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Historic Hotel Casa Capșa

Magical lightshow on the ceiling of my suite:

 

For one of the poorest countries in Europe, Romania does ok… btw, the Ferrari dealership here apparently sells more Ferraris than any other in Europe… (view from my lovely suite)

 

Historic Lime Street Bazaar

Continuing my leisurely journey… I eventually came across an amazing place with an equally amazing history…  The “Hanul cu Tei”…

Built in 1833, the “Lime Inn” was built in what was then the commercial centre of Bucharest…

…and was immortalised in the writings of the famous Romania author, Peltz…

…but it wasn’t until the 1940s, that things really became ‘interesting’ here…

Here is an excerpt from https://www.stelian-tanase.ro/gangsterii-de-la-hanul-cu-tei/:

“Teohari Georgescu, as interior minister, has created an entourage of criminals. He was a corrupt minister during which the distance between the political world and the underworld seemed non-existent. Teohari Georgescu was interested in buying foreign currency, the golden rooster, to make a fortune, he lived on a big footing, his famous burglars Constantin Cairo or Florică Voinescu were also good friends. The thieves were no longer afraid of anything, robbed, killed or raped. The Soviet military indulges in robberies, robberies, rapes. The master of Bucharest in the 1940s was Kalashnikov. You saw corpses in the streets, dead bandits or innocent passers-by falling under gunfire.

When he was made interior minister, Teohari Georgescu’s first concern was to call in the bandits Cairo and Voinescu. They had been imprisoned with Teohari Georgescu. He called them, they came thinking they were going to arrest them. He offered them, on the contrary, to make them policemen, with the mission to break up the gangster networks. The two also became members of the PCR.

The big blows were given to Hanul cu Tei, Curtea-Veche, Lipscani, Gabroveni, Şelari, Smârdan, or Uliţa Işlicarilor streets between 1944 – 1948 were almost every night the target of attacks, robberies, extortions, crimes, because the strong center commercial here offered a rich prey. The historic center was the center of business on the black market, you could buy anything from silk stockings to a tank, everything was for sale. It was also an area of ​​prostitution.

In the 1940s, the Lime Inn was once again a thriving trading center. The police could no longer cope, but when the judicial police inspector, the legendary Eugen Alimănescu, is appointed chief commissioner, things begin to change. Alimănescu did not bother with the bandits in the trials. He made a brigade of 22 incorruptible, young men, who were fine with the pistol, coming from the front. He formed the Lightning Brigade with them. He acted according to his own methods, in fact Soviet. Instead of arresting the criminals, taking them into custody and then going to court, they preferred to shoot them in the street. Experience had shown them that once arrested, bandits escaped by paying tips.

Following an ambush organized by him, the two gangster-commissioners, Cairo and Voinescu, about finding out that they were plotting a burglary, had no choice and shot each other. Eugen Alimănescu made orders with summary methods. But its star disappeared when Bucharest began to recover after the war. A “Alimănescu of fsot arrested two years trimispentru the Danube-Black Sea Canal. Released, he ended up under the wheels of a train on the Bucharest-Sinaia route. He knew too much and his mouth had to be shut.”

…and back ‘home’ to my beloved Casa Capsa Hotel…

 

The Most Beautiful Bookstore in the World – Cărturești Carusel

This particular day I was on a mission… to find what is reputed to be the most beautiful bookstore in the world… and on the way, past some of the most beautiful scenery and buildings…

…and here it is!  Cărturești Carusel Bookstore…

Built in 1903 by a wealthy family of Greek bankers, it was confiscated by the Communist regime in the 1950s, turned into a general store and later abandoned and left to decay as Communism collapsed.

The grandson of the banker, who originally bought the building back in 1903 requested that it would be returned to his family, as legal heirs. It took 24 years of battles in court, but he finally won the case in 2007. He took possession of what was by then a derelict building and began its remarkable transformation to the Cărturești Carusel (“Carousel of Light”) bookstore that stands today.

 Seventy-five people put in a combined 20,000 hours of work over the course of five years to compete the transformation…

Even the bike rack out the front is beautiful in its own way…

…then off to sit for a while…

…and on to my next adventure…

Window seat view of noisy-peaceful protest…

I love my hotel suite, not only because it is in such an historic hotel and is quite simply lovely, but because I have a window seat out onto the world… and in this case, the world was a peaceful but very noisy protest…

 

 

…and with that, it was over…

Sinaia-Busteni-Predeal-Brasov Road Trip 5 of 9

…and we continue… (and yes, I realise this should be number 4 of 9, but I had already uploaded everything when I realised, so…. welcome to 5!  🙂 )

A street named for my birthday – September 13th!  Apparently is named after the date of the closing battle of the 1848 Wallachian Revolution which was fought on Dealul Spirii between the Ottoman troops and the Firemen division of Bucharest. The 13th of September is now Firefighter’s Day in Romania.

 

…and we continue on our amazing day…