Bucharest: history and heritage

About Bucharest: history and heritage

By the ULTIMATE Bucharest Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Bucharest is a Latin city in a Slavic sea. Its language descends from the Latin of Roman Dacia; its churches follow Byzantine models; its boulevards and palaces were built by architects trained in Paris. The Old Princely Court, the inns of the Old Town, the Athenaeum and the vast Palace of the Parliament together tell five centuries of a capital that has never stopped changing.

At a glance

Names through history: București, first recorded in 1459.

Peoples: Romanians, a Latin people descended from Roman Dacia, with Greek, Armenian, Jewish, Roma and Hungarian communities.

A Latin city in a Slavic sea, dressed by architects who had trained in Paris.

Shaped by: the Wallachian princes, Ottoman suzerainty and the Phanariot century, the united Romanian state (capital since 1862), and Paris as its architectural model.

Geography: the plain of the Dâmbovița, between the Carpathians and the Danube.

Bucharest today

Bucharest counted 1,716,961 people in the 2021 census, according to Romania’s National Institute of Statistics: the largest city in the country by far. Most are Romanians, with Roma, Hungarian and other communities, and the city has long had Greek, Armenian and Jewish quarters that still show in its churches and synagogues.

A Latin people

The Romanians descend from the peoples of Roman Dacia, conquered by Trajan in 106 AD, and their language is the easternmost of the Romance languages, a close cousin of Italian. Trajan’s Column in Rome shows the campaigns, and a full-size cast of it can be seen in the National History Museum on Calea Victoriei.

The princely court

Bucharest is first named in a charter of 20 September 1459, issued by Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, the ruler remembered as Vlad the Impaler. The Old Princely Court, whose ruins and church stand in the Old Town, grew into the seat of the Wallachian princes, and from 1659 Bucharest was the permanent capital of Wallachia.

Inns and churches

In the eighteenth century Wallachia was governed by Greek Phanariot princes appointed from Constantinople, and Bucharest became a city of merchants’ inns and small, richly carved churches in the Brâncovenesc style. Stavropoleos Monastery (1724), with its stone arcades and Byzantine chant, and Hanul lui Manuc (1808), an inn built around a wooden-galleried courtyard, survive from those years.

Capital of Romania

In 1859 Wallachia and Moldavia were united, and in 1862 Bucharest became the capital of Romania. Independence was recognised in 1878, and the kingdom was proclaimed in 1881. The Coral Temple (1866) served the city’s large Jewish community, and the Armenian Church and the Greek churches still mark their old quarters.

Little Paris

Around 1900 Bucharest earned its nickname, Little Paris. Architects trained at the École des Beaux-Arts built the Romanian Athenaeum (1888), designed by Albert Galleron, the CEC Palace (1900) and the grand houses along Calea Victoriei; a triumphal arch stands on the Kiseleff road. The composer George Enescu gave the city its greatest musical name, and the George Enescu Festival, held since 1958, fills the Athenaeum and the Palace Hall every other September.

The twentieth century

The earthquake of 4 March 1977 damaged much of the city. In the 1980s a large part of the historic centre was demolished to build the Palace of the Parliament, one of the largest administrative buildings in the world. The revolution of December 1989 began a new chapter, and today the Old Town, the restored villas of the north and the cafés of Calea Victoriei show a capital proud of all its layers.

Our advice: walk Calea Victoriei from the Old Town to the Athenaeum, stopping at Stavropoleos and the Kretzulescu Church, and book a concert at the Athenaeum if you can. Tour the Palace of the Parliament on another day: book ahead and bring your passport.

Sources

Population: National Institute of Statistics (INS), Romania, 2021 Population and Housing Census. History: National Museum of Romanian History; Bucharest Municipality Museum; Romanian Athenaeum; George Enescu Festival; Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Bucharest”.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Bucharest: history and heritage before you go.