Bucharest

Bucharest (Bucuresci), the capital of the former principality of Wallachia and of the present kingdom of Roumania, stands 265 feet above sea-level, in the fertile but treeless plain of the small, sluggish Danubitz. By rail it is 716 miles SE. of Vienna, 40 N. of Giurgevo on the Danube, and 179 NW. of Varna on the Black Sea. A strange meeting-point of East and West, the town as a whole is but meanly built, but the streets are now mostly paved, and lighted with gas. An elaborate system of fortification was undertaken in 1885. There are some handsome hotels; and the metal-plated cupolas of the innumerable churches give to the place a picturesque aspect. The royal palace was rebuilt in 1885; and the Catholic cathedral is a fine edifice of 1875-84. The number of cafés and gambling-tables is excessive; and altogether Bucharest has the unenviable reputation of being the most dissolute capital in Europe, with all the vices but few of the refinements of Paris. There is, however, a university, founded in 1864. The corso, or public promenade, is a miniature Hyde Park. Bucharest is the entrepôt for the trade between Austria and the Balkan Peninsula, the chief articles of commerce being textile fabrics, grain, hides, metal, coal, timber, and cattle. Its manufactures are unimportant, and the workmen are chiefly Hungarians and Germans. Bucharest has been several times besieged; and between 1793 and 1812 suffered twice from earthquakes, twice from inundations, once from fire, and twice from pestilence. At it in 1812 a treaty was concluded between Turkey and Russia, by which the former ceded Bessarabia and part of Moldavia; and in 1886 the treaty between Servia and Bulgaria was made here. Pop. (1866) 141,754; (1892) 196,372. See Mrs Berger's Winter in the City of Pleasure (1877).