Sights · 30 of the best in Bucharest
Interwar Bucharest: the modernist city
The back story
About Interwar Bucharest: the modernist city
Between the two world wars, Bucharest grew fast, and a generation of Romanian architects built a modern city alongside the Belle Époque one: apartment blocks with rounded corners and long balconies, cinemas, the Palace of the Telephones and the villas of the northern districts.
A new city
In the 1920s and 1930s, Bucharest was the capital of an enlarged Romania, and new money, new ideas and new building techniques produced a wave of modernist architecture.
The Magheru boulevard
The great north–south axis of Magheru and Bălcescu boulevards was lined with modern blocks of flats, offices and cinemas, including the ARO building by Horia Creangă, one of the leading architects of the time. The Palace of the Telephones on Calea Victoriei, completed in 1933, was for decades the tallest building in the city.
Look up on Magheru Boulevard: the 1930s are still there above the shop fronts.
Marcel Iancu and the villas
Marcel Iancu, a co-founder of the Dada movement, returned to Bucharest and designed some of its first modernist villas in the late 1920s and 1930s. The leafy streets of Dorobanți, Primăverii and Floreasca are full of houses from this period.
Where to look
Walk Magheru Boulevard from Piața Romană to University Square, then Calea Victoriei past the Palace of the Telephones, and explore the side streets of Dorobanți.
Our advice: take the walk on a weekend morning, when traffic is lighter, and look above the shop fronts; many buildings are being restored, while others still wait.
Why it's on our list
- A new city
- The Magheru boulevard
- Marcel Iancu and the villas
- Where to look
Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Interwar Bucharest: the modernist city before you go.