Articles (1840)

The Verbal Map of the Capital: 10 Old Bucharest Expressions That Give Away Our Past

If you stand long enough at an intersection on Calea Victoriei and close your eyes, the city begins to speak to you in a language you think you know, even though you only understand half of it. Bucharest has a talent for visual incoherence: Stalinist apartment blocks leaning wearily against Neo-Romanian villas, glass towers staring down with contem...

Great Romanian dynasties: the Bibescu family, the Oltenian boyars, controversial ruler, the first aviator and the princess who captivated Marcel Proust

The Bibescu lineage was purely Romanian by blood. Rising from among the Oltenian free peasants, they gave the country two rulers and many political and cultural personalities. Yet they were not destined to remain on their ancestral land; they left for France. And there they stayed, among the aristocracy, artists, and great writers of the age. The B...

General Ioan Drăgălina, the hero of the Jiu Gorge, was shot one day after being appointed commander of the First Army in the First World War

General Ioan Drăgălina remains one of the most powerful and dramatic figures of Romanian military history during the First World War. His destiny, brutally cut short just one day after he was appointed commander of the First Army, symbolizes the supreme sacrifice of the Romanian military elite at a critical moment for the existence of the state. Hi...

The stars of interwar Bucharest: Actress Lilly Carandino experienced glory on stage and torment in communist prisons

Interwar Bucharest was a city of powerful contrasts, of elegance and cultural effervescence, but also of political turmoil that would permanently change the destinies of many people. In this vibrant setting shone Lilly Carandino, one of the most fascinating actresses of the National Theatre, a woman whose life oscillated dramatically between the ap...

The story of Max Goldstein, Romania’s first terrorist. “The Hooked Monster” planned the attack on the Senate in Bucharest in the 1920s

The history of interwar Romania is marked not only by cultural effervescence and political development, but also by dramatic, violent episodes that shook society to its core. One of the most shocking such moments took place on 8 December 1920, when a bomb exploded inside the building of the Romanian Senate. At the center of this attack was Max Gold...

Bucharest beyond the brochures: five pieces of the city that don’t ask for attention

You wake up on a morning when the city doesn’t seem rushed. It’s rare, but it happens. Early on a Sunday, or on a Saturday before traffic remembers who it is. You open the window and Bucharest doesn’t shout. It breathes. That’s when it’s at its best. Not the version from brochures, not the one with exaggerated skylines and slogans about a “vibrant...

Four Legs, Cobblestones, and Paradoxes: A Walk Through the Bucharest That Pretends to Love Dogs, and Sometimes Actually Does

You wake up on a Saturday morning with the sun cautiously filtering through your apartment curtains, and you feel it. The familiar, insistent stare. You sense it before you see it. The fixed, hypnotic gaze of your best friend, patiently waiting for the sacred ritual of the walk. You grab the leash—the classic urban umbilical cord—and head out. Buch...

Stories of Bucharest: Eugen Alimănescu, “The Iron Commissioner,” the Most Controversial Police Officer Who Dismantled the Capital’s Mafia

Bucharest in the 1940s was not only a city of architectural contrasts and violent political transformations but also a territory dominated by fear, chaos, and crime. Successive economic crises, wartime shortages, and widespread corruption had turned the Capital into a real battlefield between gangs of criminals and a weakened, often compromised pol...

The story of Mircea the Shepherd, the cruel ruler who killed his boyars at the Princely Court in 16th-century Bucharest

The history of Bucharest is not made up solely of moments of glory, urban development or periods of cultural effervescence. Behind the walls of the Princely Court and on the still muddy lanes of the 16th-century market town, episodes of extreme violence also unfolded, leaving deep marks on collective memory. Sadism and cruelty, although not dominan...

Great Romanian dynasties: Sturdza, a lineage of princes, politicians, actors and the first ruler who freed the gypsies

The Sturdza family holds a special place in Romania’s history, not only because of its longevity, but also due to the impressive diversity of roles played by its members over more than five centuries. From high officials and rulers of Moldavia, to great politicians, reformers, military leaders or artists, the Sturdzas decisively influenced the cour...