Declinul oraşului
Decline of the city

Summary/Abstract: The article evokes Bucharest in the 70s, a time of decline. Some churches are demolished, the State takes possession of emblematic houses, small museums, art collections and memorial houses in Bucharest were counting their final days. Disfigurement and mutilation of Bucharest took place systematically after the earthquake in March 1977, at the same time with the construction of the subway system. People were hastily removed from their homes and forced to move into the suburbs. In the late 70s, the weeping willows disappeared from the sloping shores of Dambovita, the old railing that surrounded the banks of the river, along with the romantic lanterns, were gone and so were the buildings on the right side of the Splai, between the Senate Square and the Church of St. Eleutherius. Clouds of dust were rising daily over the city. Working even at night, pick hammers were constantly biting bricks, asphalt, cobblestones, concrete or trellis. Simultaneously, the subway was built by thousands of laborers brought from the whole country.The60s, with their ideological relaxation, sweetened by foreign goods, movies from the West, shows, exhibitions, tours, good food and drink, when every day you could buy “Le Monde” or “Corriere della Sera” from several stands, seemed now as distant as the interwar period. In those years of brutal and insane shiftings, most of them unnecessary, only light, climate and seasons shades remained identical to themselves in Bucharest.

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