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Sunday 30 June 2013

Bucharest

The Palace of Parliament, located in Bucharest, was originally a citadel built by Vlad the Impaler to stop the advance of the Ottoman invasion in the 14th century.

Bucharest was designated in 1659 the capital of the princes of Wallachia by Prince Gheorghe Ghica.

The population of Bucharest doubled between 1798 and 1831. The census of 1798 counted just over 30,000 inhabitants, while 33 years later to reach 60,587 people.

The first omnibus horses were opened in Bucharest in 1840, being among the first cities in Europe that had such means of transport.

When Wallachia and Moldavia united on January 24, 1862 to form the Principality of Romania, Bucharest became the new nation's capital city.


Bucharest Telephone Palace (see below) was built between 1929-1934. The architect was inspired by the American skyscrapers and it was the tallest building in Bucharest up till 1970.


As 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.

When a German officer was murdered on January 20, 1941 in Bucharest, it sparked a rebellion and pogrom by the Iron Guard, killing 125 Jews and 30 soldiers.

Calea Victoriei ("Victory Avenue") in 1940

After the Romanian Revolution in 1989 many orphanages were shut down forcing thousands of neglected orphans to live in the sewers of Bucharest. Many of those orphans still live in the sewers today, some have even raised their children there.

Bucharest’s surface transit network, run by Regia Autonoma de Transport Bucuresti, is the fourth-largest in Europe.

Bucharest is twinned with nine cities around the world. They include Atlanta, Beijing, Budapest and Hanover.

The Museum of the Romanian Peasant was declared the European Museum of the Year in 1996.

The Palace of Parliament is a multi-purpose building containing both chambers of the Romanian Parliament. It ranks as the biggest office building in Europe and second-largest in the world, after the U.S. Pentagon.

The Palace of Parliament is so massive that even though it already contains both lower and upper houses of parliament, three museums, and an international conference centre, 70% of the building is still empty. The heating and electrical bill alone amounts to $6 million a year.

The Palace of the Parliament 

At the last census, the number of inhabitants of the city was 1,929,000.

Source Bucharestadvisors.com

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