:

Bucharest - the first city in the world with streets lit by oil. That was more than 150 years ago, in 1857. The petroleum used was distilled in the first industrial refinery, the Ploiesti Gasworks, and Romanian petroleum thus became the first fuel to enter the commercial market.

The first trams in Bucharest were pulled by horses. In 1871, the "Romanian Tramway Public Limited Company", with English and Belgian capital, obtained the authorization to install iron lines on some streets, on which the first horse-drawn trams would run. A year later, the company introduced the capital's first three horse-drawn tramways. They were yellow, the conductors wore red uniforms and caps, stood on the front platform and prodded the horses with whips. And, to make sure the animals stayed on the route and didn't go after the females, the stallions were castrated and carefully supervised. 

Starting in the 1900s, Bucharest became known as Little Paris. French was frequently spoken on the streets and Parisian architecture and culture defined Bucharest. The period in which the capital got its new reputation coincided with the ties of the Roman personalities of the time with Paris. Famous people such as I.L. Caragiale, Constantin Brâncuși, George Enescu and Emil Cioran had close ties with the French capital.

The first public road in Bucharest was the Mogoșoaia Bridge, or today's Calea Victoriei. It was paved with tree trunks. Its current name began to be used in 1878, when the victorious troops of the Romanian Army entered the capital in the War of Independence. Until then, the street was known as the Mogoșoaiei Bridge, acquired after Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu acquired the village of Mogoșoaia and built a direct road to his palace there in 1692.

The Arch of Triumph was built in 1921-1922 to honor the heroes of the First World War. There were other temporary triumphal arches in Bucharest in 1848, 1859, 1906 and 1918. 

The Palace of Telephones was built in the American skyscraper style between 1929 and 1934. At 52.5m high, it was the tallest building in Bucharest. At the time, there had never been such a building that made you think of New York skyscrapers. The visual shock matched the realization. Compared to the Palace, which represented absolute progress, communication and modernism, the manor houses on Calea Victoriei looked like "shacks of planks".

The city of Bucharest was designated the capital of Wallachia by Gheorghe Ghica in 1659. He wanted a capital on the plains and close to the Danube, easier to control than Târgoviște. From that moment on, it was modernized. Legend has it that the name Bucharest was given by a famous shepherd named Bucur, who settled on the banks of the Dâmbovița river a long time ago.

Xenofon Street is the capital's only stepped street. It runs east-west, has 70 steps and is just a stone's throw from Carol Park. 

Assan's mill was the first mill in Bucharest powered by a thermal engine (brought from Vienna) and it started the industrialization of the capital in the 19th century. However, it was not used for 4 years after it was put into operation, because the people of Bucharest were frightened by the huge smoke it produced and thought they would run out of grain. It was only when the Dâmbovița River froze and the other mills became inoperable that the bakers turned to Assan's mill.