The Romania circuit - The first afternoon (the 20th of May 2012) - Bucharest

We flew in from Lyon having reached Bucharest by early afternoon, which allowed us a few hours to stroll around the hotel neighbouring area before meeting the group and the guide who would be travelling with us through Romania in the seven days circuit.

Having left the luggage at the hotel we walked along the Calea Victoriei to come across the early seventeenth century Cretulesco church, said to have been built in the style created by well known Constantin Brâncoveanu. It was closed but we still managed to photograph the frescoes of the porch, which having been atributed to Tattarescu depict scenes of the Apocalypse.

Across the street the Square of the Revolution, created in the 1930s to presumably ensure a protective field  around the Royal Palace in the event of a revolution. The outstanding equestrian statue of Carol I does catch one's attention.



















The statue of  the liberal leader Corneliu Copusu,  for whose death in 1996 tears were shed all over the country can be seen, as well as two memorials  dedicated to those who died in the revolution of 1989 - a marble one with the inscription "Glory to our martyrs" and a controversial one because of its ugliness (referred to locally as the olive on a stick) surrounded by a semi-circular wall on which the names of those who perished during it have been inscribed.

We decided to walk into the former Royal Palace, which houses the National Art Museum holding various collections, some of which outstanding European pieces of Art, but it was closed, with the exception of a temporary Romanian exhibition to be seen in two rooms, due to the fact that because of the International day of the Museums it had been open all night through. It was worth it though.

After having walked out of the Muesum we kept ong walking till we reached a magnificent Neoclassical building - the rather impressive Romanian Atheneum said to have been built in 1888 with funds generated by Bucharest's citizens, once the original patrons ran out of money.

A little bit farther on stands the 1827 Saint Nicolas - white church, and a few other churches, all of which along the same side.

A sculpture without any reference called my attention because of the expressions on the young men's faces ... I wondered what it meant and who actually made it  ...

We then came across the Cantacuzino Palace fronted by a superb early twentieth-century clamshell-shaped porte-cocher. It was at one time the residence of the well known Romanian composer George Enescu and it now houses his Museum.

(To be continued)