CEC Palace

In front of you is one of the most photographed buildings in Bucharest, and one of the best explanations of why the city earned the nickname «Little Paris». The CEC Palace was built as the headquarters of the state savings bank, the Casa de Depuneri și Consemnațiuni, founded in 1864 under Alexandru Ioan Cuza.

1An architect from Paris

The design is by Paul Gottereau, a French architect trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and construction was supervised by the Romanian Ion Socolescu. Work began on 8 June 1897 and was finished in 1900. The building was paid for out of the institution's own funds, something the bank was proud of: Romanians' savings turned into stone.

2What stood here before

The plot hid centuries of history. This was the site of the monastery of St John the Great, with a 16th-century church that Constantin Brâncoveanu restored in 1702–1703. The church fell into decay and was demolished in 1875. It is a familiar story in Bucharest: each era built on top of the one before.

At the end of the 19th century, the Romanian elite spoke French, studied in Paris and commissioned their buildings from French or French-trained architects. Calea Victoriei, the street you are on, filled up with palaces, cafés and elegant shops. The CEC Palace, with its eclectic mix of domes and columns, sums up that ambition perfectly.

3What to look for

• The central dome of glass and metal, which lights the great hall.
• The entrance arch, carried on two pairs of composite columns.
• The corner domes, in Renaissance style.