Tour in Piata Victoriei

Tour in Piata Victoriei

Valentin Mandache

Dear Readers,

This is an invitation to an architectural history tour in the Piața Victoriei area of Bucharest, open to all of you who would like to accompany me, the author of this blog, for two hours between 11.00 and 13.00 on….

I will be your guide through a remarkably rich and architecturally varied area of central Bucharest, where famous public buildings often stand side by side with quaint Little Paris, Neo-Romanian, Art Deco and Modernist style private houses. The character of the

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Tour: the early Neo-Romanian style

Tour: the early Neo-Romanian style

Valentin Mandache
scf-003The early Neoromanian architecture as seen in Gradina Icoanei area of Bucharest.

Dear readers,

I would like to invite you to a walking architectural tour on Sunday 13 September 2026, between the hours 11.00 – 13.00, in Gradina Icoanei area, on the theme of the exceedingly important for this country’s heritage Neo-Romanian architectural style, in its early phase, how this design peculiar to Romania has been initiated and defined, a period of cultural upheavals and economic prosperity from the 1880s until the mid 1900s. This cultural excursion may be of interest to any of you visiting the town as a tourist or on business looking to find out more about its fascinating historic architecture and identity.

The Neoromanian architectural style is the most visible and amplest body of heritage that this country has bestowed on the world’s culture. Gradina Icoanei area of Bucharest has the highest concentration of buildings featuring this architectural design in its inaugural stages, what I term as the early phase of Romania’s national architecture. The style was initiated by the architect Ion Mincu in 1886 with the Lahovary House, an edifice viewed at this tour, continued with a series of iconic edifices, such as the Central School for Girls, another objective of the tour, or the Causeway Buffet. The then new national architecture quickly gained popularity and featured in the works of other known architects of that period, such as Giulio Magni, who designed Elie Radu house, viewed at this tour,  Read more →

Tour: Plantelor area

Tour: Plantelor area

Valentin Mandache

Dear readers,

I would like to invite you to an architectural walk in the picturesque Plantelor Street area, located just east of Mantuleasa. It has an alluring residential character, with well-presented historic buildings of architectural value, many surrounded by efflorescent gardens. The Plantelor area is a sample of how pleasant and stimulating for artistic creativity this town has been in the La Belle Époque and the interwar periods.

The tour is scheduled to take place this Saturday, 12 September 2026, between 11.00 and 13.00. This cultural excursion could be of interest to any of you visiting Romania’s capital as a tourist or on business, looking to understand the character of this metropolis through discovering its peculiar and fascinating old architecture.

The name “Plantelor” (English for “Plants”), given to this iconic street, is an echo of the La Belle Époque times, when Bucharest’s houses of its famous Little Paris and Art Nouveau architecture, were provided with gardens and orchards, and the windows sported jardinières full of multicoloured flowers. The local environment was considered healthier than the rest of the town, which made possible even the establishment of a sanatorium where the national poet of Romania, Mihai Eminescu, spent his last days in the

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Tour in Batistei area

Tour in Batistei area

Valentin Mandache
Walking tour in Batistei area of Bucharest

Batistei area – a fragment of the old Little Paris

Dear readers,

I would like to invite you to an architectural tour focused on the Batiștei area, one of the most charming old corners of central Bucharest. Many of its buildings date from the Belle Époque period and feature wonderful Little Paris architecture, which still imprints its identity on this city. It is also a place where one can admire other brilliant designs such as Neo-Romanian, Art Deco and inter-war Modernism. The walk is scheduled to take place this Sunday, 6 September 2026, between 11.00 and 13.00. This cultural excursion could be of interest to any of you visiting Romania’s capital as a tourist or on business, and who would like to understand the character of this metropolis through discovering its peculiar and fascinating old architecture.

The Batiștei area stretches east from the National Theatre neighbourhood to the confines of Moșilor, constituting an important part of historic Bucharest. Its name comes from that of the church around which the parish crystallised in medieval times. The name itself, in old Romanian, means “swampy lake”, a testimony to the former local natural environment that has long since been overtaken by the city’s inexorable development. The church is also one of the very few survivors of the original Wallachian-style architecture that once embellished Bucharest during the period of Ottoman rule. This was later

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Tour in Mosilor – Armeneasca area

Tour in Mosilor – Armeneasca area

Valentin Mandache

Dear readers,

This is an invitation to an architectural walking tour in the Moșilor area of Bucharest, open to all of you who would like to accompany me, the author of the Historic Houses of Romania blog, on Saturday 5 September, for two hours, between 10.30 and 12.30.

I will be your guide through one of the most picturesque areas of historic Bucharest, which has experienced a spectacular development after the unification of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia in the aftermath of the Crimean War. It is located on the road leading from the old city towards Moldavia, known in olden times as “The Highway” (“Drumul Mare”). Its name comes from that of the famous Moșilor fair, held outside Bucharest’s walls, where traders and peasants from Moldavia and north-eastern Wallachia came with their goods and products. Among the most active and

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Tour: Art Nouveau Bucharest

Tour: Art Nouveau Bucharest

Valentin Mandache

Dear readers,

I would like to invite you to a thematic architectural tour this Sunday, 30 August 2026, between 11:00 and 13:00, on the subject of the exceedingly interesting, yet somehow elusive, Art Nouveau architecture of Bucharest. This proposed cultural excursion may be of interest to those of you visiting the city as tourists or on business, and who are looking to discover more about its fascinating historic architecture and identity.

The innovative and flamboyant Art Nouveau current that emerged at the end of the 19th century, as a reaction to the rigidity of the historicist styles, also had an important impact in fin-de-siècle Romania. One of its notable influences was the articulation, within its coordinates, of the local national style

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Tour in central Cotroceni

Tour in central Cotroceni

Valentin Mandache

Walking tour in Cotroceni - central part

Dear readers,

I would like to propose to you a walking architectural tour in the Cotroceni quarter, in its central part, encompassing the area between St Elefterie Street and Dr Lister Street. The tour is scheduled to take place this Saturday, 29 August 2026, between 11:00 and 13:00.

This cultural excursion may be of interest to those of you visiting Romania’s capital as tourists or on business, and who are looking to understand the character of this metropolis through discovering its peculiar and fascinating historic architecture.

The focal points of the central part of Cotroceni are its two parish churches: the Old St Elefterie, an edifice containing vestiges of 18th-century Wallachian architecture, now serving the hearing-impaired community of Bucharest. It stands on what was formerly an island in the marshes of the Dâmbovița River, before the quarter began to be developed in the second half of the 19th century, thus also

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Tour: the architecture of the Athenaeum area – Sunday 14 August

Tour: the architecture of the Athenaeum area – Sunday 14 August

Valentin Mandache
Historic Houses of Romania tour in central Bucharest

Dear readers,

I would like to invite you to an architectural history tour taking place in central Bucharest, in the area around the former Royal Palace, which encompasses the Romanian Athenaeum, the symbol of the city, and many other landmark buildings that define its character. The tour is scheduled for Saturday, 27 June 2026, and will last two hours, from 11.00 to 13.00. This cultural excursion may be of interest to those of you visiting the city, whether as tourists or on business, and wishing to discover more about its fascinating historic architecture and identity.

Bucharest has had a number of centres as it evolved from a medieval market town in what is now the Lipscani quarter, within a bend of the Dâmbovița River, periodically shifting its location in accordance with the directions of its overlord powers: to the south and east during the centuries of Ottoman domination, and later to the north, once the Europeanisation gained the upper hand in the region.

What we regard today as the centre of Romania’s capital, the subject of our tour, emerged less than a century and a half ago at the dawn of the national era. It encompasses some of the city’s most iconic historic architecture, from the Romanian Athenaeum, a magnificent Beaux-Arts concert hall, built in its first phase in 1888 to the designs of the French architect Albert Galleron, to the neoclassical outlines of the former Royal Palace (architect N. Nenciulescu, 1937), which today houses the National Museum of Art, or the futuristic glass structure crowning the neo-Renaissance building of the former Embassy of the Habsburg Empire, gutted by fire during the anti-communist Revolution of 1989.

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Tour in Cismigiu area

Tour in Cismigiu area

Valentin Mandache

Dear Readers,

I would like to invite you, in my capacity as the author of the author of this blog, to an architectural history tour of the Cişmigiu area of Bucharest. This cultural excursion, open to all those interested in the history and identity of Romania’s capital, is scheduled to take place on Sunday, 16 August 2026, and will last for two and a half hours, from 11.00 to 13.00.

I will be your guide throughout this beautiful area of Bucharest, which borders and includes the Cişmigiu Gardens, the “Central Park” of the city and its oldest surviving landscaped garden. The quarter boasts a balanced mix of architectural styles, ranging from

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Tour in west Cotroceni – Saturday

Tour in west Cotroceni – Saturday

Valentin Mandache
Cotroceni west-004
Medical Sciences University, west Cotroceni

Dear readers,

I would like to propose you an architectural history tour, in the western part of the picturesque Cotroceni quarter, which contains the grandiose edifices of the Medical Sciences University and the Palace of the President of Romania. The tour completes my series of distinct walks (east, central and west) covering this architecturally valuable area of Bucharest.

The event is scheduled to take place this Saturday 8 August 2026, between 10 – 12. This cultural excursion could be of interest to any of you visiting Romania’s capital as a tourist or on business, looking to understand the character of this metropolis through discovering its peculiar and fascinating old architecture.

The most beautiful baroque revival style palace of Bucharest is the Medical Sciences University, the best such school in southeast Europe, designed by the Swiss architect Louis Blanc, and built in 1902, which is at the centre of west Cotroceni. Its aesthetics is

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