- Casa Presei Libere
Casa Presei Libere (The House of the Free Press) is a building in northern
Bucharest ,Romania , the highest one in the city until 2007.Construction began in
1952 and was completed in1956 . The building was named "Combinatul Poligrafic Casa Scînteii "I.V.Stalin" and later "Casa Scînteii" ("Scînteia " was the name of theRomanian Communist Party 's official newspaper). It was designed by the architectHoria Maicu , in the pure (albeit comparatively small-scale) style of SovietSocialist realism , resembling the main building of theMoscow State University , and was intended to house all of Bucharest's printing presses, the newsrooms and their staff.It has a foundation with an area of 280x260m, the total constructed surface is 32,000 m² and it has a volume of 735,000 m³. Its height is 91.6 m without the television antenna, which measures an additional 12.4 m, ["Dicţionarul Enciclopedic Romîn", 1962] bringing the total height to 104 m.
Between 1952 and 1966, Casa Scînteii was featured on the reverse of the 100 lei banknote.
On
21 April 1960 , a giant statue ofVladimir Lenin , made by Romanian sculptorBoris Caragea , was placed in front of the building. However, this statue was removed on3 March 1990 , following theRomanian Revolution of 1989 . ["România Liberă ", "Epilog la o statuie",4 March 1990 .] The statue's pedestal is still there.It has basically the same role nowadays, with many of today's newspapers having their headquarters in the same building, now renamed "Casa Presei Libere" ("The House of the Free Press"). The
Bucharest Stock Exchange ("Bursa de Valori Bucureşti", BVB - in Romanian) was located in the southern wing at one point. The BVB is now located off the 5 and 16 tram lines betweenPiaţa Unirii and somewhat close to the University Square.ee also
*
Seven Sisters (Moscow)
*Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw
*Socialist realism in Romania References
External links
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