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Legend has it that Bucharest was founded by a shepherd named Bucur (bucurie; literally ‘joy’) who built a church on the right bank of the Dâmboviţa River.

The city, which lies on the Wallachian plains between the Carpathian foothills and the Danube River, was settled by Geto-Dacians as early as 70 BC. By 1459 a princely residence and military citadel had been established under the chancellery of infamous Prince Vlad Ţepeş. By the end of the 17th century, the city was the capital of Wallachia and ranked among southeastern Europe’s wealthiest cities. Bucharest became the national capital in 1862, as it lay on the main trade route between east and west.

The early 20th century was Bucharest’s golden age. Large neoclassical buildings sprang up, fashionable parks were laid out and landscaped on Parisian models and, by the end of the 1930s, Bucharest was known throughout Europe as ‘Little Paris’.

Bombing by the Allies during WWII, coupled with a 1940 earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale, destroyed much of Bucharest’s prewar beauty. In March 1977 a second major earthquake claimed 1391 lives and flattened countless buildings. Ceauşescu’s criminal redevelopment of the city marked the final death knell of Romania’s elegant past.

The revolution of 1989 ripped the city to shreds. Although still haunted by its bloody history, Bucharest is recovering from its painful rebirth with contemporary building projects, the cull of snarling street dogs, care of street children who once roamed the city, crime prevention measures and an optimism born of hard-won freedom. Yet there’s still much to do and Bucharest’s future is as uncertain as it is exciting.

These days, as Bucharest finally assumes its status as a new EU capital, abandoned cranes remain next to abandoned projects from Ceauşescu buildings, while new ones tower over glittering new hotels or office buildings. A lot of people bump elbows in the tight space – Bucharest is Europe’s most crowded capital, with over 8000 people per sq kilometre, about 10 times more packed than Paris.

* Source: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/romania/bucharest/history

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