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Bucharest’s entire Old Town, or
historical center, Centrul istoric, as the
Romanians call it, is a huge construc-
tion site. The period of massive recon-
struction and construction has been
going on for a long time, practically
from “zero year” of the Romanian re-
volution, from the end of 1989, and the
ousting of the dictator Ceauşescu after
42 years of his communist government.
Still, it was precisely under that
ruler that the unfortunate Bucharest
experienced its biggest ‘construction
boom’, when entire historic neighbo-
urhoods were destroyed, including
thousands of old buildings, and even
churches and synagogues, in order
to build a representative socialist
avenue with endless blocks of flats for
the ‘nomenclature’, ending with the
square in front of the neo-classical, or-
nate, marble Palace of the Parliament,
the largest building in Europe.
Today in Bucharest, once known
as the Micul Paris, little Paris, there
are luxurious private palace very
much like mini French châteaux,
and there are still 2,058 buildings
on the list of historical monuments
of culture. Of these, only a third
are under renovation or earmarked
to be restored. In the last three
years more than a hundred million
euros has been invested in the
reconstruction of the city centre.
But Bucharest’s Soho, the
old part of the city known as the
Lipscani district, along the main
street of that pedestrian zone, with
its many pubs, clubs, cafés and
small shops, is still in a rather cha-
otic work in progress state, with a
large number of houses that are
so dilapidated that many of them
have been banned for use.
And then – in the midst of
such dark, half demolished buil-
dings – light! More specifically, the
Carousel of lights, in the form of
the renovated Chrissoveloni pala-
ce, a former bank from the second
half of the 19
th
century and today
a real paradise for bibliophiles, as
the Carturesti Carusel bookshop.
Carusel is one of Europe’s big-
gest, brightest and most beautiful
bookshops, a must-see destination
in a city that still lives with its
bookshops a lot more than most.
This Art Nouveau palace has
always been known as the “Carousel
of lights”, but today, after denationa-
lisation, masterfully restored, it really
looks like a crystal cube of light in
Spoljašnjost
obnovljene palate
Krisoveloni,
nekadašnje banke
iz 19. veka
e
The exterior of
the renovated
Krisoveloni Palace,
which housed a
bank in the 19
th
century
Smeštena na šest nivoa, knjižara na najnižem
spratu nudi i muzička izdanja (dole), a na
najvišem je kafe za predah (sasvim dole)
e
Spread over six floors, the bookshop’s
lowest level also offers music releases
(below), while the top floor has a café for
those seeking respite (bottom of page)