Victory Road at night – Part 4

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Oct 102009
 

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Continuing the nightly stroll on Victory Road, here’s a shot of the Romanian Savings Bank, which I already introduced a few days ago with this post. Designed in eclectic style by the French architect Paul Gottereau and raised between the years 1896-1900, this was the only bank that was allowed to do business during communism when it served as the state savings bank called “CEC” (“Casa de Economii şi Consemnaţiuni” in Romanian) where people used to keep their savings. After the 1990 Revolution, when other banks were allowed to open offices in Romania, the CEC lost many of its customers. The bank was privatized and now it’s called “CEC Bank”. I’ve read in the newspaper that the building is set to become a museum but at this moment is still used as a bank.

Victory Road at night – Part 1
Victory Road at night – Part 2
Victory Road at night – Part 3

More on the red dot and earthquakes

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Oct 052009
 

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I wrote yesterday about the red dot and I thought a good idea to post a close up of it. Like I said, it reads “This building has been appraised by technical expertise to fall within seismic risk class I” and this means high risk of collapse in case of an earthquake of magnitude 7 of higher on Richter scale. Many of the historical buildings of Bucharest were built before World War II and were never reinforced. Some of them don’t have a foundation or have very shallow foundations and have already been through two major earthquakes (the one in 1977 and another one in 1940 of magnitude 7.7). After the 1977 earthquake, the government imposed tougher construction standards. Earthquake is always on the minds of citizens of Bucharest and people always ask if the building “has a dot” when looking for an apartment. Evidently, being marked with a red dot diminishes the value of a property and some owners will tell you that their house or apartment was wrongly labeled because of the city hall corruption and that for some reason someone wanted to lower the value of their property. But, conspiracy theory or not, who is willing to take the risk ? I’ve also heard of stories of owners who used influence on the authorities and succeeded in having the red dot removed. I don’t know if these urban legends are true or not, but my advice for those who wish to buy property in Bucharest is to bring an independent expert to do a technical evaluation.

The second photo is of the building with the red dot (on Lipscani Street).

The Beer Cart

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Oct 032009
 

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When asked to recommend a restaurant for someone from out of town most Bucharestians would probably pick this one. “The Beer Cart” (Carul cu bere in Romanian) is the flagship of Romanian restaurants in the old town. If you are a tourist not knowing any local, you are still most likely to end up here because this restaurant is in all the guidebooks. Fashioned to look like a German beerhouse, Caru cu bere has an elegant facade and a beautiful interior rich with frescoes, stained glass, balconies and ornate woodwork. The restaurant has first opened in 1879. It is packed every night, so you definitely need a reservation especially if you want to dine in the nonsmoking section (which shows that there are probably more foreigners dining here than Romanians). In the summer they have a terrace. The food here is standard Romanian fare, not fine dining, but usually you won’t leave disappointed. Big portions so make sure you leave space for desert. Despite looking so fanciful, I don’t believe it’s an expensive restaurant, but that of course depends on what you order. For lunch time they have a student menu (when you show you student card) and a menu for retired people (with pension coupon) for the equivalent of $8 and a daily lunch menu for business people for about $10. In the evenings they have a show with traditional dances.

Contrast

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Oct 022009
 

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Yesterday was Theme Day at the City Daily Blog community, a monthly event that happens the first day of every month, when all participating blogs are posting a picture that relates to the theme day’s description. Just fresh back from vacation, and half asleep for half of the day, I completely forgot about it 🙁 So I decided to post a theme photo today. The theme for this month was “Contrast” and I’ve seen people interpreted it in different ways. Contrast in colors, contrast in sizes, old versus new etc. My picture for today shows old versus new architecture. We have here two banks: the old one, the “Romanian Savings Bank:”, was designed in eclectic style by the French architect Paul Gottereau and raised between the years 1896-1900; the new one, in the background, named “Bucharest Financial Plaza”, designed by Ruxandra Fotino and Sorin Ştefănescu, was built almost 100 years later, in 1994-1996, being the first tall building in the historic center.

Bucharest’s between the wars architecture

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Sep 282009
 

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Petre Antonescu, the architect who designed the Faculty of Law Building, the subject of yesterday’s photo, also designed these two elegant buildings located at the south end of Victory Road in United Nations Square. They were built between 1928-1930 and served as headquarters for two insurance companies, Adriatica and Agricola Fonciera. Even though the buildings are in need of renovation I think that you can clearly tell that they are real beauties. What sets these apart from other similar structures of that time is the ingenious tops of the buildings.

I don’t even want to get started on the ad because I hope to write a post about these massive pieces of advertising that are plaguing Bucharest. I mean, really, don’t we have enough buildings in Bucharest to display these on, do we have to put them on historical buildings?

The School of Law

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Sep 272009
 

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This serious looking building is Bucharest’s Law Faculty which is part of the University of Bucharest. It was designed by architect Petre Antonescu in neoclassical style and was finished in 1935. On the facade are the statues of five great lawmakers, lawyers and jurists of the ancient times: Lycurgus of Sparta, Solon, Cicero, Papinian and Justinian. The statues are the work of sculptors Ion Jalea and Costin Georgescu. Romania’s Civil Code is based on the Napoleonic Code (the French Civil Code) established under Napoléon I in 1804, which was adopted by Romania in 1864 (with some modifications) and is still in use.

The Central University Library

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Sep 222009
 

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In order to prolong the anniversary a little longer I decided that today I’ll post another postcard picture. This is the Central University Library (“Biblioteca Centrală Universitară” in Romanian), a beautifully ornate building located opposite the Royal Palace in the Revolution Square. The building was designed by the French architect Paul Gottereau who also designed the Royal Palace and the CEC Building (I have yet to post of picture of it). Construction was started in 1890 and the building was inaugurated in 1895 as the “Palace of Carol I University Foundation” being build on land bought by Carol I of Romania for the foundation that carried his name. In 1948 The Library of the University Foundation becomes The Central University Library, a state owned institution. The building was heavily damaged during the December 1989 Revolution when over 500000 books were lost in a fire. It was later restored and it opened again in 2001.

The Linden Tree Inn

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Sep 142009
 

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And since I mentioned The Linden Tree Inn (Hanul cu Tei in Romanian) yesterday, I decided to tell you a few more words about it and post a picture of the inner courtyard. Bucharest was once full of places like this one, where travelers could enjoy a meal and a drink and secure shelter for the night. Unfortunately many of the old inns have dissapearead or are in ruin. Even though The Linden Tree Inn changed its destination and today it houses an art gallery, you can still get a feel of the 19th century atmosphere. The inner courtyard links Lipscani street with Blănari street. For a bit of history, it was built in 1833-1834 by two merchants, Anastasie Hagi Gheorghe Polizu and Ştefan Popovici. Each one of them had 14 shops on one side of the courtyard. Nowadays the ground floor is home to many art galleries selling paintings and antiques, art supplies stores and a cellar bar. The upper floor is worked in wood and covered by glass pannels as was typical at the time. It was restored between the years 1969-1973.

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