May 092010
Today’s photograph shows a bank building on Lipscani, facing the National Bank of Romania. The books on the architecture of Bucharest that I consulted list it as being built in 1910 – 1913, but sources I found on the web say the building was most probably built before 1900. The architect is unknown. The building served as the headquarters of the General Romanian Bank, which was a branch of Gesselschaft and Bleichröder Bank (thanks to Bucharestian for this information). It was restored during the communist regime in 1983-1984 and for a while served as a shopping mall. I remember buying shoes there once. Today it’s being used as a bank again.
Having such round shapes, it might be a “spiral of time”. May it continue to provide bright and light days. Wonderful building to see indeed. Please have a nice Tuesday.
There is a consistent confusion in one of your sources (possibly Silvia Colfescu’s guidebook, which contains many errors), more precisely between this building and Dacia Insurance Palace (built in 1874) which lies 50 m. farther West, also on the Lipscani. As for the purpose of the building, it did not host two banks, but one: the General Romanian Bank, which actually was a branch of Gesselschaft and Bleichröder Bank. As the structure lies, together with the National Bank Palace, on the former site of Șerban Vodă Inn, we cannot but conclude that it was built after 1882, when the inn was demolished (possibly in 1895, when the General Romanian Bank was founded).
Bucharestian: Colfescu doesn’t mention the building in the edition that I have. The data I took from “Bucharest, architecture and modernity” by Mariana Celac, Octavian Carabela & Marius Marcu-Lapadat. They list the building as being built in 1910-1913. I found the mention about being built before 1900 on the web.