Cruise Day 5.
Tuesday 27th June 2023
Bucharest
ETA Oltenita, Romania 05:00 hrs
09:00 hrs Oltenita to Bucharest by coach ( 1.5 hrs)
Approaching Oltenita
Tram system in Bucharest
Central University Library, Bucharest
Kretzulescu Church is an Eastern Orthodox church built in the Brâncovenesc style, it is located on Calea Victoriei, nr. 45A, at one of the corners of Revolution Square, next to the former Royal Palace.
The church was commissioned in 1720–1722 by the boyar Iordache Cre?ulescu and his wife Safta, a daughter of prince Constantin Brâncoveanu. Originally, the exterior was painted, but since the restoration work done in 1935–1936, the façade is made of brick. The frescoes on the porch date from the original structure, while the interior frescoes were painted by Gheorghe Tattarescu in 1859–1860.
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The CEC Palace (Romanian: Palatul CEC) in Bucharest, Romania, built between 8 June 1897 and 1900, and situated on Calea Victoriei opposite the National Museum of Romanian History, is the headquarters of CEC Bank.
Before the construction of the palace, the location was occupied by the ruins of a monastery (Saint John the Great) and an adjoining inn. The 16th-century church was renovated by Constantin Brâncoveanubetween 1702 and 1703, but later deteriorated and was demolished in 1875.
The palace was built as a new headquarters for Romania's oldest bank, the public savings institution Casa de Depuneri, Consemna?iuni ?i Economie, later known as C.E.C. (Romanian: Casa de Economii ?i Consemna?iuni), and nowadays CEC Bank. Work started on June 8, 1897 and was completed in 1900. The project was designed by the architect Paul Gottereau, a graduate of the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris; construction was supervised by the Romanian architect Ion Socolescu.
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Caru' cu Bere (aka Carul cu Bere; "the beer wagon") is a bar and restaurant on Stavropoleos Street in the Lipscani district of Bucharest. The business was originally opened as a brewery in 1879 by Ioan C?b??an and his nephews, Ion, Gheorghe, and Nicolae Mircea. They were originally citizens of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and from Ca?a, Transylvania. In 1889, C?b??an assigned his lease to his eldest nephew, Ion. Ion died later that same year and was replaced in the family firm by the youngest sibling, Víctor.
Nicolae bought the building at 5 Stavropoleos Street in 1897, and made plans to open a restaurant there to expand their business operations. They hired the Austrian architect Siegfrid Kofczinskyto design a restaurant and brewery building in the gothic revival style. Co-owners were Nicolae, Ignat, and Víctor Mircea. The restaurant opened in 1899, featuring their beer. Victor left the establishment in 1912, opening his own brewery and several years later, Nicolae set up Ignat in a wine cellar business. When Nicolae died in 1929, his heirs assumed control of the business and operated it until the communist state nationalized the operation in 1949.
In 1986, extensive restoration was done on the property, led by Nicolae Gheorghe. When the Socialist Republic of Romania was overthrown in 1989, the heirs of the Mircea family began efforts to regain their ownership. In 1999, Caru' cu Bere was returned to them and they began extensive renovations to restore the property to its former state. It is noted for its distinctive art nouveau interior decoration. It is operated by Drago? Petrescu's City Grill chain, and is classified as a historic monument.
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Stavropoleos Monastery , also known as Stavropoleos Church during the last century when the monastery was dissolved, is an Eastern Orthodox monastery for nuns . Its church is built in Brâncovenesc style. The patrons of the church (the saints to whom the church is dedicated) are St. Archangels Michael and Gabriel. The name Stavropoleos is the genitive case of Stavropolis (Greek, "The city of the Cross"). One of the monastery's constant interests is Byzantine music, expressed through its choir and the largest collection of Byzantine music books in Romania.
The church was built in 1724, during the reign of Nicholas Mavrocordatos (Prince of Wallachia, 1719-1730), by the archimandrite Ioannikios Stratonikeas, a Greek monk from Pogoniani. Within the precinct of his inn, Ioannikios built the church, and a monasterywhich was economically sustained with the incomes from the inn (a relatively common situation in those times). In 1726 abbot Ioannikios was elected metropolitan of Stavropolis and exarch of Caria. Since then the monastery he built is named Stavropoleos, after the name of the old seat. On February 7, 1742 Ioannikios, aged 61, died and was buried in his church.
The inn and the monastery's annexes were demolished at the end of 19th century. Over time the church suffered from earthquakes, which caused the dome to fall. The dome's paintings were restored at the beginning of the 20th century.
All that remains from the original monastery is the church, alongside a building from the beginning of the 20th century which shelters a library, a conference room and a collection of old (early 18th century) icons and ecclesiastical objects, and parts of wall paintings recovered from churches demolished during the communist regime. This new building was constructed following the plans of architect Ion Mincu.
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The Palace of the Parliament , also known as the Republic's House or People's House/People's Palace , is the seat of the Parliament of Romania, located atop Dealul Spirii in Bucharest. The Palace reaches a height of 84 m has a floor area of 365,000 m2 . The Palace of the Parliament is the heaviest building in the world, weighing about 4.0 million tonnes, also being the second largest administrative building in the world.(The Great Pyramid of Giza at about 5.75 million tons is about 40% heavier.) The building was designed and supervised by chief architect Anca Petrescu, with a team of approximately 700 architects, and constructed over a period of 13 years (1984–97) in Socialist realist and modernist Neoclassical architectural forms and styles, with socialist realism in mind. The Palace was ordered by Nicolae Ceau?escu (1918–1989), the president of Communist Romania and the second of two long-ruling heads of state in the country since World War II, during a period in which the personality cult of political worship and adoration increased considerably for him and his family.
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Returning to Oltenita
On our way to the Danube Delta
ETD Oltenita for Danube Delta 18-30hrs
Overnight sailing.
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