Victory Road at night

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Aug 102009
 

Versiune în română

Friday evening I took a stroll along Victory Road (Calea Victoriei in Romanian) and admired some of the lit buildings along the way. And of course, my camera being always with me since I started this project, I took pictures. This photo shows the art deco building of the Telephone Palace to the left and the Novotel hotel on the right. The hotel, a cube made of glass looking like the standard business hotel has one thing that sets it apart: its entrance. Although it seems weirdly stuck to the glass structure behind it, the entrance reconstructs that of the old National Theatre which was destroyed during a WWII bombardment in August 1944. I think choosing this entrance was an interesting idea, celebrating a connection to the city’s past.

Run, run

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Aug 092009
 

Versiune în română

“Run, run. Run as fast as you can!” That was my interpretation when I saw this sculpture on Victory Road (Calea Victoriei in Romanian). So I smiled when I found out that the name of the sculpture is – what else – “The Runners”. Maybe I should switch careers and become an art critic 🙂 To my surprise, the artist is a French sculptor, Alfred Boucher which was, according to wikipedia, a mentor to Camille Claudel and friend of Auguste Rodin.

Give a leu …

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Aug 082009
 

Versiune în română

A group of tourists is listening to their guide in front of one of Bucharest’s most beautiful buildings: the Romanian Athenaeum. This concert hall was built in 1888 in neoclassical style after a design by the French architect Albert Galleron. The project was conceived by the diplomat Constantin Exarcu and a portion of the money for the completion of the building were gathered in a public collection in which people were asked to “give a leu for the Athenaeum” (The “leu” being the currency of Romania). With its 40 m high dome and the eight Ionic columns it resembles an ancient temple. The Athenaeum is the place to hear classical music in Bucharest. The resident orchestra is George Enescu Philarmonic.

The White Church

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Aug 042009
 

Versiune în română

This photo opens up a hopefully long series of photographs of churches of Bucharest. The reasons for this is that first, many Bucharest churches are among the oldest and most beautiful buildings in the city and second, many of them have a very interesting history. The White Church is located at 110 Calea Victoriei and will have to qualify for the beauty contest because I wasn’t able to find out too much about its history despite reading through 10 books on Bucharest history and architecture and doing extensive searches on the web. What I was able to learn is that it’s called The White Church because it was always painted stark white (duh!). It was built at the beginning of the eighteen century under the guiding of priest Neagu Dărvaş and was restored a few times since then. I hope that one of these days I will be able to take a picture of the interior which was painted in 1873 by one of Romania’s foremost painters Gheorghe Tattarescu.

Iuliu Maniu Statue

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Aug 032009
 

Versiune în română

Iuliu Maniu (January 8, 1873 – February 5, 1953) was one of Romania’s foremost politicians, serving as the Prime Minister of Romania for three terms during 1928–1933. He was an adversary of Russian influence and for this reason he was imprisoned in 1947 when the communists came to power. He died in 1953 in Sighet prison. His statue, the work of artist Mircea Spătaru is located in the Revolution Square, in front of the former Communist Party Headquarters which are now housing governmental offices. I like the statues because it is modern, expressive and full of pathos, something different among the standard 19th century statues which fill Bucharest.

National Anthem Day

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Jul 292009
 

Passing in front of the The Palace of the Military Club (in the photo) yesterday, I saw a blue banner with the following message “July 29th – National Anthem Day”. Searching on the web I found out that that July 29th was voted to become the National Anthem Day in 1998 to commemorate the date when our national anthem was sung for the first time, on 29 July 1848. Good. It only took me 10 years to find out about it 🙂 The national anthem of Romania is “Deşteaptă-te române” which translates as “Awaken thee, Romanian!” or “Wake Up, Romanian!” the larger meaning being “stand up for your rights”. The lyrics are by poet Andrei Mureşan, a Romanian poet and revolutionary sang to a popular tune chosen by him and a friend. Since them, the song was sung any time Romanians needed a message of liberty and patriotism. It became the national anthem in 1989, after the Romanian Revolution, replacing the communist-era “Three Colors” (Trei culori). The first paragraph goes like this:

Wake up, Romanian, from your deadly sleep
Into which you’ve been sunk by the barbaric tyrants
And now or never, your fate renew,
To which your enemies will bow too.
Now or never let’s give proof to the world
That in these veins still flows a Roman blood,
That in our chests we still maintain our pride in a name
The victor in his battles, the name of Trajan!

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