URGENT - tragic ends for historical souls in Bucharest

Please go to THIS BLOG SITE at once and see the list of lovely old houses in Bucharest that ended up demolished despite public outcry...all beautiful (pix left Batistei, 26, the house that made me want to cuddle it - it has such character and just look at it crying out for help, love and attention - pix from Hotnews.ro). It is heart-breaking, absolutely appalling that however one goes about trying to save these beautiful souls from the bulldozer, greed always wins in the end. You just have to bacsis the right person and voila - license to demolish something as beautiful as Batistei 26, Roma 46, E.Grigorescu 1, Cobalcescu 25, Monetariei 6, Romulus 38, Ostasilor 21-23 (see pix below), M. Rosetti 38, to name but a few. And who signed the majority of the licenses to demolish? Go on, guess. That´s right. Well done. Stefan Damian the Director of Culture in Bucharest from 2001-2009 who should have been protecting heritage, not allowing it to be pulled down and replaced by multi-storey office blocks. I would dearly love to know how much he made on bacsis. The blood of these historical buildings is on his hands whether they were ever listed as protected or not - if they were, well, all the more shame on him. No matter what gets destroyed in the capital of the country of my heart, his name is never far from the dung heap...foul personnage. In any civilised society where patrimony counts, Stefan Damian would have long since been thrown in jail.

  (left - the lovely house on Ostasilor that made me cry because it´s gone. To become a 6-storey building. Pix from Hotnews.ro)

In 2009, after a change in government, Damian was replaced by Eugene Plesca, former mayor of Bucharest´s sector 3. Although Theodor Paleologu ordered a commission to start an enquiry into the work of Stefan Damian, he still remains a top advisor to the institution, maintaining a lot of thwack. HotNews contacted Stefan Damian who wouldn´t comment on the aforementioned signed documents. Imagine...Polyclinica Coltea is due to become...a carpark. It is so deplorably criminal that I can´t even find words to describe the horror and repulsion I feel.

In 2009, Plesca was given the following suggestions for future demolition:
Str. Armenian no. 38-40, to be replaced by a four storey block;
Bd Alexandru Ioan Cuza, nr. 14, what will be built in its place remains unknown;
Str. Aleea Alexandru, nr. 28, to be a five storey block;
Bd Ferdinand, nr. 65, nobody knows what will replace it;
Str. Tehran, no. 22, a four storey block;
Str. Aviator Stefan Sanatescu, no. 37 - no news.

Let´s see what happens. I pray that Plesca is less crooked than Damian, though with him still in the picture I don´t hold out much hope for improvement...things couldn´t get much worse. The state of national heritage through brick and mortar in Bucharest in 2010 is dire. There´s no other word for it. Shame on Damian and those like him who put money over memory and culture, especially those in positions of trust who are meant to protect not destroy.

Thank you Art Historia, for all this information. Fabulous job.

Comments

[links of london]

thank you links of london cool !

[sairj]

Dear Doina,

Asa e...it was a hopeful dream that soon disappeared into a puff of smoke... sure Plesca is as bad as the rest of them. But I refuse to accept that my beautiful city is going to end up a pile of rubble and dodgy glass structures of no architectural value. I cannot believe that the splendour will vanish little by little...I cannot. So what do we do?

Hows my house on Visarion opposite the Bratianu palace? Did you kiss it from me?

[doina]

Dear Sarah,

You hope that Plesca is not as crooked as others. Anybody in Bucharest would tell you that he is on th top of the list and the figt up there who is cashing more money for providind land in the center of Bucharest is very fierce and he is a big shark

[sairj]

Because whoever reads it or doesn't, I don't really care - it's the country of my heart, I miss it and I love it dearly...and so it does me good to read about it and comment, even if the news is upsetting and causes sadness.
Actually yday, I had 3 comments on one post - all publicity - for Viagara, vitamins and sending money to Haiti. Removed, of course.
Apart from that, there's always you, Romeo, D. Knob, Maria from iasi and Little Me who are ardent to the cause of commenting!

[Nicole]

Dear Sarah,
I really do not understand why you still bother to write about what's happening in Bucharest nowadays..
Citizens of Bucharest, with few exceptions, don't care about thier heritage. Sorry to say this but even people who read the blog do not feel they have to jot down thoughts..
Just look who commented about this latest blog and how many commented about Michael Jackson.. Disgusting!