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Urban Memory: Museums Of The Romanian Capital

1st row: National History Museum, Old Court Museum, Archeology Museum (detail), National Museum of Art2nd row: Collections Museum, Zambaccian Museum, Theodor Aman Museum, Gh. Tattarescu Museum 3rd row: Storck Museum, Romanian Peasant Museum, Astronomical Observatory (detail),

Bucharest – An Oddity Surviving Against All Odds

Bucharest (Rom. Bucureşti) has been some sort of oddity since the very first days of its existence. The legend has it that it was founded by a shepherd, named Bucur, and it was later named after him. Not remotely as glorious a godparent as the goddess of wisdom (the case

The Past: Plus Quam Perfectum

Bucharest is a city in search of identity. Its precise moment of birth is unknown, for the Cetatea Dîmboviţei of the 14th and 15th centuries only played host to its rulers when they occasionally came to ward off threats from south of the Danube or Hungarian attacks form

Saint Dimitrie Basarabov The New, Protector Of Bucharest

St. Dimitrie (Demetrius) Basarabov the New, the patron saint of Bucharest, is one of the most memorable representatives of Christian life, and his relics are kept in the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest. St. Dimitrie was born and lived in the 13th century on the bank of

Little Pariah

June 1, 2008 was election day for the local administration in Romania. The candidates for Bucharest City Hall and the six, relatively independent, “sector” mayoralties fought desperate wars to win. Many people have a lousy opinion about Bucharest, formerly known as

Ministry Of Culture, City Hall Make Plans For Bucharest

City Hall, Palace Hall, Opera, National Theater. At a news briefing held yesterday by the Ministry of Culture and Religious Denominations, Minister Adrian Iorgulescu informed the press about his conversation Monday with Bucharest Mayor Sorin Oprescu. Equally, Adrian Iorgulescu

The History Of Nothing: Contemporary Architecture And Public Space In Romania

Richard Rogers Partnership proposal, 1996People's House (Parliament) After 1989: Methods of researching the built environmentResearching Communist architecture is a tricky endeavor in contemporary Romania, where some major actors of that era are still alive, some even

The Friend From Abroad

Clockwise from top left: People's House, wood church in Romanian Peasant Museum yard, Opera House, Stavropoleos Church, Athenaeum, Caru cu bere pub. Every time I have to recommend some sightseeing in our town to the friend/ acquaintance/ work colleague coming from

Perdition, Old-Style

When on the 20th of September, 1459, the throne of Wallachia moved from Târgovişte to Bucharest, the new settlement, which was lying along Dâmboviţa River, was a picturesque settlement, with slow hills, lakes and boundless orchards and especially with venerable forests.

A Century Of Our Past And Our European Identity Are Being Destroyed

Armenian Church; St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Cathedral; Stirbey house on Calea Victoriei excerpts from the debate organized by Ileana Foundation for Contemporary Fine Arts and Modern Architecture in Romania, hosted at UNA Gallery on May 12th 2008 Nowadays, the oldest

Little Paris

top row: Lipscani diggings, Unirea shoping center, house in Romanian Peasant Museum yard, National Museum of Contemporary Art bottom row: Collections Museum on Calea Victoriei, University Sq. , dilapidated building on Lipscani St. , old house on Mantuleasa St. It seems

Bucharest And Its Paradoxes

O Moft! Thou art the watchword and motto of our times. Vast syllable of unbounded content, in thee there is such comfortable room for countless meanings: joys and misfortunes, merit and infamy, guilt and misadventure, right, duty, sentiments, interests, convictions, politics,