Concordia Hotel in Bucharest, the building where the Small Union was sealed, to be rehabilitated

Concordia Hotel in Bucharest, the building where the Principalities Union was sealed in 1859, a historical monument in ruin, will be rehabilitated.

The hotel building was also where Alexandru Ioan Cuza was elected as the ruler of Wallachia, after he had been named ruler of Moldavia.

The Bucharest City Hall announced on Wednesday that rehabilitation works will start this spring. The city hall said the building will continue to be a hotel, comprising conference halls.

Concordia Hotel is located in the Old Town in Bucharest, on Smardan street. It was built in 1852 and used to host 90 rooms. A big fire burst out on that street in 1884 destroyed great part of the hotel. The owner back then was a military, major Fănuță. The hotel was rebuilt though, but another fire caused new damages in 1901.

Initially, the hotel was on German street, due to the presence here of the German and Austrian merchants who used to sell their goods brought from Germany and Austria, and it was relocated on Smardan street later on.

The price of a room at Concordia hotel in the 1880s was 3-8 francs a day. The hotel also hosted a restaurant with German cuisine, a cafeteria and a pool hall.

Concordia hosted the historical meeting on the night of January 23 to January 24, 1859, when the Romanian Principalities Union was decided.

However, Concordia was considered the most European hotel in Bucharest at that time, as the domestic and foreign political elite used to be accommodated there back then. It was also considered one of the finest venues in the Capital, due to its restaurant with German, French and Italian specialties and to the Brenner café downstairs.

The hotel served until during the World War II. During communism, the building was used by the communists for various activities, and in time, it has fallen into ruin.

After the fall of the communist regime in 1989, various local authorities pledged to revamp the iconic building, but nobody has actually done anything, despite numerous actions and demands filed by the civil society, intellectuals, artists, journalists and architects in the past years.

Bucharest arhitect Şerban Sturdza has posted a manifesto on Facebook Tuesday, entitled “Shame on you!”, alongside some photos depicting the decayed hotel. “The building in Bucharest where the Union between Moldavia and Wallachia was accomplished 159 years ago is collapsing. The politicians dancing hora in Iasi don’t give a crap on it, like in the case of most of what Patrimony means. SHAME on you!”, Sturdza wrote among others