The Palast Square in Bucarest

    On another page I have shown images of the former King's Palace, today the National Museum of Art of Bucharest, and a part of the square. On the opposite side of the square there are two very important buildings. One of them is the Romanian Athenaeum, finished in 1988 and built thanks to a private initiative. The Romanian Athenaeum is the center of the Romanian Philharmonic Orchestra and the location where the most important musical events take place. The building (see below, also on both stamps) was restaurated during the last years, the works being not finished yet. In the front of the building there is a small nice garden, having in the middle the statue of the national poet Mihai Eminescu. The statue was recently placed there about 15 years ago, that's why it isn't present on the stamp issued in 1959.

    Below I show one of the most important buildings in the history of contemporary Romania. This building was for 40 years the headquarter of the Romanian communist party. From the balcony of this building the former president Nicolae Ceausescu has pronounced his last speech, shown by all free TV channels of the world. The speech was suddenly interrupted by the crowd, brought by the dictator himself into the square. The small pyramid on the image on the right is a homage to the people who were killed (by till today unknown "terrorists") during the uprising that followed the historical speech mentioned above.

    Please take a short look at the below building. I took the snapshot of it 12 years after the uprising, but one can still see the impact of numerous bullets. The building is located very closely to that of the Palace. 

     Above, on the right, two stamps celebrate the victory against the dictator Ceausescu and against the communist regime, that reigned during 45 years. The first stamp was issued on Jan 8, 1990, only 17 days after the uprising. The second was issued on Dec. 22, 1991, exactly one year after the beginning of the uprising in Bucharest (the revolt started already earlier in Timisoara). On the overprint one can read: Un an de la victoria revolutiei (one year after the victory of the revolution). The stamp was also overcharged (4 Lei from 2 Lei), thus marking also the beginning of the currency inflation.

    All snapshots on this page were taken in May 2001 by site's author. Please point toward the images with the mouse index for more information.