The House of the Free Press (), known under Communist rule as Casa Scînteii, 'House of ''The Spark'' (newspaper)', is a building in northern

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, the tallest in the city between 1956 and 2007.

History

A horse race track was built in 1905 on the future site of the House of the Free Press. A third of the track was removed in 1950 to make way for a wing of the building, and the race track was finally closed and demolished in 1960, after a decision by

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (; 8 November 1901 – 19 March 1965) was a Romanian politician. He was the first Socialist Republic of Romania, Communist leader of Romania from 1947 to 1965, serving as first secretary of the Romanian Communist Party ...

. Construction began in 1952 and was completed in 1956. The building was named ''Combinatul Poligrafic Casa Scînteii "I.V.Stalin"'' and later ''Casa Scînteii'' (''

Scînteia ''Scînteia'' ( Romanian for "The Spark") was the name of two newspapers edited by Communist groups at different intervals in Romanian history. The title is a homage to the Russian language paper '' Iskra''. It was known as ''Scânteia'' until ...

'' was the name of the

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...

's official newspaper). It was designed by the architect , in the Stalinist style of Socialist realism, resembling the main building of the

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

, and was intended to house all of Bucharest's printing presses, the newsrooms and their staff. It has a foundation with an area of , the total constructed surface is and it has a volume of . Its height is without the television antenna, which measures an additional , bringing the total height to . Between 1952 and 1966, Casa Scînteii was featured on the reverse of the 100 lei banknote. On 21 April 1960, a statue of

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

, made by Romanian sculptor Boris Caragea, was placed in front of the building. However, this statue was removed on 3 March 1990, following the

Romanian Revolution of 1989 The Romanian revolution () was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world, primarily within the Eastern Bloc. The Romanian revoluti ...

."Epilog la o statuie", ''

România Liberă Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to the east, and the Black Sea t ...

'', 4 March 1990. On 30 May 2016, the Monument of the Anti-Communist Fight ("Wings") was inaugurated in the same place. Renamed ("House of the Free Press"), the building has basically the same role nowadays, with many of today's newspapers having their headquarters in it. The

Bucharest Stock Exchange The Bucharest Stock Exchange (, BVB) is the stock exchange of Romania located in Bucharest. In 2023, the BVB's market capitalization increased by 52.7% to $64.9 billion. , there were 85 companies listed on the BVB. The capitalization of the Roma ...

(''Bursa de Valori București'', BVB) was located in the Southern wing at one point. As of 2023, the House of the Free Press is the only building in Bucharest that has kept the

hammer and sickle The hammer and sickle (Unicode: ) is a communist symbol representing proletarian solidarity between industrial and agricultural workers. It was first adopted during the Russian Revolution at the end of World War I, the hammer representing wo ...

communist symbol, which appears on

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

s on its

façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

. File:ROL 100 1952 reverse.jpg, Casa Scînteii on the reverse of a 100-lei banknote, 1952 File:Bukarest, Románia. A Szabad Sajtó háza, a volt Scânteia-ház. Fortepan 84528.jpg, Gathering of Romanian young pioneers at Lenin's statue in front of the Casa Scînteii in 1977 File:House of Free Press.jpg, The House of the Free Press and the "Wings" Monument File:House of the Spark (Casa Scânteii) (5723590216).jpg, General view from the Free Press Square File:PMadia 000269 NA NA.jpg, View of building some time after 1990 File:Five-pointed star. And grapes. (6938852169).jpg, Five-pointed star on the façade

References

External links

* {{Tall buildings in Romania Skyscraper office buildings in Bucharest Stalinist architecture Socialist realism Commercial buildings completed in 1956 Office buildings completed in 1956 1956 establishments in Romania

History

See also

References

External links