The beautiful blog and photography of Bucharest citizen Ileana Partenie, as she celebrates the lovely old vanishing architecture of her city, documents its destruction, and captures new juxtapositions of the brash and the traditional, the corporate and the counter-cultural, now existing side by side.
The Astronomical Observatory/ building details
It was built to look like a ship anchored right in the Centre of Bucharest.
“I built the house in the form of a yacht, with a dome observatory, while I make telescope observations to have the feeling that I float on the sea” used to say Admiral Vasile Urseanu who started the construction works in 1908, with his own money.
Arran Q Henderson 
Thanks for sharing this Arran, even though it’s something I didn’t want to believe.
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Yes, I agree Jane. it’s incredibly sad. Similar things have happened of course all over Europe, Including UK and Ireland) and the world. Apparently almost all of the ancient historic centre of Beijing for example, has no w been destroyed, to make way from modern apartments and shopping “malls”. A thousand years of civilization, community, culture, history, memory and identity, thrown away in less than 20 years. Quite unreal. And now it appears it is happening to the lovely old historic quarters of Bucharest, at an almost similar frenzied pace. Short sighted greed and politics, allied to a a total lack of vision of what really matters in life. Happens almost everywhere. It’s heart-breaking.
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History can’t be replaced, but the developers don’t give a toss. We lived for a time in the north of France in a small town that was stuffed full of historic monuments. In fact there were (still are) so many the council didn’t have to funds for their upkeep. In the fat years of the 60s they let untold treaures go. There’s a beautiful little chapel built by the Knights Templar at the end of our street that was next for the chop and was only saved because the post office decided they prefered a different site for their new building.
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