A view of the Peasant Museum in downtown Bucharest, November 6, 2009.[Agencies]
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A view of the Peasant Museum in downtown Bucharest, November 6, 2009.[Agencies] |
Pioneered by Ion Mincu, the style adapted historic church architecture to secular buildings, mixing in Oriental and folklore ornaments such as pumpkin flowers.
The museum houses a collection of folk art and a shop with embroidered belts, copper pots and glass paintings.
2 p.m. - Lunch at Casa Doina, a landmark Bucharest restaurant (www.casadoina.ro) designed by Ion Mincu. Try a selection of Romanian eggplant and roasted bell pepper salads.
4 p.m. - Cross a small park toward Bulevardul Aviatorilor and a tangle of leafy streets behind it. Hunt for spectacular modernist and Art Deco villas that earned Bucharest the name of Paris of the East at the turn of the 20th century.
But hurry. Many gems of modernist architecture are disappearing, left to rot by developers who want to construct high-rise apartment blocs on prime real estate.
7 p.m. - Dinner at another reconstructed villa. Serving French fare, Ici et La has a secret. Ask the owner for a selection of his homemade sorbets.
10 p.m. - If you still can, check out the modernist hotels and housing blocs lining Bulevardul Magheru. Modeled after Boulevard Haussmann in Paris, it was a gem of early 20th century urban planning.
SUNDAY
10 a.m. - Get ready for a day's walking with brunch at the Athenee Palace Hilton. Built at the start of the 20th century, the hotel was a notorious meeting spot for spies in the 1930s.
Under communism, rooms were said to be bugged and many staff on the payroll of the pervasive secret service, the Securitate.
12.00 p.m. - Take a taxi to Casa Poporului or Palace of the People, the monstrous building concocted by Ceausescu in the late 1970s. Now housing parliament, it looms over Bucharest.
Don't go by foot, you will need energy to walk through its cavernous halls and seemingly endless corridors. Ceausescu hoped the building, made with thousands of tonnes of crystal, marble and wood, would become Romania's "Acropolis," but it came to symbolize the destructiveness of his social policies.
Construction devoured large chunks of the state budget at a time when food and energy rationing tormented much of the population.
15.00 p.m. - In the back of the building, find the Contemporary Art Museum, with a cafe overlooking the city.
17.00 p.m. - Hop in a taxi again toward the Armenian Church on Bulevardul Carol II. Stroll through a picturesque district of French-style villas, modernist apartment blocs and tiny Neo-Romanian castles complete with vine-covered turrets.
Look for villas designed by Marcel Iancu, one of the founders of the Dada movement, or find a map of his designs on www.e-cart.ro.
If you see someone going into a modernist bloc, make friends quickly. Interiors in some of the stern-looking buildings can look like film sets from 1930s Hollywood.
In the autumn, the smell of burning leaves emanates from the gardens. Behind the area, starts a chaotic expanse of drab apartment blocs, Bucharest's communist legacy.