The megalomaniac dream of a dictator
Again, I have booked a hotel as close to the station as possible. It is 1 pm as I arrive. The heat is already unbearable. It is one of those modern blocks. But where is the entrance? Under the load of my backpack I walk towards a sliding door which seems to give access to a restaurant, but according to Google maps could be the hotel. An old security guard shoots up to me and shoos me away, to the right. There is a vehicle entrance right next to the sliding door, than another sliding door. The security guy has followed me. He points at an indefinite direction which could be both the vehicle entrance and the other sliding door. I don’t know why he is so angry. With a hearty “wa fan culo” he shoos me into the sliding door. I don’t speak Italian but I understand that. I walk up to him, point my finger at his toothless face, and say: “you don’t say that to a customer. You come with me now.” Now I shoo him into the sliding door. He starts making excuses. I walk to the reception and ask them whether they greet all their customers with “wa fan culo”. The old guy has retreated into a corner and gets smaller and smaller. The receptionist says he will talk to him. I don’t care. I just wanted to make a point. I hope he will not do it again with somebody else.
I am in Bucharest. The old guy might well have had an entirely different function before 1989 when he probably was less than 40 years old.
Every eastern European country had its dramatic events when the communist governments fell in the wake of Michael Gorbatschov’s Perestroika and Glasnost policy. The events in Romania were particularly dramatic and violent. And I don’t think communism left such a trace of destruction in any other Eastern European capital. Oder should it be called changes?
But before I can show what has been destroyed I have to give an impression of what was there. To get an overview I participated in two, so called free, city walking tours. For both Gabriella was the guide. She is born in 1989. In her opinion older people do not have an unbiased view of the city. Either they are nostalgic of the time before 1089, to they have a trauma. The tour members come as far as Australia and New York. And there is Tiago from Portugal. He says himself that he always is the youngest in these type of tours. He studies business and management in Lisbon. He is about to start a short exchange in the town of Predeal. I warn him about the bears.
The old town
A good written introduction to Bucuresti is to read “Der Feuerturm” of Catalin Dorian Florescu. It tells the story of generations of a Bucurest family. Generation of fathers in the novel are soldiers of the fire brigade. And fire has played a crucial role in the history of the city.
The Romanian place their roots at the Dacians. Their most famous leader was Dezebal. The Dacian empire was conquered by the Romans under Trajan in 106 AD. There are little remains of both periods in Bucuresti. The problem was that wars, fires and earthquakes even until recently sometimes wiped away big parts of the city.
Mama Roma again
One of the problems with the fires was that the streets were paved with wood. This was also done in other European cities such as Paris. The fire danger was much reduced when the stone pavement was introduced.
Saint Anthony church
The oldest remaining part of the town is the voivodal palace or old court (curtea veche). It was the palace and residence of Vlad III Dracula, the impaler, ruler of Wallachia, born in 1431 in Sighisoara, as we have seen in chapter 10. Our guide Gabriella gets a bit cross that the literary story of Dracula is replacing the facts around the real character. Dracul in Romanian means devil. Dracula therefore is a little devil. The author, Bram Stoker, an Irishman, has never been to Romania and has never even talked to a Romanian. He found Vlad’s story interesting, used it in a novel, and meanwhile the novel is taken as reality. Vlad was called the impaler because he liked to punish delinquents by putting them on a wooden pole. Gabriella indulges in describing this procedure. The reader can look it up for details. The old court building itself is in ruins and to be reconstructed, but the orthodox Saint Anthony church can be visited. Since it burned down several times or was destroyed it is far from the original shape.
The same happened to all the other orthodox churches in town. Biserica Sfântul Gheorghe Nou (Saint George church) was rebuilt in 1707 after a fire. Somebody asks how to become an orthodox priest. In contrast to Catholic priests the orthodox have to be married. Only as such they are regarded to set a good example for the believers.
Next to the church is a symbolic world ball to mark the geometric center of Bucuresti with the Zodiac signs.
Biserica Sfântul Gheorghe Nou
Dividing good and bad for heaven and hell
The center of Bucuresti
Only the church of the beautiful Stravropoleos monastery is originally and from 1724. The cloister is newer. After arrival the founder built an inn to finance monastery and church. However, there are no remainders of the inn and the monastery. Also this church was damaged in fires and earthquakes and subsequently rebuilt.
Stravropoleos monastery
Until the mid of the 19th century Bucuresti was ruled by the Ottomans. However, for the reasons mentioned above there are hardly any Ottoman monuments left. Manuc's Inn Restaurant looks like a traditional Ottoman hamul, a guesthouse. It was built in 1806. Traders could store their goods in the basement and stay on the first floor. It was to be destroyed by the systematic rebuilding of Bucuresti under Ceaușescu. Some clever mind had the idea to tell Ceaușescu that it was a popular meeting place of the first members of the communist party. That secured its survival.
Hamul Manuc
After the Ottomans had to give up their Romanian possessions the country longed to be part of the modern west. This of course was also promoted by their German king, Carol I, of Hohenzollern, and his German wife. Bucharest was to become the Paris of the East. And a corresponding building boom started.
Statue of Carol I opposite his former palace
Along the Calea Victoriei a whole number of representative buildings were constructed. The Romanian Athenaeum is the concert hall built in 1888.
Romanian Athenaeum
Carol I also got a palace in the center of town. It was later converted into the National Art Gallery.
Macca-Vilacrosse Passage
In 1891 the Macca-Vilacrosse Passage was built to provide a link between two streets. Since a thriving merchant was unwilling to give up his business for demolition the passage was built around his shop in a Y shape
Macca-Vilacrosse Passage
Built in 1704, Bucharest had one of the first public hospitals in Eastern Europa. The present building is of 1880. It still has one of the prettiest facades of any hospital anywhere. Gabriella ensures that inside it is modern.
The first hospital
The first bank
The bank building of the Casa de Economii și Consemnațiuni was built in 1900. Across the street is the enormous building of the Muzeul Național de Istorie a României.
Caru' cu bere
Next door is the Caru' cu bere, a traditional beer pub. It is very popular and there is no space without a reservation. However they don’t mind when people come in a look around.
In December 1947 the communist party disposed of the last Romanian king Mihai I and sent him into exile in Switzerland. From 1947 until 1989 Romania experienced three phases of communism. The first communist leader of Romania from 1947-1965 was Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. Under influence of the Soviet Union Gheorghiu followed a strict Stalinist course. Private property was seized. There was little foreign investment, the economy went down.
Headquarter of the communist party
In 1968 Nicolae Ceaușescu came to power. He was born in 1918 in Southwest Romania. His father was a heavy drinker. When he went to register the birth of his son, he was so drunk that he gave the name Nicolae, forgetting that he already had a son of that name. The parents were not very interested in education and Ceaușescu did not even finish the 4 years of school required at the time. Neither did his later wife Elena.
He went to Bucuresti to work, came in contact with communist ideas and was imprisoned when he was 14. His cell mate was Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, the future first communist leader of Romania.
Communist apartment blocks
After Ceaușescu gained power he declared a certain independence from the Soviet Union. This made him very attractive for western leaders. He succeeded in attracting foreign money and there was a lot of investment for example in infrastructure. Therefore the 1970’ies, phase 2 of communism, were good years in Romania.
Communist apartment blocks
In 1971 Ceaușescu visited North Korea and China and that gave him some ideas. Under the pretext of an earthquake in 1977 he pursued his project of Systematisation, a complete rebuilding of Bucresti. The third phase of Romanian communism started.
Perfect electric installation
Ceaușescu intention was to built appartment blocks along a boulevard running up to an enormous palace. To that en 20% of the city of Bucuresti were demolished. That was more in peace time than before during the fights in the first or second world war. Whole neighborhoods of prosperous middle class houses were flattened. People had to leave their nice houses and move into little one to two bed room apartments.
While new blocks were built the old ones were neglected
It was also the intention to demolish 30 churches which were in the way. However, the engineer Eugeniu Iordachescu had an idea. He invented a method to lift the churches, cast a concrete foundation and slowly moved them to another place. That way 12 historic churches were saved. Ceaușescu had agreed because he could show that Romania had invented an unique method to save historic buildings. An example is the Michael the Voivode church built in 1591. Iordachescu also moved entire apartments blocks. The people could stay inside.
Michael the Voivode church was moved to the present spot
Another natural disaster which regularly happened in Bucuresti was flooding. Under Ceaușescu the lake Dacul Morii and Dâmbovița river project was started. It involved also the flooding of a cemetery. The people got notice of a couple of days to come and relocate the remains of their family. It is vividly described in Florescu’s book.
But Ceaușescu’s biggest project was the building of what was first called but never was the home of the people and now is the Palace of Parliament.
The palace of Parliament now
When Anca Petrescu became chief architect of the gigantic building project she was 28 years old. She led a team of 700 architects. The construction took 13 years from 1984-1997. It is one of the world’s biggest buildings. 20.000-100.000 people, “volunteers” and soldiers, worked on the project. It is said that 33 people were killed during construction, but many more were put in prison camps because they did not work hard enough and died, or others died at home from exhaustion.
Hallway in the palace of parliament
All materials used for the building and the decoration were from Romania. A mountain of 1 million cubic meters of marble had to be mined. Trees fro 9000000 cubic meters of wood had to be cut. 480 chandeliers had to be produced.
However, Ceaușescu increasingly ran out of money. He still had not paid back the loans he had received after 1968 and the interest rates were rising. Everything the country produced was put in export. The population lived on food rationing.
The guide shows photos of empty shops and overfilled busses. There was only electricity for 2 hours a day and no running water in the apartments.
A lost generation. When you were born in the 1930 you had war, and a dictatorship, and corrupt democracy. Not a time you wanted to live in in Romania
Meanwhile the regime of Ceaușescu became more and more restrictive. All criticism was forbidden. Western radio and music was banned. Protesters first lost their job, than their freedom and finally their lives.
I you had money you could apply to buy one of these Dacia cars. You had to wait for years. But they were a progress to what for example somebody in east Germany got
The population went into survival mode. People started to steel from their job to be able to barter for food and other necessary stuff. Cooking had to be done at night because at daytime there was no electricity.
From this balcony Ceaușescu held his last speech
Since nobody could be trusted, friends met in private. That was the beginning of apartment parties. Marriages before the church were banned. The priest came to apartments in a suit. The windows were blinded and the marriage celebration was held in the apartment.
The concert hall was were many protests were held
Revolution started in December 1989 in Timisoara because secret police wanted to imprison a preacher. When the revolt spread to Budapest, Ceaușescu was on an official visit in Iran. He came back to hold a soothing speech from the balcony of the Party headquarter building. However, for the first time the crowd did not cheer but protested. Ceaușescu was shocked. So far everybody only had supported him out of fear.
They did not repair the bullet holes in the facade
The army moved tanks to Bucuresti. In the beginning police, secret police and army shot at the protesters. The bullet holes can still be seen in some buildings. After the speech the military decided to defect. Ceaușescu fled with a helicopter and was held prisoner in an army camp. After a military tribunal he his wife Elena were found guilty and executed by military on 25.12.1989.
After the end of Communism in 1989 the Palace of the people was about 60% finished. It turned out that it would be cheaper to finish the building than demolish it. But what to do with a building of more than 1100 rooms? In addition there are underground bunkers and parking garages. The upper floors are still not finished, a couple interior wings were never built.
Today it houses the chambers of the Parliament of Romania: the Senate (Senat) and the Chamber of Deputies (Camera Deputaților), along with three museums and an international conference center. The museums in the Palace are the National Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Communist Totalitarianism and the Museum of the Palace. However, 70% of the building remain empty.
It is now the most visited monument in Romania. I just walked up to the ticket office and got a reservation for the next available guided tour about 1.5 h later. There is a cafeteria where you can wait. It is interesting that, in a building of 1100 rooms, they only have space for a makeshift cafeteria.
The waiting hall and entrance for tourists
The tour only takes in about 5 % of the rooms. You can see a big, theater like auditorium, several meeting rooms and entrance halls. Every space is covered in heavy decorations, either marble or wood. However, it looks like the architects took little account of modern necessities like translation booths, cable connections and loudspeakers. Makeshift booths disfigure some of the halls and meeting rooms. Cables run along the walls or across the ground, only poorly hidden under carpets.
The two biggest chandeliers
Also some of the used materials seem to be of minor quality. Bits of marble is chipped off the stairway edges. Outside the rectangular basis of some of the columns has crumbled to dust. The gardens look neglected. The windows need cleaning. The building gives the impression that it is far too big to be usefully exploited and maintained.
Meeting room and one of the ground floor lobbies
However, I am not sure whether the Romanians draw the same conclusions. Maybe there is a national inclination to Megalomania. Since 2010, behind the Palace of Parliament they are busy building an enormous concrete orthodox church, the Catedrala Mantuirii Neamului. The church with its golden dome and towers is finished and consecrated. However, they are still busy building a vast courtyard surrounded by a columned arcade. It gives the impression as if they want to create an orthodox copy of St. Peter in Rome. The orthodox church does not have a pope, but a Patriarch for each country. This church is the seat of the Romanian Patriarch. With 135 m it will be the tallest and biggest orthodox church in the world. Next to it, believers flock to a tiny chapel to pray.
After 1990 corrupt politicians and businessmen took over the country. Factories and businesses closed down. There was no work. Many Romanians left. At the moment, up to 12 million live abroad and 19 million in the country.
Work in progress
I meet Daniel. He has worked 3 month in Austria and speaks some German. There he got 10€ per hour for work in the forest. He talks about the Romanian Maffia who brings people abroad but does not pay them reasonably. So he went back home.
The big Romanian diaspora started to send home money. Corruption and mismanagement improved when the country started to reform the legal system and became member of the NATO in 2004 and the EU in 2007. Today the economic development in Bucuresti is better than in neighboring Budapest in Hungary.
Maybe one of the signs of the economic revival of Romania or in particular Bucuresti might be the enormous traffic. Streets are either permanently choked or drivers pass through in reckless speed. Gabriella seems to be really concerned that somebody gets seriously injured during her tour. Even quiet neighborhoods are strangled in traffic. Cars park everywhere, in particular on the pedestrian sidewalks. The air is horrible, as is the noise.
Houses in the Armenian quarter
On the second guided tour with Gabriella I meet Wally and Walter. It turns out, they are on their way to ...… Anatolia. By train they want to go to Kars and then cross the Border into Georgia. However, unlike me they have booked most of the trains and the hotel rooms. They warn me about religious holidays in Turkey between 16.-16.6. After 12.6. most of the trains are fully booked. It looks like my chances to go to Kars are not very high.
Bucuresti has a Jewish and an Armenian neighborhood. They display the same jumble of architectural styles as the other former middle class neighborhoods which are left over after the fires, earthquakes and radical measures of Ceaușescu. There are some beautiful house of art-deco and ecclectic style. The Armenian church is covered in nets for reconstruction. However, there is a photo exhibition at the fence. It reminds what happened in the 1890’ies, 1909 and in particular 1915-1916. The pictures are shocking. It started in Istanbul and culminated in eastern Anatolia.
The Armenian cultural club
Another 2070 km to Kars.
Sources:
Der Feuerturm - Catalin Dorian Florescu
Link to previous post:
Statue representing famous stage characters of the Romanian author Ion Luca Caragiale consists of an ensemble of 16 sculptures made by the artist Ioan Bolborea. For me it is representing the "Narrenschiff", ship of fools as politicians create the world around us (Căruța cu paiațe")
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