I outlined in an earlier post on this blog the four building booms of Bucharest that mark the real estate history of this city during the last century and a half since it started to develop and expand at a vertiginous pace on the foundations of the small oriental market town that existed here during the Ottoman times.
Nearly all the stock of Bucharest period property was build during its first two building booms: the Little Paris stage (1860s-1918), corresponding mainly with the Victorian epoch, which in Bucharest was characterised by the construction of a large number of buildings in French inspired architectural styles, followed by the interwar period when the Neo-Romanian style was in vogue. Only a handful of Ottoman inspired architecture survived in the resulting architectural landscape of the city.
Bucharest’s period house facades are characterised by rich and attractive architectural ornaments and decorations, giving a certain degree of flamboyance and freshness to an urban landscape that now suffers gravely from the harm inflicted upon its architectural heritage by the communist era destruction or the last decade’s unsightly new buildings and botched renovations.
I have put together here a slide show with representative ornaments and decorations that adorn some of the old Bucharest house facades or courtyards, which I hope would give you a more wholesome image on its period buildings’ peculiar character and splendour. Valentin Mandache
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If you are interested in acquiring a period property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to assist in locating the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contactpage of this weblog.
Valentin Mandache, architectural historian 