No street in Bucharest has a history to match that of Calea Victoriei, the city’s most famous thoroughfare which runs - much as it has for more than three centuries - from Piata Victoriei in the north of the city all the way down to Piata Natiunilor Unite and the Dambovita river.

Lined with fine houses, palaces, churches, hotels, upmarket shops and museums, it remains perhaps the most prestigious address in the city.

Calea Victoriei was first opened to traffic - or what passed for traffic in those days - in 1692, originally part of the route from the Old Court (Curtea Veche) to Mogosoaia, where Constantin Brancoveanu, that great ruler of these parts who did so much to modernise the country during his long and distinguished reign - had his main palace. The street has had many names over the years, including Ulita Sarindar, Drumul Brasovului and Drumul Mogosoaia - its name until 1878 when it was christened Calea Victoriei in honour of victories recently won by Romanian armies fighting to preserve the country’s newly won independence from the Ottoman Empire.

The street - originally covered with logs, as was the norm in those days - was fully paved by 1825, one of the first in the city (Strada Franceza, in Old Town/Lipscani, closer to the Old Court, was in fact the first). There followed a blossoming of construction as the street became a magnet for wealthy merchants who built homes along its length, keen to be spared the ignominies of the mud streets which persisted elsewhere. Though much has changed since, and not a few majestic buildings have fallen victim to earthquake, war, socialist planning or modernisation, many of the buildings which went up along Calea Victoriei in the first part of the 19th century remain, and to walk the street’s length (around three kilometres) is to at once enjoy an architectural treat and history lesson.

Orientation: modern Calea Victoriei can be split more or less neatly into two sections: the residential northern part (extending as far south as Bulevardul Dacia), noted mainly for its fine houses and palaces and the commercial southern part, packed with hotels, shops, banks, restaurants and cafes. To start a walk of the full length of the street at the northern end (which we recommend, as you can then end up by relaxing in one of the cafes of Old Town), simply take the metro to Piata Victoriei.

Piata Victoriei to Calea Grivitei

For all its history, Calea Victoriei does not start well. Piata Victoriei is an awful place, all cars and traffic, smoke and dust. The modernist building on the far side is the Palatul din Piata Victoriei, home today of the Romanian government (though when it was built in the 1930s it was the Foreign Ministry). On the other side of the square is the Grigore Antipa Museum of Natural History, built in 1906 and one of the best museum's in the country. Elsewhere, Piata Victoriei is a socialist nightmare, with its more recently built office blocks barely more attractive than those built before 1989.

Heading off from here along Calea Victoriei itself, the first building of any real interest is the Palatul Cantacuzino at No. 141, usually referred to (mistakenly) as the Casa Enescu. The building does house the Romanian Museum of Music (which carries the name of George Enescu, the country’s finest composer) but - contrary to popular belief, Enescu never lived here, although there is a connection. The vaguely baroque, Louis XVI-style building dates from 1898, when it was built for the wealthy politician Gheorghe Cantacuzino. On his death in 1913 the palace became the property of Cantacuzino’s eldest son Mihai, who in turn left it to his wife, Maruca, when he died in 1929. Maruca subsequently married Enescu - in 1939 - but they chose to live in a smaller house at the rear of the palace. The building became the George Enescu Museum of Music in 1956, a year after the composer’s death.

Next door is the Casa Dissescu, built for Constantin Dissescu - a lawyer and for a short time the Minister of Justice - in 1910. It is today home to the Romanian Institute of the History of Art.

Crossing Strada Gheorghe Manu and ignoring the building site on the right hand side of the road, you will come across two gorgeous houses next to each other: the Neo-Classical yet very French Casa Nenciu, was built in the 1830s for a Wallachian princess, the exotically named Cleopatra Trubetkoi. In 1847 Franz Liszt stayed here while on an extended visit to the Bucharest. Next door at No. 192 is the Casa Manu, completed in 1843 for the modernising administrator Alecu Florescu, but named for the man who bought it in 1848: the legendary general Gheorghe Manu.

The Casa Lens-Vernescu at No. 133 (to give the mansion its full name) is one of the finest on Calea Victoriei, built around 1820 in an eclectic style incorporating many of the architectural trends of the time. For years it was regarded as the most beautiful house in the city, and belonged initially to Filip Lens, a lawyer and politician. On his death in 1852 the house became a residence for military officers, the Ministry of War moving in shortly afterwards. Another politician, Gheorghe Vernescu, bought it from the state in 1886, and had it extensivley remodelled over a two-year period from 1887-9. It was at this time that the majority of the stunning interior frescoes were added. Today the building houses a casino and a restaurant.

Those visitors to (and residents of) Bucharest who speed along in Calea Victoriei in cars - pausing only to watch the traffic lights turning green - often fail to realise that the street is blessed with a number of small parks. One is across the road from the Casa Vernescu, with a fine church next to that. Opposite (and built at a right angle to the street) is the imposing Library of the Romanian Academy, a Duiliu Marcu design (Marcu was also the architect behind the Piata Victoriei Palace) constructed from 1936-7. More than four million books are kept inside.

The house on the south-western corner of the Calea Victoriei/Bulvardul Dacia intersection (oppoiste the new-ish Golden Tulip hotel) is the Casa Monteoru. One of the oldest on Calea Victoriei it dates from around 1810, although it was almost entirely reconstructed in the 1880s (to designs by Ion Mincu - an architect whose name you come across a lot in Bucharest). The building is distinguished by its uneven character: the ground floor is much smaller than the upper floor, the gorgeous balcony of which is supported by two broad, Corinthian columns. Eclectic both inside and out the building is today one of a number in the city owned by the Romanian Writer’s Union.

Next door is a fine palace, known as the Palat Romanit which hosts the Museum of Art Collections. The central corp was built in 1834, then rebuilt and extended in 1883, when the wings were added. For much of the 19th century the building was home to the Ministry of Finance, becoming an art museum in 1948, when the wealthiest families in Romania were made an offer they couldn’t refuse by the communist government, and forced to donate much (in many cases all) of their extensive art collections to the state.

Speaking of the state, the elegant, modernist if neglected linear building opposite, at No. 152, is another Duiliu Marcu design, built from 1936-40 and from 1948-1989 home of the State Planning Committee (in other words, the building where bureaucrats tried to ensure that every collective farm in Romania had enough paper clips, and such like). Looking every inch a 1930s Italian railway station, the clock on the tower is a gem. It is to be hoped that the building will soon be restored to past glories: it is one of the most overlooked and ignored in the city. This is a real shame.

Commercial Calea Victoriei

It is at the crossroads with Calea Grivitei that you notice a real change in the mood of Calea Victoriei. The road and pavements narrow, and houses, palaces and small parks give way to blocks - many of which are nevertheless elegant if run down - most of which are now used as offices, with shops on the ground floor.
But there are exceptions, such as the Stirbey Palace at No. 107, which dates from 1835, but which is rather hemmed in by the 1960s apartment blocks which surround it. For decades a museum of arts and crafts, the building is currently in limbo: planned restoration and extension came to a halt when Bucharest’s real estate market crashed in 2009, and the palace has been neglected since. Another victim of real estate speculators.

The next building of real interest will for most people be the little white church set back from the street in a small square on the corner of Str. George Enescu. Known colloquially as the Biserica Alba (White Church), it is offically the Biserica Sf. Nicolae and is one of the oldest in Bucharest, being founded in 1700. The current structure dates from 1827, however (the original was destroyed in an earthquake), with the interior frescoes for which it is famed having been restored a number of times, most recently in 1988. After the last major earthquake in Bucharest (in 1977) the foundations of the church were consolidated, and it is now considered one of the safest in the city.

The glass and steel opposite belong to the Radisson Blu hotel, opened in 2008 after a refit of several years had turned the tired, old and often infamous Hotel Bucuresti into the five-star wonder the rich and famous throng to today. The hotel’s interior courtyard is home - in the right weather - to one of the few outdoor swimming pools in the city. (The original Hotel Bucuresti was built from 1982-4).

In what is very much Bucharest’s Hotel Row, directly across the road from the Radisson is the Athenee Palace Hilton, one of few hotel’s in the world whose history is so intriguing that books have been written about it (Rosie Waldeck’s Athenee Palace details the intricate diplomatic discussions - official or otherwise - which took place here in the 1930s and 1940s). The hotel opened in 1912 (it was designed by a Frenchman, Teophile Bradeau) and was built on the site of an old inn, the Hanul Gherasi. The Calea Victoriei wing was added in the 1960s, and the hotel was entirely renovated again in 1997 when it became a Hilton property. Most recently the ground floor brasserie was remodelled and reopened as the Cafe Athenee.
Despite all the changes, the Athenee Palace’s historic English Bar remains wonderfully old fashioned and has barely changed in decades.

The Athenee Palace vies for attention on Piata Revolutiei with the Atheneum, the Former Royal Palace, the University Library, the Former Central Committee Building, the Revolution Monument, the Cretulescu Church and the new statue of Carol I. (In fact, there are two squares here: the area as far as the Carol I statue is Piata George Enescu, with Piata Revolutiei only kicking in beyond that. Most people refer to the whole open space as Piata Revolutiei, however). Most of those buildings are covered elsewhere in this guide (see Buildings With a History), but there are a couple we should point out for you.

First off, take a look at the building just behind and to the left of the University Library: the modern green office block inside the ruins of an old house. What happened here is simple: the building was all but destroyed during the 1989 revolution (this square saw most of the action: it was from the balcony of the Former Central Committee Building that Nicolae Ceausescu gave his last public speech, before fleeing the next day from the roof in a helicopter). It was taken over by the Architects’ Union who then created the rather splendid mix of old and new we admire today. There is a cafe on the ground floor.

The Revolution Monument is a less impressive affair, mocked by locals who call it an olive on a stick. It seems a most unworthy memorial for those who died here in 1989.

Shops of the classy and expensive kind occupy the ground floor of the buildings that line Calea Victoriei as it closes in again, at least as far as the two hotels - historic both for differing reasons - that greet you at the crossroads with Ion Campaneanu. Before moving on to the hotels, take a look to your left at the Union Building on the corner of Str. Academiei and Str. Ion Campaneanu: it is an art deco masterpiece built in 1928-9 whose central facade looks much like a rocket about to blast off. It was renovated in 1999.

A more recent renovation is the Grand Continental Hotel, reopened in 2009 after being almost totally rebuilt. Opposite is the Novotel, whose faux Neo-Classical entrance is an exact replica of that of Bucharest’s original National Theatre, which stood here from 1852 until it was destroyed in an allied bombing raid in August 1944 (just days before Romania changed sides in World War II).

Next to the Novotel is one of Calea Victoriei’s most instantly recognisable landmarks, the art deco Palatul Telefoanelor (Telephone Palace). Built over three years from 1929-32 to serve as the headquarters of Romania’s national telephone company (which it remained until the early 1990s) it was the first building in the country to be constructed in the manner of an American skyscraper: concrete reinforced by a steel frame. Just over 53 metres high, until the Inter Continental was built in the early 1970s it was the tallest building in Bucharest.

There are three other hotels on this part of the street: the Majestic, the Capitol and the Casa Capsa - the latter being one of the oldest in the city, dating back to 1886. The cafe on the ground floor was for decades - especially in the 1920s and 1930s - the unofficial home of Romania’s best writers, who would wile away their days here. The name refers to the founder of the hotel, Grigore Capsa, who was said to be able to spot a decent writer a mile away: writers (a superstitious bunch at the best of times) came to his cafe to seek his approval.

While the Pasajul Villacrosse is the most famous of Bucharest’s 19th century arcades, it is certainly not the only one. Opposite the Telephone Palace is the Pasajul Victoriei, which, while not as architecturally pleasing as Villacrosse, has perhaps an even richer history: built in the 1830s it was home for a long time to the city’s biggest (and most luxurious) brothel. King Carol II was allegedly a regular client. The brothel was closed in 1947, but the goings-on inside (and in the pasaj in general) are immortalised in Ion Matei Caragiale’s Craii de Curtea Veche, a novel published in 1929 for which life the pasaj provided much inspiration.

The Cercul Militar was completed in 1912, on the site of a former monastery, the Sarindar. A recently renovated fountain in front of the building preserves the Sarindar name. The hoardings and enormous adverts opposite cover up the Hotel Bulevard, built in the 1860s and the first in the city to have running water in the rooms, closed in 2005 ahead of a five-star refit which looks to be nearing completion.

On the opposite corner, find the little courtyard (next to the take-away section of Pizza Hut) which leads through to one of Bucharest’s many hidden churches (Romania’s communist authorities had a habit of building tall apartment blocks around churches to hide them from public view). Dating from 1683 the church’s name is a mouthful: the Biserica Intrarea Maicii Domnului în Biserică (the Church of the Entrance of the Mother of God into Church). The recently restored frescoes are worth popping inside to see.

From here Calea Victoriei heads gently downhill towards the river, passing the Bancorex building at No. 15 (now called the Bucharest Financial Plaza) the first modern office block to be built after 1990. Bancorex - a bank set up to absorb and disperse foreign loans and investment in the early 1990s went bust in 1999, and has become a byword for post-communist corruption. Next door of course is the far more satisfactory CEC building, while opposite is the Zlatari Church, built in the 1850s and most notable for the interior fresoces, painted by Gheorghe Tattarescu. Just past the church is the National History Museum, while the Old Town/Lipscani area lurks behind the History Museum.

At the very bottom of the street, facing the river, are the Gloriette Buildings, neither of which is in the best of shape. Designed by local architect Petru Antonescu and completed in 1926, they are worth noting for the sinister reason that their design (particularly the belvedere at the top) was used a blueprint for the apartment buildings which went up in the Civic Centre along Bulevardul Unirii in the 1980s (and which, it should be said, have weathered no better).