Victory Road at night – Part 4

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Oct 102009
 

Versiune în română

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

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.

Same story, different angle

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Sep 302009
 

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Today is another crazy day when I’ll be traveling for 20 hours and I won’t have time for a lengthy post. But I didn’t want to miss the day so I decided to post a photo on a subject that I’ve already written about, just shot from another angle. This was one of my first posts so some of you might have missed it. Today’s subject is the Iuliu Maniu statue in Revolution Square and you’ll find the initial photo here.

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.

Cantacuzino Palace

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Sep 112009
 

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Just so you don’t think that Bucharest is only made up of communist architecture, dangling cables and graffiti I decided that the time has come for me to post another postcard picture. This is Cantacuzino Palace, located on Calea Victoriei, designed by the architect I.D.Berindei in French Baroque style and built between the years 1899-1902. The facade is dominated by the main entrance; above it there is a giant shell-shaped porte-cochere and two stone lions guard the stairs and the door. George Enescu – Romania’s most famous composer – lived here for a while. The building belonged to his wife Maria Cantacuzino. In fact Enescu preferred a life of simplicity and he and his wife chose to live in a smaller town house that previously housed the administrative staff of the palace; this house is located behind the main palace. Nowadays the palace houses the George Enescu Museum which displays the musician’s manuscripts, scores of his compositions and personal belongings like one of his first violins. I still remember the impression it made on me when I saw the building for the first time. I think I was about ten when my aunt took me and my cousin on a stroll on Calea Victoriei. I thought that this must be the most beautiful building in the world 🙂

More of Macca-Vilacrosse Covered Passage

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Aug 262009
 

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Since my photo from yesterday seems to have been a great success (the number of visitors was double compared to the day before) I decided to post one more picture from the Macca-Vilacrosse Passage. Today’s photo shows the glass roof at the base of the U-shape and a bit of the building that supports the roof.

Macca-Vilacrosse Covered Passage

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Aug 252009
 

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Vilacrosse and Macca are the two wings of a U-shaped pedestrian passage roofed with glass and wrought iron and lined with shops, cafes and restaurants. It’s one of the popular places for an outing with friends in Bucharest, the advantage being that you’re sheltered in case of rain but you’re still “outside”, in natural light. In this place you’ll find something for everyone: there’s are a couple of Egyptian cafes were you can puff at narghiles, a rock themed Blues Cafe with pretty good music, a Romanian restaurant, a French Bistro, even a Chinese restaurant. I’ve spend hours here sipping wine or drinking coffe and chatting with friends. It’s not easy to find an empty table on a summer evening. The passage was built in 1890-1891 after a design by architect Felix Xenopol. This elegant arched structure was probably intended to look French since this was back at the end of the 19th century when they aspired to transform Bucharest into “little Paris”, but the feel today is more Oriental than Western. During the communist period the passage was renamed Jewellery Passage (Pasajul Bijuteria) because the city’s largest jewelery store was located close by. It’s original name was restored in 1990.

Victory Road at night – Part 3

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Aug 212009
 

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Continuing the nightly walk along Victory Road, at number 40 we find a little square with a fountain and in the background the beautiful building of the Odeon Theater. I researched the history of the building before writing this post and found out that the building and the piece of land it’s built on changed many hands and was used for many things during the years. I guess that’s probably normal for a piece of land with such a good location. In the end I decided to spare you all the little details regarding ownership and functionality. It’s Friday and it’s time for having fun rather than a history lesson. I’ll only say that the theater was built in 1911 and that its auditorium is probably the most elegant among all of Bucharest’s theaters. The statue in the foreground is that of Kemal Ataturk, the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey.

Controversial architecture

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Aug 142009
 

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A bit off the Revolution Square, on the corner of Dem Dobrescu Street, lies one of the weirdest looking buildings in Bucharest. It’s the former Directia V Securitate building (Securitate was the secret police of communist Romania, the equivalent of KGB in Russia or Stasi in East Germany) and the current headquarters of the Romanian Architects’ Association. The lower part of the building are the remnant walls of the house (cca. 1890) which housed the secret police and was destroyed during the Romanian anti-communist Revolution of 1989. In 2003 the Romanian Architects’ Association built a modern building inside and on top of these ruins, the project being designed by architects Zeno Bogdănescu and Dan Marin. The building, like any solution of this type, created controversy and searching the web I found many forums where it was called “hideos”, “ugly” etc and people were saying that no wonder Bucharest is the arhitectural hodgepodge that it is, since its architects have chosen to have their headquarters in a buidling like this. But I think this attitude is a bit unfair. I mean, what was the alternative? The building was severely damaged and at the price of real estate in downtown Bucharest, the building shell would have been demolished and replaced with a glass structure like the upper part of this building. But in this way the history was preserved and it makes people wonder about the building’s past. Even though I can’t bring myself to say that I absolutely like it, I would have to admit that it’s an innovative solution.

Victory Road at night – Part 2

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Aug 132009
 

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I guess it is time for another postcard picture. This is the former Royal Palace located along Victory Road, in the northwestern corner of the Revolution Square. It was first built around 1815 by prince Dinicu Golescu and it underwent changes over several decades. The building was remodeled in 1882-1885 after plans by the French architect Paul Gottereau only to be rebuilt in 1930-1938 after being damaged in a fire in 1926. Starting with 1948 the palace houses the National Art Museum and it displays an extensive collection of Romanian and European art dating from the 15th to the 20th century. The building was damaged during the events of December 1989 and was closed for repairs for several years.

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