National Library of Romania
Bucharest, Romania
April 2018
Bucharest is a town that’s rather stuck with the Communist architecture of the 80s, yet, if you’re willing to navigate its various side streets you can sometimes find gems of a past era. When I was there I had the good fortune to glimpse the Mănăstirea Antim, a monastery that’s a gem of 18th Century Romanian Orthodox architecture, which lies near, but definitely not within view of, Nicolae Ceaușescu’s colossal Parliamentary Palace!
The Romanian National Library in contrast is a lovely modern piece of work, it opened in 2012. I visited because I happened to be in the area of the city it’s in, and was waiting a couple hours before catching an interregio train north to Brașov. The gentleman at the desk required my passport to add me to the visitor log, but then rather than copy down my passport number, he copied down my information from my Austrian visa, so I’m pretty sure they would have been hard pressed to identify me had I committed any mischief.
I managed to quickly find the American book collection, much of it appearing to be courtesy of the US embassy, in a back section of the second floor. The main hall was a beautiful sweeping work of contemporary architecture, the hall rises for several floors to the roof, and the use of natural light creates a brilliant looking atmosphere. Walking on the second floor mezzanine I saw several researchers and school groups. Overall, it seemed like a beacon for knowledge in a country that at times can feel quite put down for its poverty in comparison to its western European neighbors.
Bucharest traffic is terrible, I made the mistake of trying to use the tram and bus system to get to the station, always take the metro if possible. After this little excursion I arrived at North Station eight minutes before my train’s departure.