Articles (1006)

Where Mihai Eminescu lived in Bucharest. Notes on the poet’s passage through different locations in the Capital

Mihai Eminescu’s life in Bucharest was marked by turmoil, creation, and suffering, but also by literary relationships that nurtured his talent. From the modest lodgings on Strada Speranței or near Caimata Church, to the more comfortable homes offered by his friends, all these places bore witness to an exceptional literary destiny. Today, Bucharest...

What It’s Like to Be a Student in Bucharest in 2025: Between Libraries, Coffee, Traffic, and New People

My mornings start with an alarm that rings too early and that small slice of silence between apartment blocks, just before traffic wakes up. I take the stairs with my laptop in my backpack, pass the sign on the landing—“please don’t leave bikes in the hallway”—and remind myself (again) to fix the light on my saddle. Bucharest teaches you fast that...

Rent in Bucharest during “back to campus”: what it costs in 2025, where to find cheaper options, and how to negotiate smart

September brings the peak search season for rentals in Bucharest. Demand driven by undergrads and postgrads temporarily pushes up prices for studios and one-bedrooms, especially around campuses (Regie–Leu, Grozăvești, Romană–Universitate, Timpuri Noi, Pallady). From March to July 2025, average asking rents rose about 5–6% versus 2024 citywide, with...

Industrial Bucharest: the factories that shaped districts and communities, from Ford to APACA

Bucharest didn’t grow only through boulevards and housing blocks, but also through the factories that pulled in people, housing and infrastructure. Two landmarks — the Ford hall in Floreasca and the APACA textile platform — bookend a long arc of history: from interwar modernisation to communist-era industrialisation and the post-1990 wave of reconv...

Interwar Bucharest: the period when the Capital developed harmoniously. It was the era of major economic achievements

Bucharest, today Romania’s main city, has its roots in a small settlement located at the intersection of trade routes during the medieval period. The construction of a princely court accelerated demographic growth and gave the town political and economic significance in the region. Although exposed to Ottoman incursions from the bridgehead at Giurg...

Why Bucharest was chosen as the capital of Wallachia in 1659. The Turks tipped the balance against Târgoviște

Bucharest, today the capital of Romania, was not always the seat of power. Historians place its origins in the 14th–15th centuries, but there is no clear consensus on its founding. Some theories link it to Mircea the Elder, who is said to have used the “Citadel of Dâmbovița” as a winter residence, while others point to the shepherd Bucur, whose nam...

The past of Gara de Nord: from Europe’s gateway to an overburdened hub

When you open your eyes to the morning of a century past, you arrive at Gara de Nord — where the rumble of train wheels and the footsteps of travelers set the rhythm of the Capital. Today, the gates of this station no longer reflect only the beginnings of journeys toward the West, but also the urban stress of congestion — a railway hub struggling u...

How the city center of Bucharest changed in 100 years: from carriages to gridlock

If today crossing downtown Bucharest means honking, endless lines of cars, and traffic lights at every corner, a hundred years ago the scene was entirely different. Victory Avenue was filled with horse-drawn carriages, pedestrians strolled leisurely on narrow cobblestone streets, and the sound of wooden wheels rolling on stone was the background mu...

What is the oldest street in Bucharest? Its history goes back hundreds of years

Bucharest, a city built in overlapping layers of history, hides within its urban fabric streets that have survived for centuries. The question “what is the oldest street in the capital?” does not have a single answer, but historians agree on a few arteries that take us back to the city’s earliest days.From lanes to streetsThe first roads of Buchare...

Bucharest and its waters: the rivers and lakes that shaped the city

Bucharest has never been only a city of dust and concrete. Behind its image of traffic and asphalt, the capital is crossed and defined by water. Two rivers – Dâmbovița and Colentina – and more than ten major lakes, natural or man-made, have influenced its urban development, its economy, and its cultural identity.Dâmbovița – the river tamed by the c...