This issue was conceived out of an old, constant love, embracing people, places, monuments, books, music, fragrances, eras, events, characters, projects, thoughts, diaries, discoveries, documents, confessions, legends, libraries, memoirs, farewells, paradoxes… and many more.Bucharest has proved it deserves to be a capital through many tests of endurance. The temptation to dedicate it a book is great, yet it involves some courage, let alone the difficulties. Capturing the psychology of this city throughout history, judging, analyzing, comparing is no mean feat. The harassment the capital city has been subjected to by so many tendencies, influences, fashions, governments, dictatorships, natural disasters, or wars, has left its imprint on Bucharest, without ever changing the peculiarities of the city, its specific style, rhythm, and atmosphere.There were times when Bucharest was known as "Little Paris", and it proudly kept abreast of the times, as a synonym for avant-garde. And there were times when what happened in or to the city was so outrageous, whether it was in architecture or politics, that signs of revolt were seen and heard around the world. The strength of this hammered city seems to lie in the gracefulness with which it met its destiny. Faithful and conservative, on the one hand, and selective, flexible and open to borrowings, on the other, this is the place where mundane facts turn into extreme events which are being lived frantically.This collection of various perceptions of Bucharest was not meant as an exhaustive undertaking. It consists of carefully selected highlights from authors whose love – or distaste – for Bucharest is being revealed to varying degrees, in periods spanning a few centuries up to this day.
by Plural magazine
