We cleared out the attic and dusted off a few old books at the weekend, including an absolute gem: a tourist guide to the capital written by Dan Berindei and Sebastian Bonifaciu, published in Romanian in 1979.
Thankfully lacking the usual homage to Romania’s president at the time which blight so many works of the era, it does however include a chapter on ‘Locuri legate de istoria miscarii revolutionare si democratice a partidului comunist roman‘. Nevertheless, in our humble opinion, its depth and detail make it better than any other guide to the capital currently available in Romanian.
Best of all, the guide included a pull-out map of the city centre, which shows how Bucharest looked before the bulldozers took over. There can’t be too many such maps still around.
Though the scan we made is a poor one (blame our crap scanner), you can clearly see how much the city was reshaped, especially of course the area west of Piata Unirii. The stadium marked as 92 is the old Stadionul Republicii, of which a small part of terracing still incredibly remains. Casa Poporului stands on the site of Strada Uranus, Strada Cazarmii and Calea 13 Septembrie:
Map of Bucharest, 1979. Click on the map for the full-size version.
For the most astonishing results, compare the 1979 map with how the area looks today:
Bucharest 2009, taken from salutbucuresti.ro
Eight cafes and 19 restaurants are listed (no reviews though) as well as 10 bufete expres. There are 44 cinemas and 23 theatres. As for nightlife, all you get are three bars: the Athenee Palace, the Inter Continental and the Melody.
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Parmalat Reply:
July 14th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Only the Smecheri would go to those bars
Bijnitari, Camatari, Smenari and other Smecheri would go especially to Melody
Those were some times!
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Honestly I’d like to know more myself about the social scene in those days.
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Very interesting. What does it have to say about the social scene in those days? Bars? Restaurants?
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