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Horizontal Archeology

They used to call it little Paris for its French-style buildings and atmosphere. But now Bucharest looks like a little globalization of various epochs. The trouble is that you do not have to dig vertically for those epochs like archeologists, because builders have amassed

L. P.

Athenaeum and CEC Palace on Calea Victoriei We like to refer to the “exterior” whenever we analyze local problems and the present day situation in our country can only prove us right. Starting with the ambition of political Europeanization and ending with the famous

A Showcase For Kalodont

Gregor von Rezzori has never been part of Romanian-German literature, a fact regretted even beyond his death. The writer, who was born in 1914 in Czernowitz and died in 1998 in his home in Florence, would have, nonetheless, met some of the conditions for qualification. But,

Nature And Architecture: The Parks And Gardens Of The Capital

Cismigiu gardens, Icoanei park, Kiseleff park (see also The green within in Gallery). Many of Bucharest’s gardens and parks, which no longer exist because of extensive urban reorganising, were shaped as the aristocracy tastefully redesigned the open space around their

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

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 Vandals' Academy

Bucharest, the city of all filth, all sorts of architectural absurdities, moronic and petty houses, disgusting hotels, stinky pubs… Bucharest full of flies and primitive latrines; Bucharest with no water and few sewers; Bucharest with horse-drawn trams; Bucharest with

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