Articles (1839)

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 expected to have ornaments, columns and a sturdy roof,...

35,000 Flatirons and a £49,600 Corkscrew: One Man's Museum, in Bucharest

On Strada Parfumului, a short walk from Piața Unirii, a multi-level building holds one of the strangest collections in Bucharest. This isn't art or national history, it's objects most people would throw away without a second thought: flatirons, corkscrews, metal stands for hot cookware. The Museum of Romanian Records has turned them into the basis...

The Globe on ASE Falls Only When a Virgin Graduates: The Legend of Piața Romană

On the roof of the main building of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, right above the entrance facing Piața Romană, a metal ball has sat atop a dome for nearly a century. Students who walk through the square every day, heading to the metro or to the terraces nearby, rarely look up. Those who do, and ask why it's there, almost always get...

Stories of Bucharest: Aristide Blank – Bribery, Scandals, and the Collapse of the Famous Marmorosch Blank Bank

Few figures in Romania's interwar history generated as much controversy as Aristide Blank. Regarded by some as a visionary of the Romanian banking system and by others as the symbol of financial influence exerted over the political class, the son of the renowned banker Mauriciu Blank was involved in some of the most significant economic and politic...

Symbols of Bucharest: Colțea Tower – History, Disappearance, and Legend

For nearly two centuries, Colțea Tower was the tallest structure in Bucharest and one of the city's most recognizable landmarks. Built during a period when the capital of Wallachia was beginning to acquire an urban appearance, the tower dominated the skyline with its imposing silhouette and could be seen from great distances by travelers and mercha...

Rose Island: the spot in Herăstrău Park where people have been proposing marriage for decades

Some places don't need a plaque to tell their story. Rose Island, in Herăstrău Park, is one of them. You cross it in a hurry, on your way to the Village Museum or the boat dock, and it looks like just a nicer-kept stretch of park, roses climbing over trellises, water on both sides. In reality, this island carries almost a century of Bucharest's his...

Legendary mayors of Bucharest: General Victor Dombrovski built schools and houses for workers

The history of Bucharest is closely connected to the activity of mayors who managed to radically change the image of the city in a surprisingly short period of time. Among them was cavalry General Victor Dombrovski, one of the most efficient mayors of the Romanian capital during the interwar period. Although his first term as Mayor General of Bucha...

Ghica-Tei Palace, from the residence of the first native ruler of the Romanians to today's superb event venue

Few historical monuments in Bucharest manage to combine the city's aristocratic past with the cultural and social life of the present as harmoniously as Ghica-Tei Palace. Located at 3-5 Doamna Ghica Street, on the shore of Lake Tei, the building is one of the oldest preserved boyar and princely residences in the Capital and represents a valuable te...

Five unexpected things to do in Bucharest in August for under 100 lei

There's a Bucharest most people walk past without noticing: a real telescope tucked inside a building shaped like a yacht, a glass elevator bolted onto the back of the largest administrative building in Europe, a river most locals only ever cross on bridges, without looking down. None of it requires a vacation-sized budget — every experience below...

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 buildings, runways and control tower seem like mere...