Do you want an exciting new adventure by the end of this summer – beginning of autumn? The Travel to Bucharest! From exciting summer events, to the art of Bucharest, to lesser known attractions of the city and to culinary surprises such as street food, Bucharest is the perfect destination to explore! 

But how about “time travel” in Bucharest? Let’s see what Bucharest was like more than 100 years ago— the so-called Belle Epoque? Let’s unravel a normal day in the life of someone living in the city back then. What were normal citizens doing? What was their day like? What did they eat, and where did they party?

Cișmigiu Hotel was known as The Palace Hotel and Elisabeta Boulevard had become a kind of Bucharest Broadway, with large, bright signs lining the street, and grand cinema halls, including the Palace Cinema located on the ground floor of the hotel. We spoke with Mr. Adrian Majuru, a historian, anthropologist, and the director of the Bucharest Municipality Museum, who shared with us some insights into the Belle Époque atmosphere of Bucharest. 

What was life like for people living in in the Belle Epoque? How did they socialize? Where did they dine?

Adrian Majuru: There’s a significant difference because it was a completely different society back then. We no longer have a daily connection with our grandparents who lived during that time. I asked someone, Șerban Milcoveanu, who was a medical student during that period, how much it cost to buy food, and what the daily expenses were. He replied that he didn’t know because he always ate out. He didn’t remember eating at home until the communists came. People dined out. He was part of the middle class, with intellectual parents.

How did this culture of bistros and gastronomy develop over nearly 100 years? They weren’t necessarily open 24/7, but they stayed open late into the night. The first customers were those who went to work very early in the morning; they would come in between six and seven, have breakfast—a strong schnapps, a strong coffee—and then head to the office. A specific menu was prepared for them. Today, you can’t find a place to eat early in the morning, not even around nine o’clock. This clientele still exists but is not catered to by current services. Then, starting from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, others would come, those who worked and had meetings—journalists, university professionals, entrepreneurs. The menu would change for them.

After 4:00 PM, people began to leave work—first the clerks and public service employees, then the entrepreneurs—and on their way home, they would stop and consume more. After 8:00 PM, concerts and variety shows would start, attracting a different clientele: they paid more, consumed more, and were more demanding. The menus were adapted, created based on the consumers, their interests, and the type of meetings. And not just at the Palace Hotel, but all along Calea Victoriei and in the central area of the city.

Regina Elisabeta Boulevard was the right-hand segment of varied leisure consumption, hotel services, and the “belt of decision-makers,” those who made this country function. For the investor who managed this business until it was nationalized, the proximity of Cișmigiu Park, the cinemas, and the shops that existed up to the later Opera Square were more relevant than Calea Victoriei. Proof of this is that the hotel functioned continuously and coherently, unlike others, even on Calea Victoriei, that disappeared—either through demolition or were absorbed by other businesses.

What kind of shops were on Elisabeta Boulevard in the Belle Epoque? What did people buy?

Adrian Majuru: It wasn’t the kind of consumerism we know today. Besides accessories, clothing pieces were custom-made. You would see the model, have the magazine, order it in the store, come for a fitting. These were mainly found in the Old Center area and along Calea Victoriei. The shops were primarily for fashion accessories and rarely segmented the area dedicated to services.

What kind of movies would someone have seen at Cinema Palace?

Adrian Majuru: In 1920, they were French films; that was a very beloved language among Romanians, widely spoken in urban areas. American films became more prominent in the next decade and started to gain popularity, especially during World War II. Western productions were very well received. What was released in the West would arrive in our cinemas in less than a month. The license fee was paid quickly. This was also true for books. There was no need for a publishing house to translate it; the book production came directly here. We even had a Hachette representation right on this boulevard, a bit further up, towards the Grand Hotel Boulevard. French or English-language books had a constant and direct circuit with Bucharest and the major cities of Romania.

There were many theaters, especially for variety shows, very close to the Palace Hotel. What we no longer have now is cabaret theater. There were two behind the hotel: Moulin Rouge and Alhambra. Now they are cinemas. And for nice weather, even at night, there was the summer garden, later called Capitol after nationalization. In terms of leisure, consumption did not cease, even late at night. Therefore, the customer flow was constant. There was a very good understanding of this type of business for the time we’re discussing.

People mostly went out during the week. On weekends, they stayed home and gave the household servants the day off. On Sundays, the boulevard was full of maids, the servants of Bucharest’s households—it was their free day. They strolled along the boulevard, ate ice cream, and went to Cișmigiu. Generally, on weekends, people would head to the Hippodrome—Herăstrău Park wasn’t developed yet—or outside the city. 

There were also shady places during that time, with prostitution, which was monitored—you needed to have control over these miseries. There was a nightlife with both shadows and lights. You could be a much-loved actress or actor on the stages you performed on, and in another part of your life, you could indulge in other fantasies.

How did people have fun in the Belle Epoque?

Adrian Majuru: If you left the hotel, you could have fun “wherever you looked.” The boulevard was lined with summer gardens, cinemas, and bistros. At the Summer Garden, later named Capitol after nationalization, there was also a space where you could dance. There was still the Oteteleșanu Garden, where the Telephone Palace would later be built, on Calea Victoriei. The surroundings were full of shops, especially on Calea Victoriei, and less in the Old Center, which functioned as a banking City at that time.

It was a place where what we now understand as team-building activities were organized. After hours, the hotel’s lounges were used by small or medium-sized companies for such meetings, opportunities to forge friendships and discuss non-work-related topics that interested them. The idea to create such events came from Bragadiru, who built the Palace that bears his name, behind the factory. The Bragadiru Palace was a “house of entertainment” for the factory workers—with a bowling alley, billiards, bar, dance hall, and ballroom. Thus, this concept began to take shape, which today is common and widely used.

In the Belle Epoque, The Palace Hotel was a place where you would meet to make a transaction, then retreat to play billiards or listen to a concert. It was one of the few places that offered such a variety of services, which encouraged customer loyalty and diversified transactions and discussions, a place designed from the start with a dynamic service offering to attract clients for lodging.