Eddie Țone

8 Lost Inns of Bucharest and the Buildings That Replaced Them

Old Bucharest hides in plain sight. Just pay attention. Beneath the dome of the CEC Palace, beneath the columns of the National Museum of Romanian History, or beneath the marble of the National Bank lie, layer upon layer, the foundations of a merchant city that smelled of wet wood, coffee, leather,... Read more

The History of the Dudești Neighborhood: Bucharest Between Vineyards, Shops, and Bulldozers

The trouble with the Dudești neighborhood is that everyone recognizes the name, but very few people would draw the same outline on a map. For some, it begins at Hala Traian; for others, at the Vitan Post Office; while for a driver stuck at the Dristor intersection, it probably means that stretch of... Read more

What the Red Dot Really Means: A Guide to Seismic-Risk Buildings in Bucharest

The red dot! An emblem with which Bucharest has maintained a relationship that could best be described as… “complicated.” Bucharest residents see the dot, frown for a second, and then continue on their way to the ground-floor café, where an espresso costs about as much as a toy structural assessment... Read more

The Merchants of Old Bucharest, the City Where Streets Were Named After Their Wares

In days gone by, you could read old Bucharest through its shop signs, its smells and, above all, the names of its streets. One lane advertised beads, another saddles, another furs, while Lipscani promised goods arriving from Central Europe. Trade drew its own map, with a clarity that contemporary ur... Read more

7 Interwar Villas and Apartment Buildings in Bucharest That Tell the Story of Marcel Iancu’s Modernism

Interwar Bucharest had a complicated relationship with novelty. It admired it in magazines, discussed it over coffee, then started muttering when novelty moved onto the next street and appeared in the form of a white house with a roof terrace and long windows. Until then, a respectable home was expe... Read more

10 Lesser-Known Facts About the Romanian Athenaeum

The Romanian Athenaeum delights everyone in central Bucharest, exuding the quiet confidence of a building that knows perfectly well it is the star of the city. Its dome, iconic columns, and front garden have long since become part of the capital’s official scenery, alongside pigeons, traffic jams, a... Read more

The History of Henri Coandă Airport in Otopeni: From a German Military Base to Romania’s Main Airport

Some places tell the story of a country without uttering a single solemn phrase. Henri Coandă International Airport in Otopeni belongs to this category. You hurry through it, boarding pass clutched between your fingers and your mind already on your holiday, business trip or return home, while the bu... Read more

10 Things You May Not Have Known About IOR Park and Lake

On a simple stroll through IOR Park—officially Alexandru Ioan Cuza Park, although everyone knows it by the acronym of the nearby Romanian Optical Enterprise—you will see mothers pushing prams, pensioners feeding ducks and young people taking Instagram photos beside the lake. The scenery seems so nat... Read more

Constructorul Solness at the Bulandra Theatre: Ibsen and the Fear of Stepping Down from One’s Own Pedestal

Henrik Ibsen remains one of those playwrights who seem contemporary regardless of the century. He wrote about people living in late nineteenth-century Norway, about houses with imposing drawing rooms, carefully polished reputations, and families that swept their secrets under the carpet with a disci... Read more