Across from the imposing CEC Palace, in one of the most historically significant places in central Bucharest, the massive building of the National Museum of Romanian History stands today. Before state institutions operated here, and before the monumental façade of the former Post Office Palace dominated Calea Victoriei, the site was occupied by one of the largest and most important inns in old Bucharest: Hanul Constantin Vodă. Built at the end of the seventeenth century on the initiative of Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu, the inn witnessed spectacular transformations. It was constructed as a symbol of power and prosperity, became one of the city’s commercial centers, survived for more than a century and a half, and was then almost destroyed by the Great Fire of 1847. Its ruins gradually disappeared, and barracks, theaters, concert cafés, and circuses appeared on the site of the former princely property before the modern Romanian state erected the Post Office Palace there. The story of Hanul Constantin Vodă is therefore more than the history of a vanished building. It is the story of a Bucharest that changed continuously, sometimes brutally, preserving its past only in documents, plans, and a few memories of the places that gave the city its identity.

From the Bălăceanu Estate to the Ambition of Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu

The site on which Hanul Constantin Vodă was to be built already had an important history before Constantin Brâncoveanu arrived. The area had been associated with the Bălăceanu family and formed part of an old district of Bucharest, located near the Princely Court and several important commercial thoroughfares. According to information preserved by the National Museum of Romanian History, Constantin Brâncoveanu acquired the land, ordered the demolition of the existing houses, and built here, at the end of the seventeenth century, an inn that would bear his name.

Construction took place between 1692 and 1694. The inn was built on the site of the courtyards belonging to Constantin Aga Bălăceanu and quickly became one of the city’s most important commercial buildings. Its size led the establishment to be regarded as the second largest in Bucharest, after the great inn associated with the tradition of Șerban Vodă. Brâncoveanu’s ambition was clear: the new inn was to be not only a source of income, but also a building worthy of the prestige of his reign.

The general layout followed the model of the fortified inns of the period. In a city where commerce was concentrated around the Princely Court and the main streets, such an edifice served simultaneously as accommodation, a commercial center, and a relatively safe place for merchants and their goods.

A Commercial Fortress in the Heart of Old Bucharest

The surviving descriptions of Hanul Constantin Vodă suggest the image of a massive structure, built to impress and to endure. The inn had a large courtyard surrounded by high, solid walls. Access was provided through thick oak gates reinforced with iron, while the shops and rooms were arranged around the enclosure. Historical studies devoted to the site preserve the image of a building that combined the practical function of an inn with the appearance of a small urban fortification.

Its location was excellent. The inn stood in a busy area, close to important commercial streets and the center of political power. Merchants arriving in Bucharest could find premises for conducting business and rooms for accommodation, while the princely property generated substantial income.

The map of Bucharest drawn by Major Rudolf Arthur Borroczyn records, for the year 1848, the impressive scale of the commercial activity that still existed within the building. There were 35 shops on the ground floor and 25 rooms upstairs. These figures show that, although more than a century and a half old, the inn was still in use.

Nevertheless, the building’s glory was beginning to fade. Commerce continued, but the structure was aging with a persistence that could no longer be ignored. Earthquakes, the lack of serious repairs, and the wear accumulated over time had transformed the once-imposing edifice into an increasingly vulnerable construction.

After Brâncoveanu’s Death, the Inn Enters a Period of Decline

The fate of Hanul Constantin Vodă was linked from the very beginning to the tragic fate of the man who had ordered its construction. After Constantin Brâncoveanu was executed in Constantinople in 1714, the prince’s estates were confiscated, and the inn came under the administration of the abbot of Văcărești Monastery.

The change in administration was not enough to guarantee the proper maintenance of the building. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the structure was affected by the passage of time, earthquakes, and the lack of major interventions. By 1824, its deterioration had become so obvious that it was mentioned in a lawsuit between the inn’s tenants and Samuil, the abbot of Văcărești Monastery. He cited the building’s instability and declined responsibility in the event of a possible collapse.

This episode shows how far the former symbol of Brâncoveanu’s ambition had fallen. The inn was no longer the new and imposing structure of the late seventeenth century. Nevertheless, it continued to be used, and the numerous shops and rooms recorded in mid-nineteenth-century plans demonstrate that its economic life had not disappeared.

The building’s physical decline, however, was to be definitively accelerated by one of the greatest catastrophes in Bucharest’s history.

The Great Fire of 1847 and the End of a Princely Building

On March 23, 1847, Easter Sunday, Bucharest was struck by the Great Fire, the most devastating blaze in the city’s history. The fire broke out in the very center of old Bucharest, in an area near Hanul Constantin Vodă and Saint Dumitru Church. Strong winds and the density of the buildings encouraged the flames to spread rapidly.

For a city made up largely of structures vulnerable to fire, the catastrophe had dramatic consequences. Hanul Constantin Vodă, already weakened by age and deterioration, was severely damaged. Historical sources indicate that the “great fire” destroyed approximately three-quarters of the building and made it impossible for the inn to return to the form it had once possessed.

After the fire, the building remained a dangerous ruin. In 1852, the authorities decided to demolish several inns considered hazardous to the population, and in the case of Hanul Constantin Vodă, the upper floor was removed as a first step. A commission of specialists subsequently examined the condition of the structure and concluded that certain sections had to be demolished without delay.

The demolition did not take place in a single day. The ruins disappeared gradually, and the process extended over several years. Some sources place the beginning of the major demolitions around 1856, while specialist documentation indicates that the building had completely disappeared by 1862. What is certain is that, by the early 1860s, the old princely inn had ceased to exist.

From the Inn’s Ruins to a Square of Shows and Circuses

The disappearance of Hanul Constantin Vodă did not mean that the land remained abandoned for long. On the contrary, the site began to acquire a new and surprising life. By 1861, an agricultural exhibition was already being held there, a sign that the former princely property had become available for the city’s public activities.

The site later became known as Constantin Vodă Square and was transformed into a space for popular entertainment. Barracks, makeshift halls, concert cafés, and buildings intended for performances appeared there. In a barracks known as the Alcazar, a popular theater operated on whose stage important actors of the period performed, including Matei Millo, Aristizza Romanescu, and Grigore Manolescu. Documents and historical sources concerning the theater’s activity also mention other names from the Bucharest stage, during a period when the area had become a genuine center of entertainment.

There were also concert cafés, circus performances, and public gatherings. In the following years, the site hosted wooden structures used by various circuses, including the Suhr Circus. For Bucharest residents of the period, the former princely plot had become a place of popular spectacle.

The transformation was profoundly Bucharest-like. The place built for commerce and once protected by walls and oak gates became, after the inn disappeared, an open, noisy, and unpredictable space. Theater, circus, music, boza, pretzel sellers, and crowds seeking entertainment completely changed the atmosphere of the former princely property.

The Post Office Palace, the New Symbol Built on the Site of the Old Inn

At the end of the nineteenth century, Bucharest was entering a new stage of development. The modern Romanian state needed institutions and monumental buildings, and the site of the former Hanul Constantin Vodă was chosen for the construction of a new headquarters for the Central Post Office.

Construction of the Post Office Palace began in 1894, when King Carol I laid the foundation stone of the new building. The project was designed by architect Alexandru Săvulescu, and its architectural concept was inspired by the post office building in Geneva. Work continued until the end of the century, and the new palace was inaugurated in 1900.

The monumental building completely changed the appearance of the site. Where the walls of a princely inn had once stood, monumental steps, a portico supported by columns, and a façade representative of Bucharest’s ambitions at the beginning of the twentieth century appeared.

The Post Office Palace played an important administrative role for several decades. Eventually, the building received a new purpose and became the headquarters of the National Museum of Romanian History, the institution that still occupies the property today.

Looking at the massive building on Calea Victoriei today, few passersby can imagine that beneath the site’s history lies the memory of an inn built by Constantin Brâncoveanu. The succession is nevertheless remarkable: a boyar estate, a princely inn, a ruin after the Great Fire, a square for shows and circuses, an administrative palace, and finally a national museum.

Hanul Constantin Vodă no longer exists, and its appearance can be reconstructed only from plans, descriptions, and historical research. Yet the site has not lost its importance. On the contrary, every building erected here has added a new chapter to a history spanning more than three centuries. The former inn thus remains one of Bucharest’s lost symbols: a building that has vanished physically, but without which the story of the capital’s old center would certainly be poorer.

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