BUCHAREST CITY

Bucharest(Bucuresti in Romanian),the capital of Romania lies between the Danube river and the south part of the Carpati Mountains.It is an economical and cultural center and also the city most populated(2,298,000-1996). Archaeological diggings have found traces of preistorical takeovers, some of more than 150.000 years ago. The word Bucharest appears, for the first time, in 1459 when it is found in a document of Vlad III,called "The Imperator" The ruler of the Valahia, Vlad the IIIrd made the construction of the fortress of Bucharest, before a long series of fortifications, in order to defend Valahia from the attacks of the Turks. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, Bucharest was the largest Christian city of the South-east of Europe.

In the 1640 a traveller wrote down in his log that the population of Bucharest counted more than 100,000 inhabitants. During the domination of the Ottomans Bucharest development has enormously grown up,the city becoming the most important economic center of Valahia. In the 1659 came the election in the capital of Valahia. In the eighteenth century on the throne of Valahia (like in that one of Moldova) noble Ottomans of Greek culture alternate themselves.They were called Fanariots (from the name of the quarter of Costantinopol inhabited by the Greek aristocracy).

In the 1821 the peasants' revolt (first manifestation in Valahia of the Balkan motions) leaded by Tudor Vladimirescu ended the government of the Fanariots. In January 1859, on the suggestion of Napoleon the IIIrd,Alexandru Ioan Cuza (already prince of Moldova) was elected monarch of Valahia and like that he begins the unification of the new state, Romania, with Bucharest the capital (1861). At the beginning of the 20th century the city was illuminated by electrical bulbs and oil lamps.

In the 1904 in the public transits is introduced for the first time the electric machines. The number of the inhabitants of Bucharest was of 382.853 in 1918, in order to grow until 870.000 in 1939. The 30's have seen an important increase of the city in the economical field also in the cultural one,so the city deserved the name of "The little Paris". Imediattely after the World War Second, Bucharest grew also from the architectonical point of view : a big plan gave to the city a uniform architecture, today also distinguibile (in spite of the degradation).

The new Bucharest is characterized by numerous public squares from which irradiate roads and boulevards. The two main roads,parallel to the center of the city,are Bulevardul Balcescu and Bulevardul Unirii (called, during the communist period "Victoria's Boulevard of the Socialism ") have been wide increased in the 80's under the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. During the years of the dictatorship of Ceausescu there have been razed to the ground approximately 10.000 hectares of old houses and old churches giving space to wide boulevards and to the largest palace in the world (after the Pentagon)-Palatul Poporului. One of the most beautiful public squares in Bucharest is the public square of the Republic(Piata Republicii)-with the Cretulescu church in 1722. The city is embellished with numerous churches, unusually small and of bizantine style. The remarkable churches are: Curtea Veche, the monastery Antim (1715), Stavropoleos (1724) and Spiridon (1747).

THE COMMUNIST REGIME

Born in 1918 as a son of a peasant, early became active in the Romanian Communist movement and was arrested as a revolutionary; he spent the late 1930s and early 40s in prison, where he became acquainted with the future first secretary of the Romanian Communist party, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. Escaping in 1944, Ceausescu held a variety of posts within Communist party and government ranks after the Communist takeover in 1948. He soon became a member of the party's central committee and then, in 1955, a member of the politburo.

Upon Gheorghiu-Dej's death in March, 1965, he was chosen first secretary of the central committee of the Communist party and in December, 1967 he assumed the office of president of the state council, or head of state. As supreme leader, he continued his mentor's policy of nationalism and independence from the USSR within the context of Marxism-Leninism. He promoted closer relations with the People's Republic of China and with the West, as well as industrial and agricultural development. His domestic rule, however, was marked by frequently disastrous economic schemes and became increasingly repressive and corrupt.

THE REVOLUTION DECEMBER 1989

December 14-15

In Timisoara protests against the forced relocation of a Hungarian Reform pastor,Laszlo Tokes become political and are violently surpressed.Yugoslav TV reports to the world that several thousand protesters have been killed by "Securitate" troops.

December 21

Ceausescu orders 100.000 workers to be bussed into the capital to display support for his regime.He is,however,forced to interrupt his address from the Central Committee building as the crowd grows restless.The whole thing is shown live on TV and protest begin in other parts of the country.

December 22

Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu flee Bucharest by helicopter but are captured and arrested in Targoviste.

December 25

On Christmas Day the couple are summarily tried and executed by a military tribunal.

December 26

The National Salvation Front(NSF) headed by Ion Iliescu appoints Petre Roman as prime minister.Most former communists retain their posts. The official death toll is put at 689.

DRACULA BETWEEN MYTH AND REALITY

Of the myths and half remembered truths emanating from Romania,that of Count Dracula just won't go away.The story goes..Vlad Tepes' father was Vlad Dracu ,the ruler of Wallachia who had once been awarded the Order of the Dragon(dracul).The career of Vlad Tepes(1430-1476) was spent campaigning the power in Wallachia and fighting against the Turks.

He earned his nickname Tepes(the impaler) by skewering thousands of his enemies on poles.When the Anglo-Irish civil servant Bram Stoker (who never actually visited Romania) wrote Dracula in 1897 he decided to base his blood-sucking hero on the Romanian prince.Bucharest only flourished when Vlad Tepes fortified it and built his citadel here in 1459.According to generally accepted legend ,his tomb is to be found just north of the city of Snagov.