The House of the Free Press ( ro, Casa Presei Libere) is a building in northern

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

, the tallest in the city between 1956 and 2007.

History

A horse race track was built in 1905 on the future site of the House of the Free Press. A third of the track was removed in 1950 to make way for a wing of the building, and the race track was finally closed and demolished in 1960, after a decision by

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (; 8 November 1901 – 19 March 1965) was a Romanian communist politician and electrician. He was the first Communist leader of Romania from 1947 to 1965, serving as first secretary of the Romanian Communist Party ...

. Construction began in 1952 and was completed in 1956. The building was named ''Combinatul Poligrafic Casa Scînteii "I.V.Stalin"'' and later ''Casa Scînteii'' (''

Scînteia ''Scînteia'' (Romanian for "The Spark") was the name of two newspapers edited by Communist groups at different intervals in Romanian history. The title is a homage to the Russian language paper ''Iskra''. It was known as ''Scânteia'' until th ...

'' was the name of the Romanian Communist Party's official newspaper). It was designed by the architect Horia Maicu, in the Stalinist style of

Socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is c ...

, resembling the main building of the

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

, and was intended to house all of Bucharest's printing presses, the newsrooms and their staff. It has a foundation with an area of 280x260m, the total constructed surface is and it has a volume of 735,000 m³. Its height is without the television antenna, which measures an additional , bringing the total height to . Between 1952 and 1966, Casa Scînteii was featured on the reverse of the 100 lei banknote. On 21 April 1960, a statue of

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

, made by Romanian sculptor Boris Caragea, was placed in front of the building. However, this statue was removed on 3 March 1990, following the

Romanian Revolution of 1989 The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred i ...

."Epilog la o statuie", ''

România Liberă ''România liberă'' ("") is a Romanian daily newspaper founded in 1943 and currently based in Bucharest. A newspaper of the same name also existed between 1877 and 1888. History and profile The name ''România liberă'' was first used by a dai ...

'', 4 March 1990. On 30 May 2016, the Monument of the Anti-Communist Fight ("Wings") was inaugurated in the same place. Renamed ("House of the Free Press"), the building has basically the same role nowadays, with many of today's newspapers having their headquarters in it. The

Bucharest Stock Exchange The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) ( Romanian: ''Bursa de Valori București'') is the stock exchange of Romania located in Bucharest. In 2019, the capitalization of BVB increased 23.4% compared to the previous year, to the value of EUR 37.8 billi ...

(''Bursa de Valori București'', BVB) was located in the Southern wing at one point. File:ROL 100 1952 reverse.jpg, Casa Scînteii on the reverse of a 100-lei banknote, 1952

References

External links

* {{Tall buildings in Romania Skyscraper office buildings in Bucharest Stalinist architecture Socialist realism Commercial buildings completed in 1956 Office buildings completed in 1956

History

See also

References

External links