Kretzulescu Palace

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May 052010
 

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The beautiful palace which is the subject of today’s photo was built in 1902-1906 as a residence for Elena Kretzulescu (aka Elena Creţulescu) by architect Petre Antonescu (1873-1965). It replaced the old family house, which was built around 1718. The palace’s facade is aligned with Ştirbei Vodă Street while the back looms over Cişmigiu Park from a small hill. Purchased in 1927 by city hall, the building was used for various purposes: from 1928-1929 it housed the office of the Prime Minister, followed by the Museum of Religious Art which was closed in 1946 when the communists came to power. Since 1972 the palace has been the seat of UNESCO European Centre for Higher Education. As with many other palaces in Bucharest the architectural style is Eclectic with touches of French Renaissance, which was very much in fashion in Bucharest at the end the 19th century.

The back of the palace seen from Cişmigiu park:

The Fire Watchtower

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Apr 292010
 


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The watchtower in today’s photo was used in the old times as an observation tower by the city’s firemen. Back then, the 42 meters (137,7 feet) tall tower was the highest structure in the city. It was built in 1890-1892 after plans by architect George Mandrea, to replace the old fire tower, Colţei Tower, demolished two years earlier in 1888. The tower was also supposed to serve as a water reservoir in case of fire, being equipped with a reservoir and a metal frame in the upper section. The problem was that after finishing the structure they realized that the water pumps of the local water utility company did not have enough power to fill the tower with water. This problem was solved in 1924 with the inauguration of a new water plant but by that time it was no longer necessary as the city’s water network had been developed. The fire brigade remained in the building until 1935, even though starting with 1910 the use of a tall building was made obsolete by the introduction of the telephone. The building served different purposes until 1963 when it became the Firefighters Museum.

Cărtureşti bookstore

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Apr 252010
 

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This is my favorite bookstore in my home city of Bucharest. It started with a small shop which opened in 2000 and turned into a chain and a strong cultural brand with many locations in Bucharest and the rest of the country. My favorite location is the one shown in the photo, which is located on Arthur Verona Street, in a beautiful 19th century mansion with high ceilings and big rooms. In my opinion it has the best collection of books in Bucharest, DVDs and CDs and a very nice tea room. It also has a decent collection of English books so if you’re in Bucharest and don’t read Romanian you can still check it out. The house was expanded last year by joining it with an adjacent one and now the selection of books is even better, there’s a cafe in the basement and a garden cafe in the summer. Plenty of cultural events take place here including book launches, concerts, exhibitions and multimedia events.

Queen Elizabeth Boulevard

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Apr 162010
 

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In case you’re wondering where I disappeared, the answer would be the northwest of Argentina, more precisely in the city of Salta, at the foothills of the Andes. I’ve seen some amazing landscapes here, but I had problems connecting to the Internet which made me unable to post. Don’t worry, I plan to make up for the break.

Today’s photograph shows one of the buildings lining Queen Elizabeth Boulevard, a boulevard located downtown Bucharest, only a few steps away from the University Square. Given the fact that this should be prime time real estate, I’m surprised that its restoration and cleaning is going as slow at it is. Except for two or three buildings undergoing renovation, nothing’s been done to restore this once beautiful street to its former glory.

The zodiac apartment building

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Apr 122010
 

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First of all sorry for the late posting. I’m on the road again and when one’s traveling things don’t always work out as expected. But all’s well that ends well and since I have a place to sleep for the night and an Internet connection I’m all good and ready to post 🙂

Very close to the flying cow villa from yesterday’s photo lies another interesting building, also located on Calea Dorobanţi. This one is decorated with ornamental panels showing the zodiac signs, which I think make a rather non interesting building look nice. The apartment complex was built in 1946 by architects Radu Dudescu and Mircea Marinescu and the ornamental panels were executed by Constantin Baraschi.

The Bicyclist’s House

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Apr 092010
 

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This beautiful French house located in downtown Bucharest is known by the name of “The House of Mitza the bicyclist” because it used to belong to Maria Mihăescu (1885-1968), the first woman bicyclist of Romania. This was back in 1898 when Mitza made waves by biking down Calea Victoriei. She was a very beautiful lady with lots of admirers and supposedly lots of famous lovers. She was also the first Romanian lady to wear a bathing suit at the beach. According to wikipedia, the house in the photo was a gift from King Ferdinand of Romania, whose supposed to have been her lover. The house was built in 1910 by architect N.C. Mihăescu, had the first floor modified in 1933 and was restored again in 1985. Right now the building is in dire need of another renovation before it starts losing the beautiful details of the facade.

The communist apartments

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Mar 272010
 

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It’s been a while since I posted a photo showing the “other face of Bucharest” 🙂 respectively the tenement blocks of the communist times. The eight floors high ones, located on Calea Moşilor, which you can see in today’s photo, are pretty typical. Most of the citizens of Bucharest live in this kind of housing. The apartments inside can have 1, 2, 3 or 4 rooms and they are generally measuring from 30 to 70 square meters (322 to 753 square feet). The heating and hot water are in the vast majority centrally controlled and a perpetual source of problems. Despite their drab look, a four room apartment can go for more than 100.000 euros, because of the shortage of housing in Bucharest. The cheaper apartments are on the ground floor because of less lighting and fear of break ins and on the last floor because of the fears regarding the bad insulation of the terrace. The citizens of Bucharest also tend to favor buying apartments in newer buildings due to the fact that Bucharest lies in an seismic area and a newer building means less structural damage from the previous earthquakes. These days there’s a program to redo the outside insulation of the buildings with the state paying partially for the costs; the brightly striped buildings in the picture have probably just been re-insulated.

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