60http://metropotam.comUrban survival guidehttp://metropotam.com2008-02-09T08:46:56+00:00Metropotam, Bucharestenhttp://metropotam.com/Bucharest/2007/02/art4361130160-Shopping-in-Bucharest-cookies-chocolate-candies/


The best chocolates in town you will find at Capsa Confectionery. A box is 50 RON and you choose the kind of chocolates you enjoy best - with 80% cocoa, coffee, cream, sesame, fruits and so on. They are always fresh and absolutely magnificent.

Staying tuned for more chocolates... and still in the center of the town. On Doamnei Street n0 27 we've got Leonidas - belgian nuts and almonds in bitter-sweet chocolate. They are quite expensive though - 160 RON per kilo.



In Plaza Romania (the mall in Drumul Taberei neighbourhood) there is another exquisite " Chocolaterie" with all sorts of chocolate combinations, probably inspired from Chocolat - the movie. The some goes with Chateau Blanc or Jeff de Bruges on Calea Mosilor 199.

As far as "home-made" cookies are concerned, cakes and creamy stuff... our top favourite are: Nefeli (try Amarena and Paris...), Agapitos (turkish baclavale simply rule) or Casablanca. Don't miss Chocolat - the nice restaurant o Stavropoleos Street and their delicious parfe and tiramisu. :)


]]>2007-02-01T11:25:00+00:00BucharestFlaviahttp://metropotam.com/Bucharest/2007/01/art0110418560-Shopping-in-Bucharest-Souvenirs/
Clothes, traditional clothes are very beautiful, hand-made by peasants just the way they used to wear long time ago during celebrations and so on. They are not cheap - today it's become a rare thing to see people in villages working on cloth waving, there's no raw material for that anymore, so what still exists on the market is no cheaper than 40 EU a blouse - "ie" as we call it in Romanian.



Some people find these blouses and waistcoats as curiosities, but some actually wear them and somehow reincluded them in the modern fashion cycle. You can buy "ie" (ii - plural :)) at Romanian Peasant's Museum or at the Village Museum - especially during traditional fairs. These are the only places where you can be mostly sure the garments are originally made by a craftsman's hand.

Then there is the Romanian pottery - also hand made and painted in a specific way, that you can also find in the two named museums. Potters' Fairs happen in Bucharest in autumn or in spring and many craftsmen from around the country gather to exhibit and sell their merchandise.

Still you might want to go directly to the source and buy awesome pottery objects in Horezu (near Ramnicu Valcea) - the place is famous all around Europe for the quality and style of the decorations or - if you have enough time, you can even go to Marginea, in the northern part of the country for black pottery.


Image from here

Since you are in the Peasant's Museum you have to try the ginger bread. :) Delicious. And then, there are a ot of hand-made bags made of straw or ropes, whistles, small sculptures and paintings, carpets and blankets, all of them related to the Romanian traditional (often shepherds') way of life.

Don't forget the Linden Inn Galleries full of wonderful antiquities, books, drawings and so on. In the Historical Center there are also a few small shops you'd certainly like to visit, selling hand-made jewelery, glass-made decorative objects, and vintage stuff.

Avoid (as much as you can) buying things having inscriptions with Dracula and Transilvania Vampires' Castle... it's such an un-Romanian kitsch that has so little to do with our culture and customs... just forget about it! :)
]]>2007-01-25T09:13:00+00:00BucharestFlaviahttp://metropotam.com/Bucharest/2006/10/art0937091198-Cotroceni-Palace/


The residence of the President of Romania used to be, 300 years ago, a monastery, built by Serban Cantacuzino, with a vast terrain and lots of facilities around it.

"On top of a hill, the palace rises on the spot where in the 17th century used to be a monastery of St. Serghei and Bacchus. The land belonged to Serban Cantacuzino - ruler of Wallachia between 1668-1688. In the forest that covers the hill he had escaped the tatars. The monastery he built there was pillaged by the Russians and Turks, who scraped off the eyes of the saints painted on the walls and stole everything inside, even the pots from the kitchen" (Paul Morand, Bucuresti, page 103)

In 1880 Carol I started to build his future royal residence starting from the blueprints in Venetian style of Paul Gottereau. With later interventions and constructions of different architects, even from the communist period, the contemporary monastery, museum and presidential residence have now an architectonic style hard to define.

"French architect Gottereau, in charge with building the new residence, destroyed the old palace, including the brick walls of the fortress and left standing only its little church" (same source)

A valuable architectonic piece is the church of Cantacuzino, reconstructed in the same style after it had been demolished in 1985 by Ceasusescu.

"Cantacuzino rests here under a tombstone with floral patterns which coil like the snake around the scepter, among the graves of royal children sleeping under the numb silver of the candlesticks" (same)

Museum Cotroceni, which can be visited only by booking in advance and if you have some ID with you, preserves several representative places for the construction style of the 17th century.

The presidential wing was built in the 80s by Nicolae Vladescu, after in 1977 Ceausescu had transformed it into a guests' room.

"White like the peasants' clothes, Cotroceni dominates with its terraces the smog and soot of the city. It still looks like an old mansion with the great entrance guarded by the white bearded Swiss guard with his ebony batton with silver head.

I like the impressive marble stairs with the blue carpet, ornated with all the Hohenzollerns, in Wagnerian poses; I like the hexagonal severity of the library belonging to the late King Ferdinand, where English magazines mingle with photos from the beginning of the century [...]"

Sources: Wikipedia
         Presidency.ro
         Paul Morand, Bucuresti, Editura ECHINOX, Cluj, 200, p103-104.
]]>2006-10-24T10:40:00+00:00BucharestCristinaPhttp://metropotam.com/Bucharest/2006/10/art0621426610-Carol-I-the-new-Romania-and-the-new-Bucharest/said about her husband, King Carol (Charles) I, that "he used to wear the crown even in his sleep". The King of Romania (of German origin), 1866-1914,  marked deeply the history of the country and proved to be "a great Romanian".

When he was 27, Karl Eitel Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (!) accepted to come to a foreign country. The trip was not at all pleasant, he used a fake name and kept a low profile, travelled by horse-pulled wagon (which later made him pay extra attention to the construction of railroads) and was appaled by the poverty and lack of organization he noticed on his roads through Romanian villages.
 
When Carol, supported by Napoleon III and brought by I.C. Bratianu, came here, the country was paying tribute to the Ottoman Empire, was in a poor economic shape and among the least developped European countries regarding the civilization, infrastructure and education.



Paul Morand says that during those times "Bucharest was nothing more than the shadow of a great city. Three quarters of it had been destroyed during the great fire in 1847, by the continuous marches back and forth of the Russian troups, while floods, cholera and famine finished it off" (Paul Morand, "Bucuresti", Echinox printing house, 2000).

Plus, Carol was not really impressed even by the "house" prepared for him, former residence of boyar Golescu, patched up as royal residence after having served as military school, barracks and hospital. It is said that the future king asked "But where is the Palace?" In time, the house Golescu was modernized, enlarged with new wings, but after being partially destroyed in a fire, it was completeley torn down. The contemporary shape of the Royal Palace dates back from 1935 and it was built by Carol II.

Carol I and Queen Elisabeth used to take time off at Peles, a palace built throughout their entire reign period and was finished in the year of the king's death.

Neagu Djuvara said that 1866-1914 was the happiest period in Romania's existence. Why? because the King was set to modernize the country, to ensure its independence and make Bucharest a capital respected throughout Euurope. In 1866, the new Constitution of Romania proclaimes constitutional monarchy. It was not always easy for him, because his discipline and intransigence were not easy to deal with.

At one point, the extremist francophones, angry because France had just lost the war with Prussia, attacked House Capsa where the German king was celebrating his birthday. Carol could not count on the guards and, extremely disappointed, he announced that he wanted to abdicate. Realizing what a loss this would mean, including the end of all the reforms, the political elite convinced him to give up his decision. The government was changed and Lascar Catargiu became prime-minister.

Carol I did not accept the country's dependence on the Ottomans. He took advantage of the Russian-Turk war in 1877 to win Romania's independence. The story goes that when he first heard the canons firing at Calafat, he exclaimed "That's music to my ears!".

Romania became a free country and in 1881 becomes a kingdom, with the coronation of Prince Carol. He never wanted a golden crown, with diamonds and gems. Carol had his crown made from the steel of a canon captured during the war of independence.


Photo from here

Due to him, Bucharest has Filaret train station, the Central Library of the University, the Athaeneum, Palace Cotroceni, the Medical School, BNR Palace, the Palace of Justice, the Postal Palace, CEC building, the building of the City Hall, monuments, museums, a modernized river Dambovita - "almost everything goes back to that beautiful reign when for the first time Bucharest was able to grow free of natural or human-made disasters" (Paul Morand in his book, printed for the first time in 1935).

In a continuously changing world, after King Carol made his crown from the captured Turkish canon, the bronze of his statue, which was once in Revolution Square was used by the communists to make a statue of Lenin...]]>2006-10-24T09:06:00+00:00BucharestCristinaPhttp://metropotam.com/Bucharest/2006/10/art9177920721-Calea-Victoriei-now-and-then/

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


]]>2006-10-20T06:40:00+00:00BucharestCristinaPhttp://metropotam.com/Bucharest/2006/10/art6651282438-Remember-Curtea-Veche/
The shy attempt to restore some of the place and turn it ito a museum was not too successful, and wat it offers now might be interesting only for those with a passion for history or architecture.


It all started with a keep and a small fortress built at mid 14th century, which was destroyed in a fire.

Vlad Tepes (the Impaler) continued the development of the place, and built in the same place in 1459 the Citadel of Bucharest, which was to become, although partially destroyed during a siege at the end of 15th c., the future Princely Court.

It was first mentioned in a document issued in September 20th 1459 by the Chancellery of Vlad Tepes. The walls were made of river pebbles, which is maybe why it used to be called Citadel Dambovita (also after the river that crosses the capital). In the meanwhile the restaurations made by various voivodes and rulers consolidated the building with larger stones and bricks.



The inner yard from the time of Tepes dissapeared because the cellar and basement were enlarged. The citadel suffered many changes, with every new ruler - Laiota Basarab, Mircea Ciobanu or Radu de la Afumati.

Voivode Mircea Ciobanu turned it from a small stronghold into a nicely decorated voivodal castle. Patrascu cel Bun added a mansion, which is now under one of the buildings around it, in the Northern part.



Upon his coronation, Matei Basarab found a Voivodal Palace in ruins after wars and sieges. He partially restored it and the process was continued by Grigore Ghica.

The main restoration took place during Cantacuzino, who insisted upon interior decorations and on the esthetic aspect. He built more facilities around it, including the armory, adorned with big golden stars, and the rooms were decorated in the oriental fashion of the time, with big solid wooden doors with mother-of-pearl inlays.

The most important period in the history of the palace was during the reign of Brancoveanu, who rebuilt the parts that had been destroyed, and further developped the place. The palace became an elegant and imposing place, with gardens and alleys which lead down to Dambovita river, with a 300 sqm thronehall, ballrooms and meeting rooms for the statesmen of the times.

Lord William Paget describes the building around year 1700 as being "great and lovely, much more beautiful than the buildings which are the pride of the neighboring barbarian Turks".



Phanariot reigns have not been useful for the court. Besides having been affected by wars and fires, the palace was degraded irremediably due to the lack of interest of those in charge with it. The beautiful ornaments from the time of Brancoveanu were replaced with mere polished stones.

In 1798 Constantin Hangherli sells the land on where the palace had been built, and enter havoc - chaotic building and tearing down, workers found a good area for building huses and workshops. It is a known fact that Hangherli was very fond of parties and he had turned the palace into a partying ground for him, his faithful boyars and the prostitutes of the time.

After the big 1847 fire all that is left of the court is church Buna Vestire (the Annunciation). Of the hundred chambers of the royal family, of the servants, soldiers, administrative staff, all that was left were a few walls and Hanul lui Manuc, which was also a part of the Court until the 18th century.

Unlike other cities, where old royal residences have been carefully preserved and restored, in Bucharest it is hard to imagine, using only books or the internet, how was the place from where the voivodes used to run the country. It is a pity, because the place is promising.

For photos and sources, we thank Cristina Nicolaescu - student at the Arhitecture Institute.
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