BUCHAREST: SURVIVING ALL THE ADVERSE EVENTS

The Grandma in front of St. Anton Church

After four days on The Orient Express crossing East Bulgaria without any kind of connection, The Grandma has just arrived this afternoon to Bucharest. The weather is cold 1ºC and 89% of humidity. After visiting the most incredible cathedrals, The Grandma prefers to stay inside the train until tomorrow when the weather predictions are better than today. Meanwhile, she's reading some information about the capital of Romania before visiting one of the most beautiful and enigmatic places in Romania: Transylvannia.

Bucharest is the largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than 60 km north of the Danube River and the Bulgarian border.

More information: Bucureşti Administraţia Locală

The Romanian name București has an uncertain origin. Tradition connects the founding of Bucharest with the name of Bucur, who was a prince, an outlaw, a fisherman, a shepherd, or a hunter, according to different legends. In Romanian, the word stem bucurie means joy and it is believed to be of Dacian origin.

First mentioned as the Citadel of București in 1459, it became the residence of the famous Wallachian prince Vlad III the Impaler.

The Grandma inside St. Spyridon Cathedral

Partly destroyed by natural disasters and rebuilt several times during the following 200 years, and hit by Caragea's plague in 1813–14, the city was wrested from Ottoman control and occupied at several intervals by the Habsburg Monarchy (1716, 1737, 1789) and Imperial Russia (three times between 1768 and 1806). It was placed under Russian administration between 1828 and the Crimean War, with an interlude during the Bucharest-centred 1848 Wallachian revolution. Later, an Austrian garrison took possession after the Russian departure, remaining in the city until March 1857. On 23 March 1847, a fire consumed about 2,000 buildings, destroying a third of the city.

In 1862, after Wallachia and Moldavia were united to form the Principality of Romania, Bucharest became the new nation's capital city. In 1881, it became the political centre of the newly proclaimed Kingdom of Romania under King Carol I. During the second half of the 19th century, the city's population increased dramatically, and a new period of urban development began. 

More information: Romania Tourism

Between 6 December 1916 and November 1918, the city was occupied by German forces as a result of the Battle of Bucharest, with the official capital temporarily moved to Iași, in the Moldavia region.

In January 1941, the city was the scene of the Legionnaires' rebellion and Bucharest pogrom. As the capital of an Axis country and a major transit point for Axis troops en route to the Eastern Front, Bucharest suffered heavy damage during World War II due to Allied bombings. On 23 August 1944, Bucharest was the site of the royal coup which brought Romania into the Allied camp. The city suffered a short period of Nazi Luftwaffe bombings, as well as a failed attempt by German troops to regain the city.

More information: World War II in Romania

After the establishment of communism in Romania, the city continued growing. New districts were constructed, most of them dominated by tower blocks. During Nicolae Ceaușescu's leadership (1965–89), much of the historic part of the city was demolished and replaced by Socialist realism style development: the Civic Centre and the Palace of the Parliament, for which an entire historic quarter was razed to make way for Ceaușescu's megalomaniac plans. On 4 March 1977, an earthquake centered in Vrancea, about 135 km away, claimed 1,500 lives and caused further damage to the historic centre.

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 began with massive anti-Ceaușescu protests in Timișoara in December 1989 and continued in Bucharest, leading to the overthrow of the Communist regime.

To see far is one thing, going there is another - Constantin Brancusi.