Calea Victoriei "now and then"
If today "going out" means a trip to the mall, 80 years ago it meant taking a walk on Calea Victoriei (Victory Avenue), which used to be the main road in Bucharest. "A street with a long tradition, with elegant and fancy people. It is the place where people in Bucharest go for a walk, in the morning or in the evening. It is the place where you socialize, where you meet folks you know, find out about the hot news of the day, shake hands on businesses and especially you meet new people."(Ioana Parvulescu, "Back to Bucharest in between wars")
Photo from here
Between the two World Wars Calea Victoriei used to be a one way street, towards river Dambovita, just like today. The difference is that you could drive from one end to the other in just a couple of minutes: "If you are in a hurry and there is no traffic you can reach the other end in less than 3 minutes" . Drivers nowadays may think different.
Rush hours existed in those times only for the pedestrians. To be precise, at noon and in the evening, when the sidewalks were swarming with people and they even walked in the middle of the street. "in between them, huffing, puffing and honking on different voices cars drove by with difficulty."
The cars touch the people, splash them with mud and almost run them down. But no one gets angry." (Ioana Parvulescu)
Photo from here
Nowadays all that remained the same is the "squash a pedestrian" detail. Apart from that roles have been turned around. Cars fill up the roads at anytime and crowd even the sidewalks most of the times. Between them, huffing, puffing and swearing are the pedestrians. Everybody gets angry, drivers and pedestrians alike.
About "landmark buildings" on Calea Victoriei we could speak for days on end. The potpourri of architectonic styles and the life that throbs around them form" a foyer where almost everything reminds of France". The highlights were Capsa House "heart of the city from a topographic and moral point of view", National Theater, Athenee Palace and the newly build "skyscraper" of 1935, the Telephone Palace.
Let' not forget the building of the National Savings (C.E.C) or that of the Military Club, Cantacuzino Palace, Sturdza Palace "amazing display of flamboyant Ludovic XVI style and the Athaeneum, pantheon of bueauty, but heavy and ugly in reality". This is how Paul Morand sees the "trendy" buildings of the '930s in his book "Bucuresti".
house capsa, the old building with its modest appearance is now a luxury 5* hotel and pastry shop. Across the road, only the entrance is left from the old National theater, actually re-constructed and part of the glass and steel building of hotel Novotel. Looking quite humble next to them the Palace of the telephones (also restored for 10 long years until 2005) springs up nearby.
As regards the people, "the anonymous crowd jostles enthusiastically, gathering together house maids with oxygenated hair, past or future demnitars, school girls and "famous cocottes", writers without published books and actors without talent, politicians from the opposition and characters en vogue or en vue." (Ioana Parvulescu)
Maybe today there are no maids anymore, just executive positions with endless titles in English, but the color of the hair is definitely the same.
In the 1920s tastes in clothing seemed just as questionable. "Lack of taste in clothes, lack of grace in movements, gait, in the way to speak, to use hands and look at others. You get the feeling of utter ungracefulness" (Ioana Parvulescu)
Paul Morand also says in his book "Bucuresti" : "the undisciplined inhabitant of Buchartest goes down Calea Victoriei without fear of cars, and when it comes to looking at a beautiful lady, he doesn't hesitate to provoke a traffic jam. The pedestrians rarely manage to block the cars but they mess up the traffic in such a way that sometimes the mob has to be held back with chains along the sidewalk."
Again, in "Bucuresti" we found out a little about what were the discussion topics on Calea Victoriei: "cuisine, politics, love, this Stendhalian corso is the alley of first dates, the first column of news, the guidelines for fashion, the secret pathway of military plots, the gazebo of first kisses behind the parents' back, a scene of satire, a gateway to enter Bucharest and conquer it."
"Nowhere else around the world shall you see so many adorable women and appealing figures". Well, today it's pretty much the same, on any street.
Still the same is the night view, except the neon commercials, by far more numerous now:" during the night the street becomes empty, while the restaurant, cinemas and theaters, pubs and gardens are overflowing. The lights drop on the pavement in a polycromatic kaleidoscope and up on the buildings the letters shine in gigantic milipedes." (Ioana Parvulescu)
Sources: Ioana Parvulescu, Back to bucharest in between wars, Humanitas, 2003, Bucuresti
Paul Morand, Bucuresti, Echinox, 2000, Cluj
