Urban image and national representation: Bucharest in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century
The model for these interventions was the one of the “civilised Europe”. The
national identity which was being shaped was aiming at being associated
with the European one, legitimized by the Latin roots of the Romanians. This
transition from the Oriental tradition to the Occidental one happened gradually,
through a period which was rather based on experiment and imitation of the
French model which can be seen in architecture and urbanism, but also in all
the aspects of everyday life. During this period of transition the contrasts were
a major characteristic of the city, underlined by most travelers that visited the
city in the 19th century. In this process of modernization, the Oriental heritage
was denied and rejected and, even more, it was said that “in our capital
everything has to be created from scratch”^8.