Bucharest is the capital city of Romania, main political, administrative, economic, financial, banking, educational, scientific and cultural center of the country. With almost 2,2 milion inhabitants, Bucharest is the third capital city in the region, after Athens and Istanbul, and the sixth capital city, in size, of the European Union.

Right now, Bucharest is a true metropolis. Crowded like Paris, agitated like New York, with high prices like London. Still, it’s a city worth seeing, full of history and symbols.

 

The foundation of the city of Bucharest is wrapped in mystery. The legend says that Bucharest would be founded by a shepherd named Bucur, who would have established a village on the banks of Dambovita river.

 

The end of the 19th century is the most flourishing period of Bucharest. During this period were built the elegant buildings in the French or Italian Renaissance style that can still be admired. The arhitectonic elements, but also the French influence from literature and art that was also sensed in the care Bucharest clubs and cafes, transformed the Bucharest of the beginning of the 20th century into the „Little Paris” of the Eastern Europe.

 

Bucharest was the first city in the world illuminated on lamp oil, in 1856, being followed by Viena, where the first lamps were installed only in 1859.