luxury properties for sale Bucharest, Romania

Built by Italian stonemasons following the plans of three architects (George Sterian, H. Rick and Nicolae Ghica-Budești), the casino was erected in 1892-1894, thus being the first casino in Romania. It was quickly followed by casinos in Vatra Dornei (1898), Constanța (1910) and Sinaia (1912), all part of King Carol I's strategy to develop Romanian resorts after the model of more famous ones abroad (Slănic-Moldova was compared at the time to Karlovy Vary and Vichy, its mineral springs being awarded at international exhibitions in Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna). Although it is not an example of pure Art Nouveau, the casino in Slănic-Moldova manages to combine this dynamic and functional style with principles from other currents with surprising results. The decorative stone elements and the door and window frames come from the secular Neo-Romanian, but the towers are of Eastern religious architecture. Other elements are reminiscent of Neo-Renaissance correspondences - for example the symmetry of the composition and the painted decorative panels. The construction is arranged horizontally on UG + GF + 1F following the rules of perfect symmetry - a main building guarded by two towers connected to two other lower-rise buildings with covered corridors that function as terraces; the long row finishes with two pavilions that resume through the round roofs the idea of the main towers. Seen from a distance, the casino resembles a castle perched on a hillside, a slightly romantic, peaceful profile, with a discreet poetry enveloping it at dusk. In autumn, the forest in the distance lends it a bit of its leave’s auburne, winter dresses it all in white. However, from the front, it is obviously a building dedicated to community life - the platform with arched columns and a monumental stone staircase leaves no room for doubt, just as its location with the beautiful central park at the foot does not deny this either. After decades of listening to the sound of dice, spinning roulette and French Les jeux sont faits, rien ne va plus, witnessing the making of fortunes and the dissolution of marriages, the casino became a good citizen in 1948, functioning as a House of Culture, then performance hall, city library, art gallery and other public functions. The cinema functioned in the original hall with 350 seats, which today amazes us with its two colors - the white of the walls decorated with ton sur ton woodwork and the amber of the velvety chairs and curtains. The hall is still a jewel with its shell-based lodges, lacy arches and a chandelier, unfortunately not the original one, mounted on a rich ceiling decorated with a glass skylight captive in metal embroidery. Over time, the building has received two more terraces, a brasserie and a boarding house since 1960, and has undergone renovation and restoration work in the 1980s and 1994s and 1994s. Outside, street lamps guard the building in the typical Art Nouveau language - black wrought iron with gold accents and white glass bulbs like flower buds. Thanks to the spectacular architectural project and restoration works, the casino appears today vibrant, lively, dynamic, bold and not old or lethargic like, unfortunately, many other historical monuments of the time. Today, the casino is looking for its visionary owner who will exploit its tourist potential and give it back that joie de vivre that positioned it at the beginning of the 19th century as a symbol of Slănic-Moldova and beyond. Area attractions: - Nemira ski slope - mountain trails and hikes - Three hundred steps, Uzului Valley, Nemira Mare, etc. - salt mine from Târgu Ocna - Măgura Ocnei monastery - Valea Uzului dam Photo: Tudor Prisecaru

Located on Dinicu Golescu Boulevard, The Villa with Gorgons is one of the few buildings from the beginning of the 20th century that has been preserved on this important artery of Bucharest. The building was built in 1913 and bears the signature of Ion D. Berindey, one of the most famous and prolific Romanian architects of the first three decades of the 20th century. Among the 29 works classified as historical monuments of Ion D. Berindey are the Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino Palace (today the headquarters of the George Enescu National Museum and the Romanian Composers Union), the George G. Assan House (today the House of Scientists), Palace of the Journalists' Union (today the Very Small Theatre). The Villa with Gorgons was built as Colonel Andreescu's private residence as explained by Revista Poporului, a newspaper of the time, which emphasizes how a good architect can with a modest amount easily obtain a completely satisfactory construction from the aesthetic and comfortable point of view. From an aesthetic point of view, the building is tributary to the romantic style and has as a distinctive sign the gorgonles, sculptures that decorate the facade. Gorgons are taken from Greek culture where symbols on doors, walls, windows, floors and shields were intended to protect the ancient Greeks from evil. In terms of use, the villa is truly versatile and can be set up as a home, office space or a bohemian restaurant. Located on a land area of ​​309 square meters, with a footprint of 101 square meters, Vila cu Gorgone is a slim building, with a D+D+1E+M height regime. The spaces are generous and balanced on levels. The ground floor and first floor have three rooms each and spacious entrance halls. The rooms have wide windows and are bright. The same generous space also exists in the mezzanine, and the attic is open space and perfect for a bohemian design. The villa has two access ways: one pedestrian and another for car access. The building is strengthened and the facade is completely restored. Photo: Tudor Prisecaru, Alex Canjea.

The buildings in the Old Center incite, attract, tempt; we stare at the facades trying to take in everything with our eyes and hope that a heavy door opens, a window with the curtain drawn to see, understand, discern the mystery of these merchant houses that make up the Old City. At number 27 is one of these, large and stylish enough to attract attention and give rise to curiosities. Its French-influenced facade features the typical first-floor wide wrought-iron balcony, floor-to-ceiling windows, and false balconies/balustrades on the second floor. The attic has elegant arched protective gables. The ground floor is a commercial space – traces of the bar can still be seen and echoes of recent laughters can be heard. It is a high space, about 92 square meters; an additional level was built on its side. On the upper floors there are rooms and bathrooms - on the 1st floor we find 6 rooms of 8-30 sqm and 5 bathrooms; the 2nd floor has 6 rooms with surfaces between 7 and 32 m plus 5 sanitary groups and passage spaces. The high and functional bridge measures 391 sq m. Each floor has its own individual cadastral number. The basement also adds ample space, the function of which remains to be explored through the lens of current regulations. There is also an inner courtyard. The apartments are accessed through a separate entrance from that of the commercial space. The building requires repair and renovation and can be converted into an apart-hotel, residential units or space for commercial and cultural activities. An old street of the city, Smârdan street appeared in the 17th century, being known a century later as Uliţa Târgului din Năuntru, then in the 19th century as The bridge that goes from the Old Court to the Şerban Vodă Inn, German or German Street It was called Smârdan after the war of independence. Not far from the property, at number 39, was the old Hotel Concordia in whose room 5 Alexandru Ioan's double election was decided on January 23, 1859. In the villa at number 27 we know that in 1927 Anette Horoviceanu was making haute couture creations parisiennes and in 1938 the Gla Company operated Trade ind. and the representative Electrical items, offices, Electro-Technical - Electrotechnical, enterprises; Romanian Technical Warehouse - Technical Offices, Company Flă. Ind. and Rep. Central heating. Sources: https://turistinbucurestiro.blogspot.com/2014/02/strada-smardan.html Photo: Tudor Prisecaru.

Built in 1913 by merchant Ghiţă Popescu, the house on Speranţei street hides between its walls the charm of one of the central and chic streets of the capital. Located between Carol Boulevard and the Italian Street, it appears with this name in the city plans from the end of the nineteenth century. On this street there was the first home of Mihai Eminescu after his arrival in Bucharest in 1877. Ioan Slavici states that it was a spacious room with a wide anteroom in an old eighteenth-century house. From this street, the poet walked down to the editorial office of the conservative newspaper, Timpul, located on Calea Victoriei, writes Alexandru Ofrim in Old Streets of Nowadays Bucharest. And Mihai Eminescu is not the only important figure in the history of this area. The founder of the Romanian neurosurgery school, Dumitru Bagdasar, also lived on Speranţei Street. Unfortunately, the last decades have affected the elegance of the buildings in the area. However, the house of merchant Ghiţă Popescu is the exception. Nationalized after the 1960s, when owned by Dr. Elias Haim, the residence had over time landlords who have cherished it and who invested a lot in its conservation and restoration - a careful work that turned it into an architectural jewel today. The over 400 square meters of the property on Speranţei street, built on SB+GF+F+A, have recently undergone a meticulous renovation process. After a six-month work, under the coordination of the designer Irina Neacsu, the semi-basement has been transformed into what can be considered one of the most beautiful offices in Romania. Numerous pieces of personalized furniture, British accents in an eclectic setting, digitally drawn wallpapers and then printed on paper, the floor heating, are just a few of the elements that give uniqueness and charm to the property. In fact, it is a modern reinterpretation of a building dominated by classic architectural features specific to the beginning of the nineteenth century Bucharest. The modern terrace offers a wide panorama of the Armenian area of the capital, a landscape dominated by inter-war avant-garde, modernist buildings, along the Neo-Romanian and Eclectic style properties. The villa is available for rent as well.

The last few years have brought to our attention areas, names and ancient histories that put in context and humanize the town we live in and the buildings we pass by in a hurry. The House of Guilds is one of those witness-houses, few and often in danger of extinction, which recover the history of the city and its largest minority, the Jews. Sephardic refugees from Spain and later, after the Principalities Union, Ashkenazi from Galitia, the Jews are doctors, potters, merchants, samsari, tailors, painters, craftsmen specialized in metalworking and are useful to the city because it contributes to its urbanization. They settled on the left bank of Dâmbovița, near the Royal Court and later in the area that became the Jewish Quarter. They built houses with shops on the ground floor, public baths, kosher butchers shops and dairies, teahouses where religious music was listened to, temples and synagogues. Today few remember this community; the legionary fires of 1941 and the massive demolition of the 1980s changed the appearance of the neighborhood considerably. At present, the toponym Jewish Quarter encapsulates more storrytelling than material evidence, which makes the property proposed for sale even more valuable. On Spătaru Street at number 10A we find today this neo-Gothic building, richly decorated, Casa Breslelor, the work of the architect Luigi Ludovic Lipizer, who arrived in Bucharest from the Austrian Empire in the middle of the 19th century. The building has not only a unique architecture but also a historical and architectural value that the restoration and extension project carried out by an architectural office specialized in the rehabilitation of historical monuments intends to preserve (the project is currently subject to approval). Lipizer embraces the neo-Gothic style, expressed in Europe in the18th and 19th centuries, and this option makes the building look like a commercial hall from the Middle Ages and is known today as the House of Guilds - it is believed that the statues placed on the columns with capitals and protected by meticulously decorated canopies represent various professions. The access is made through an arched door under a noble broken arch, but the neo-Gothic remains outside; inside, only the light entering the house brings with it the beauty of the windows. On the ground floor, besides the hall and stairwell, there will be, according to the restoration and extension project, an office, a living room with dinning area, a bathroom and a kitchen. Upstairs it is proposed to redistribute the space into a master bedroom, a bathroom, another bedroom plus a family room and the current loggia. The architects propose an additional floor with a bedroom and terrace; also here the restoration and extension project includes the transformation of a portion of the roof into a glass roof. In the basement generous areas have been designed for the technical room, laundry/ bathroom and cellar, plus living quarters for staff. An open cellar is provided with access from the courtyard, where the demolition of the adjoining bodies without residential and architectural-historical value is taken into account with the preservation of some brick walls as decorative elements of the green spaces that will form the interior garden. The present values the past, shakes it from the dust and sees its future. The House of Guilds, one of the few left standing despite its 160th anniversary, has the chance to shine again as a magnificent private home, unique in its history and architecture, comfortable and warm through its planned restoration works. Sources: bucurestiivechisinoi.ro turismistoric.ro arhivadearhitectura.ro 1001calatorii.ro

The historic streets in the center of the capital were also targeted in the modernization process of Bucharest in the interwar period, areas that, at that time, were opening up to the new economic and commercial domains. The urban block-villas would meet the required functionality needs- the building that can be found on 24-26 Polona Street, built in 1927-1928, is one of such type. The modern building, individually compartmentalized on each floor, has undergone a restoration, rehabilitation and reconversion process, becoming an ultramodern and multifunctional construction.

The house at 9 Verde Street (today Gheorghe Manu street) was built between 1911 and 1923, initiated by Tațiana Niculescu-Dorobanțu. One of the four daughters of Ion C. Brătianu, Tațiana (1870-1940) married in 1900 Ilie I. Niculescu-Dorobanțu (1873-1943), liberal political figure and prefect of Ilfov. Through their properties will also feature the Darvari manor, close to Bucharest. The plans designed by architect Grigore Cerchez (Cerkez) specified „a building with 2, 3 and 4 levels, massive walls, covered with tiles”, occupying 668,29 square meters. In a letter from 9th of May 1910 addressed to her sister Măriuţa Pillat, then in Paris, Tațiana confessed: „I believe we will have a truly beautiful mansion, Louis XII style, with carved stone and exposed brique”. On 25 September 1913, Taţiana was in France, writing to Sabina Cantacuzino: „The castles on Loire I am not even mentioning, I am amazed by so much beauty and very proud to realize that, without possible comparation to these, my house is very beautiful. Unfortunately, the narrow street makes the palace look crammed.” To furnish the interior, Tațiana chose Romanian traditional art objects and pieces from Antique shops in Paris and Munich. From Spain she brought furniture and tapestries. She wanted everything to be perfect and told her close friends: „I will show you this room only when it is completely furnished.” The imposing building bears the allure of a Gothic cathedral, with exquisite constructive and decorative elements: the exposed brick façade, in several shades of red, the towers’ silhouettes, the entrance portal, the imposing windows, with carved stone elements in Neo-gothic fashion, the cornices, gargoyles, stained glass windows and pointed arches that mark the exterior and interior. In his will, Ilie I. Niculescu-Dorobanțu donated the building to the Ion C. Brătianu Establishment, provided that it became the museum „Ilie, Tațiana and Ion Niculescu-Dorobanțu”. Between 1948-1957, the house hosted the canteen of the employees of the Minister of Industry. In 1956, following the pressures of the Direction of Historic Monuments, that considered the building „one of the most valuable in the Capital from an architectural point of view”, it was classified as part of the heritage of the Ministry of Culture and Education, undergoing consolidation works. Starting 1958, it hosted the Technical school of choreography, with 300 students. Today, more than one century after its construction, the impressive Gothic Revival residence maintains its mysterious allure, fascinating the passers-by with its imposing dimensions and unique construction details, crafted by one of the most important Romanian architects. Sources: Simina Stan, „Reședința Ilie I. Niculescu-Dorobanțu, monument istoric”, în Revista Arhitectura, iulie 2015 Narcis Dorin Ion, ”Memoria unui oraș – București”, ed. Institutul Cultural Român, București, 2012