Historic Bucharest is a motley collection of 19th and early 20thcentury European architectural styles rendered in a provincial manner, without the balance, concentration of meaning and imposing features of their namesake counterparts from the western part of the continent. That nevertheless imprints the city with a certain unique personality of a quirky oriental town, naively disguised under Rococo, Neoclassical, Art Nouveau and Art Deco facades. The only original order that emerged here is the remarkable Neo-Romanian style that wonderfully complements the diverse foreign inspired architectural mix.
These buildings, which already suffered heavy blows during the long years of the communist regime, are now fast disappearing because of a toxic convergence of adverse factors: the aftermath of the most rapacious property boom the country has ever seen, neglect from the city authorities and also the sheer ignorance of a large proportion of Bucharest’s citizens about their history and heritage encompassed by the historical buildings in which they live and work.
One such building was, until recently, a cheerful Art Deco little block of flats dating from the roaring twenties located in the Opera area, at no. 30, Calea Plevnei.
Bucharest Art Deco block of flats (©Valentin Mandache)
The Art Deco details have stood all vicissitudes of the last seven decades of neglect, mainly because the state and building tenants and proprietors did not have enough resources to renovate or modernise it.
Art Deco architectural detail, Bucharest block of flats (©Valentin Mandache)
