Social Events
Dinners
Day 1 - Thursday (October 6th, 2011), 20.00 - Restaurant "Caru' cu bere"
3-5, Stavropoleos St.
"Caru' cu bere" is one of the oldest beer shops in Bucharest, opened in 1879 in a neo-gothic building designed by the Austrian architect Zigfrid Kofczinsky; the space structure and the decoration details created the ambiance of a German beerhalle.
For over 100 years, the "Caru' cu bere" beer shop in Bucharest was a meeting, creation and party place for the Bucharest people and some of the greatest Romanian culture and art personalities.
"Caru' cu bere" is not only a restaurant, but a page in Bucharest's history. The inside architecture kept the original mural paintings, stained glass and carved wood decoration, reminding the old town of the 19th century.
Day 3 - Saturday (October 8th, 2011), 20.00 - Manuc's Inn
(Romanian: Hanul lui Manuc, pronounced ['hanu(l) luj ma'nuk])
62-64, Franceza St.
The restaurant is hosted in an old inn built in 1808 and originally owned by a wealthy and flamboyant Armenian entrepreneur, known under its Turkish name Manuc-bei. By the middle of the 19th century, it was Bucharest's most important commercial complex, with 15 wholesalers, 23 retail stores, 107 rooms for offices or living, two receiving rooms and a pub. The inn was the site of the preliminary talks for the Treaty of Bucharest which ended the 1806-1812 Russo-Turkish war. In 1842 it briefly housed Bucharest's town hall. Around 1880 a hall at the inn was used as a theatre, and was the site of the first Romanian operetta performance. Before Romania entered World War I, in 1914-1916, the "Sala Dacia" hall hosted meetings of the Wallachian pro-war party that sought to establish a Greater Romania by uniting with Transylvania and Bukovina.
The building was nationalized in 1949. Ownership was restored to Prince Serban-Constantin Cantacuzino in February 2007. Of the three surviving 19th century inns in the Lipscani district (historical center of Bucharest), it is the only one currently in use as a hotel. Although Manuc's Inn has been subject to repeated restorations (the last one concluded in 2011) its essential structure and decoration with oriental influences - typical for the civil architecture of Bucharest in the first half of the 19th century - remained intact.
Entertainment
Day 2 - Friday (October 7th, 2011), 19:00 - National Operetta Theatre (TNO)
2, Nicolae Balcescu Boulevard
Romeo and Juliet (pop-rock musical)
The musical created by Gérard Presgurvic, based on Shakespeare's play, premiered in Paris on January 19, 2001. Knowing a huge success, it has been performed in Canada, Antwerp, London, Amsterdam, Budapest, Szeged, Moscow, Vienna, Seoul and Taipei. Presgurvic rewrites Shakespeare's verse and introduces pop and rock in a modern adaptation of the famous play. He says about Romeo and Juliet: "It is hard to find a better topic for a good musical. It has all the necessary ingredients: hate, love, misunderstanding, destiny, death, wedding, freedom. Beyond all this, I tried to use this story to discover new feelings, yet universal, in myself and others." This production is collaboration between National Operetta Theatre in Bucharest and the Budapest Operetta Theatre, as part of the Open Operetta international program involving long-term partnerships with foreign institutions and cultural exchanges.
Trip to Mogosoaia Palace
Day 3 - Saturday (October 8th, 2011), 9:00
The complex of the Mogoşoaia Palace (in Romanian: Palatul Mogoşoaia) is situated about 15 kilometres from Bucharest, on the shore of the homonym lake. It bears the name of the widow of the Romanian boyar MogoÅ, who owned the land it was built on. The Palace, overlooking the beautiful park around and the lake, was built between 1698-1702 by the Wallachian Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu in what is called the Romanian Renaissance style or Brâncovenesc style.
The Palace was to a large extent modified in the 1920s by Marthe Bibesco, the wife of Prince George Bibesco. She spent all her wealth from the many books she wrote in its reconstruction and it became the meeting place for politicians and international high society, a quiet retreat during the growing turmoil of the 1930s. Prince George died in 1941 and was buried in the small, white 1688 church on the grounds of the Palace.
For several years, the complex of the Mogosoaia Palace has become an important cultural landmark for connoisseurs. Beyond its particular architecture, the attractions of the palace are its thematic halls: the Turkish â Persian hall, the Orthodox hall, the map room, the rugs hall, the Phanariot hall, the French hall, the antechamber of the Italian room, the Italian room, the Transylvanian room, the Council Hall and the Royal Chancery Hall. The lapidary at the basement of the palace is an exhibition space that houses the collection of architectural relics. Since 1957, the palace became the Brancovenian Art Museum (Muzeul de ArtÄ BrâncoveneascÄ) and here you can admire exhibits of paintings, wood and stone carvings, rare books and ancient manuscripts, silver and embroidery items.
Inside the palace, or in its surroundings, are frequently organized cultural events as performances, concerts and exhibitions.
For further details see: