Tour in Piata Victoriei area

Tour in Piata Victoriei area

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 10.30 and 12.30 on Sunday, 10 May 2026.

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 local built landscape has been largely determined by the architecture embellishing two important boulevards that cross the area: Calea Victoriei, the oldest thoroughfare of Romania’s capital, and Lascăr Catargiu, an artery opened in

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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, 9 May 2026, between 11.30 and 13.30. 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

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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, 3 May 2026, between 10.30 and 12.30. 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

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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 2 May, for two hours, between 11.30 and 13.30.

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

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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 Monday, 13 April 2026, between 14:00 and 16:00, 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

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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, 11 April 2026, between 11:30 and 13:30.

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

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Tour: Bucharest as the Little Paris of the Balkans

Tour: Bucharest as the Little Paris of the Balkans

Valentin Mandache

Dear readers,

I would like to invite you to a thematic walking tour, to take place on Sunday 5 April between the hours of 11.30–13.30, on the subject of the late 19th- to early 20th-century French- and Western historicist-inspired architecture of Bucharest, which made the city known to the rest of the world as the “Little Paris of the Balkans”, a phenomenon that has imprinted the personality of Romania’s capital ever since. The tour may be of interest to any of you visiting the city as a tourist or on business, and looking to find out more about its fascinating historic architecture and character.

The first building boom of modern-era Bucharest occurred during the period aptly named La Belle Époque, which corresponds to the late Victorian and early Edwardian epochs in the English-speaking world (or the Gilded Age in the US). It was characterised by a charming architecture inspired especially by the flamboyant Neo-Baroque, Neo-Rococo and also Neo-Gothic forms fashionable in France, a country seen by the Romanians of that time as a beacon of culture worthy of emulation, as well as by other Western European states held Read more →

Tour in west Cotroceni

Tour in west Cotroceni

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 Sunday 29 March 2026, between 11.00h – 13.00h. 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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Tour in Berthelot – Cazzavillan area

Tour in Berthelot – Cazzavillan area

Valentin Mandache
Historic Houses of Romania tour in Berthelot area

Dear readers,

I would like to invite you to a Historic Houses of Romania walking tour, in the area centered on Mathias Berthelot Street, just north of Cismigiu Park, which is a repository of some of the most representative period architecture imprinting the personality of Romania’s capital, akin to an open air museum of its built heritage.

The tour is scheduled to take place this Sunday 15 March 2026, between the hours 11.30h – 13.30h. 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.

Mathias Berthelot, whose name is given to the main street in the area, was a French general of the Great War era, who in 1916 became the commander of the Allied mission tasked with reorganising and equipping Romania’s Royal Army, thus enabling it to effectively oppose the Central Powers and hinder their plans to occupy the country. For his achievements he was made a honorary citizen of Romania and is considered a hero of both countries. The French influence is also prevalent in the architecture of Berthelot urban space, seen in an array containing quaint Little Paris style residences, displaying Art Nouveau decorations besides, palazzos, and the best of them all, the French Renaissance inspired Kretzulescu Palace, one of the town’s iconic buildings, erected in the early 1900, designed by arch. Petre Antonescu. The Radio Broadcasting House is another important edifice, built at the height of the Stalinist era, but designed during the previous, fascist, dictatorship, in Mussolinian style, by arch. Tiberiu Ricci. A local

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Tour: The Neo-Romanian style at its peak

Tour: The Neo-Romanian style at its peak

Valentin Mandache

Dear readers,

I will organise an architectural tour this Sunday 8 March 2026, between the hours 11.30h – 13.30h, on the subject of the mature phase of the Neo-Romanian architectural style, when it reached a peak in terms of expression and development. That represents an extraordinary creative period, unfurled throughout the first three decades of the c20th, which produced the most iconic and accomplished edifices in this manner of architectural design specific to Romania and neighbouring regions where the country had influence. The Neo-Romanian style had thus became the most visible identity marker of this nation and is now considered its chief contribution to the world’s built heritage. Bucharest is the best endowed place with edifices in that architecture, with a great selection of buildings from the period when the Neo-Romanian reach its magnificence. The tour may be of interest to any of you working as expatriates here or visiting the town, looking to find out more about its fascinating historic architecture and identity.

The mature phase of the Neo-Romanian style was initiated with the Great Royal Jubilee Exhibition of 1906 in Bucharest, when the pavilions of that venue were designed according to rigorous tenets, and the style was thus first properly and eloquently presented to the wider public of

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