Casa Presei Libere
Please excuse our “Americanized” start, we must say now what is way too evident: the place is beeping huge! Now that we got this over with, let’s see what we can find out about Casa Presei Libere (Freedom of the Press House, used to be known as Casa Scanteii, “Scanteia” being the main Communist newspaper). Casa Presei is the twin sister of the House of the Parliament. We’re calling it that not because they were designed by the same architect (Casa Presei was designed by Nicolae Maicu, while the Palace of the Parliament by Anca Petrescu), nor because they have the same architectural style (the Palace of the Parliament impresses with its luxury and richness of details, while the halls in Casa Presei are empty and neglected) but because they both leave you with the feeling that a human being is nothing compared to collective efforts of those building something that will last (we hope) for centuries.
"I wonder how long it took them to build this place…” the Metropotam asked himself while he walked around the building. Which, by the way, takes longer than one might think. Although the façade impresses with its height and width, once you pass the frontal wings, you have a long walk to the end of the building. More than 200 meters, that is.
The answer to our previous question is five years. To be precise, the years were 1952-1957. Horia Maicu thought out the project, inspired by Moscow’s Lomonosov University.
It used to be called the Poligraphic Combine Casa Scanteii “I.V.Stalin”, then Casa Scanteii. Scanteia was the name of Romanian Communist Party’s propaganda newspaper. What you might not have thought of is that Scanteia is still around… the web.
Today the building is used by tens of publications, publishing and printing houses, which cover a surface of 280*260 meters. Without its antenna, the building is 96 meters high, and with it 104, surpassing even the Intercontinental Hotel, which is only 86 meters high.
Casa Presei is the perfect example of Stalinist architectural style: large and imposing, but also practical. Not even this bastion of a past era could escape having a face lift or two. Thus, right in the middle of the façade there is a banner that reads “Lee Cooper”.
On September 21st, 1960, a huge Lenin statue, sculpted by Boris Caragea, was placed right in front of the building. On March 3rd, 1990, the people removed the statue. The pedestal is still there, and above it there is another monument, simple and intelligible.
After getting used to the size of everything, we can start enjoying the artistic details. Those elements that, seem from up close, give a human touch to the Stalinist mountain. Flower motifs, sculpted margins and medieval gratings. The towers do not have a practical use, but represent simple architectural wonders. The same details are added in order to emphasize the fact that the building has a human part. It is growing old. The age of the building can be seen in the rust stains and in the bricks that are blackened by smoke and dust.
Here you’ll find the homes of many journals, such as Adevarul and Jurnalul National, and the state press agency, Rompres. In the back are the printing houses, you can visit them if you’re not afraid of stray dogs. Coresi is the oldest printing house here, with a tradition of 55 years.
After 20 minutes of walking around, we still don’t think that we got to the core of what Piata Presei is about. Near this lonely castle, you’ll see Herastrau Park, which makes the building look even grayer. Casa Presei is the mass media fortress for a city that is always thirsty for news, day-by-day, hour-by-hour.
