Planning Capital Cities

Urban image and national representation: Bucharest in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century

Fig. 3
The Mihai Viteazul Monument
in the University Square.
(The Romanian Academy Library)

French architects who worked in the principalities or by Romanian architects

who had studied in France.^12 Due to this fact, in the second half of the 19th

century, Bucharest started to be called “The Little Paris”.

This influence was dominant until 1906, when the Romanian General

Exhibition (Expoziția Generală Română) took place, which marked the official

acknowledgement of the Romanian national style in architecture. The style

was meant to be a symbol of the Romanian identity, using elements from the

traditional architecture. From this moment on, due to its ideological content,

which was inextricably connected to defining the national discourse, this style

was preferred for the construction of the official institutions and of private

buildings^13 as well.

The monumentality of both buildings and urban spaces was desired, regardless

of the adopted methods and styles. The intention of constructing monumental

institutional buildings was present even before, but it was made possible at

the end of the 19th century, when the required financial and technological

resources became available. This intention was also enhanced by the political

will of the new state.

The monuments to the great men

As shown above, the built environment was a way of expressing the national

ideals. In the newly formed public spaces, monuments were erected, out of the

preoccupation for the urban aesthetic and as the expression of the national

identity.