Romanians took to the street after two months of complete lockdown for coronavirus pandemic. The EU country was subjected to some of the harshest measures in Europe during this time, when a military state of emergency was declared. Today, the measure was shifted to an alarm state, which still limits a lot of civil liberties […]
Two centuries after the Italian Renaissance and at a much lower scale, Romanian County experienced its own period of blooming arts. Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu assumed the role of „The Magnificent” Lorenzo de Medici as protector of arts, commissioner of great buildings and patron of a new original style in architecture that bears his name. And […]
About 90.000 dwellers of Bucharest met the new year in the street, at one of the several open air concerts that were held. The largest audience was in Constitution Plaza, in front of the Parliamentary Palace, where the municipality was the main organizer. A comparable crowd filled George Enescu Square, in front of the Atheneum […]
In 1939, a week before the beginning of the second world war, the foreign affairs ministers of Hitler and Stalin (Joachim von Ribbentrop and Vyacheslav Molotov) signed a secret treaty that stated not only the perfect cooperation between communists and nazis, but also divided Europe into spheres of influence. Certain countries, like Poland and Romania […]
On Lacul Morii (Mill’s Lake) in Bucharest took place a demonstration that combined aerial and nautical exercises. Though it was not as spectacular as previously advertised, the show was an opportunity to enjoy the clear blue sky in a beautiful autumn day. Lacul Morii is one of the largest lakes of Bucharest, that used to […]
For one evening, Bucharest borrowed something from the exuberance of Rio de Janeiro, as 250 dancers from different schools paraded from Unirea Square to Constitution Square. The parade ended the four days of street theater festival, during which groups from seven countries entertained the passers-by with fanfare music, tricks, puppets on stilts and concerts. In […]
Bucharest marked its 553 years of documented existence with giant fireworks tuned to music, in the Constitution Square. The ending ceremony followed four days of street theater shows, during which some 20 groups with musicians, circus and theater artists made the capital of Romania more jolly for locals and tourists. After the acrobatic performance of […]
Bucharest was more animated than ever during the four days of International Street Theater Festival, during which some 20 groups from seven countries surprised and entertained the bystanders. The groups came from Holland, France, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany with different sounds from fanfare to chamber music, acrobats and costumes. Giant puppets and artists on […]
The new season was opened in the first day of fall with an already traditional open air concert for Romanian Opera lovers. The event took place on the loan in front of the National Opera Theater in Bucharest. The audience was far more numerous than the seats prepared on the green area where the statue […]
This long bridge was a much needed practical solution for the notorious traffic problem of Bucharest. Though it also crosses the small Dâmbovița river, its aim was to help cars get over the railroad lines that go to the central station (Gara de Nord), close to city center. The railroad lines divide the city in […]
A busy 3,5 million people town, Bucharest offers a cocktail of classical architecture from the 19 century, mixed with Stalinist massive buildings from the communist age, and a dizzying night life. It’s a city with crazy traffic, with surprisingly rich museums of art, history and traditional crafts. With green areas of absolute tranquility and busy […]
Romanians seem to be fascinated by their ancestry, after all, they are the only modern nation to draw its name from the mighty Roman Empire. Though the historic sources are scarce and debatable, for some modern nationalists the Dacians, who were the local population, before being conquered by the Romans, are more attractive than the […]
For one day Bucharest was dressed in red and white as tens of thousands of fans of the two Spanish teams „invaded” the city for the Europa League Final. The locals were more than happy to welcome the massive group of tourists of similar Latin descent, who overcrowded the pubs and narrow streets of the […]
Though the stadium inaugurated in 2011 is not one of the large stadiums on the continent, with its 55.000 seats capacity, it is packed with features. It has a retractable roof, with the stands always covered. The cable system that supports the roof makes it unusable in daylight because of the shadows, but the cables […]
Tineretului Park (The Park of the Youth) has 80 hectares of green land and lake which makes it the second park in Bucharest after Herastrau, which is in the North part of the city. It is not as elegant and as shadowy park as the Cismigiu Gardens, being a younger park, with some trees newly […]
The equestrian statue of King Carol I of Romania was rebuilt and placed once again in the Revolution Square, where it is surrounded by representative buildings of the dynastic era. Behind the statue there is the University Library (former building of the Royal Arts Foundation), in front there is the former Royal Palace (now the […]
Though a very relaxing place, the Botanical Gardens of Bucharest are surpassed in some areas by older parks such as Cismigiu Gardens or Herastrau. But in the 17 hectares of this garden there are some interesting areas that provide nice surprises, like the roses garden, the water-lily lake or the little animals that teem around. […]
An absolute must see if you visit Bucharest, the Cotroceni (pronounced Kotrocheny) has a history of 400 years, a beautiful architecture and a very relaxing surrounding domain. It was first intended as a monastery, with churches and cells. Probably some kind of religious construction existed there prior to 1600. Prince Serban Cantacuzino, who financed the […]
The most famous historic personality of Romanians, Vlad The Impaler, was very tied to Bucharest, today’s capital, which was first mentioned in a document during his reign, in 1459. The legendary king is usually associated to Transylvania, being born in Sighisoara, but he ruled a neighbor part of today Romania, Wallachia. Several castles, among which […]
Though the term Atheneum usually refers to a library, the Romanian Atheneum is mainly a concert hall. Important personalities like Richard Strauss and Yehudi Menuhin have concerted here. The Atheneum was built by a French architect, with the help of some of the most important Romanian architects, after a national fund raising campaign. It stands […]