EIGHTEENTH CENTURY PLANS OF BUCHAREST CITY
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY PLANS OF BUCHAREST CITY

Summary/Abstract: Compared to other European capitals, Bucharest benefited rather late of city plans that were produced according to more scientific based rules. Complementary to this delay, the first plans that emerged during the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century were created by foreigners, especially officers from armies that transited the city. Plans from this early period were actually used for military purposes and therefore they were long forgotten in the military archives of Moscow, Vienne or Istanbul. Political and military events from the second half of the 18th century have contributed, along with testimonies of foreign travelers, to the enrichment of Wallachia’s cartographic fond. On most maps, Bucharest is represented as a city, having the function of Wallachia’s capital. The first plan representing a portion of Bucharest, meaning the southern and western sides, datesfrom the beginning of 1770 and is kept in the archives of Vienne (Giurescu, 1966). A more comprehensive plan was produced in the same year, 1770, by Russian officers, the original plan being kept in the archives of Moscow (Ionaşcu, 1956). During 1781 I. F. Sulzer published in the annex to his paper “Geschicte des transalpinischen Daciens,” a plan of Bucharest which was entitled “Grund Riss der Haupt Stadt Bukarest in der Wallachei.” Up to the end of 18th century, during the Austrian occupation in Wallachia, during 1788 and 1791, officers Ferdinand Ernst and Franz Purcel also produced a similar plan of Bucharest.

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