Manuc's Inn (Hanul lui Manuc)

In front of you is the oldest inn in Bucharest that is still in business. A han was a large building closed around a courtyard: shops and storerooms below, rooms for merchants above, and a single gate that was locked at night. This one was built between 1806 and 1808 for a character straight out of a novel: Manuc Bei.

1Who was Manuc?

Manuc Mârzaian was born in 1769 in Ruse, on the Danube, into an Armenian family. He was a merchant, an interpreter in Ottoman service and, according to the documents, an agent of the Russian Empire. He was immensely rich. His inn had fifteen vaulted cellars, twenty-three shops and more than a hundred rooms.

2The treaty of 1812

In 1812 the Russians and the Ottomans negotiated here the peace that ended their war. The Treaty of Bucharest handed Russia Bessarabia, the land between the Prut and Dniester rivers that had been part of Moldavia. Manuc later retired to his estates in Bessarabia and died in 1817, according to the sources in an accident. He was buried in the Armenian church in Chișinău.

A man so rich, so well connected and so discreet was bound to attract rumours. People said he played both sides between the sultan and the tsar, that he hid his gold in the cellars, and on night tours of the Old Town you will hear stories of footsteps in the galleries. None of it is supported by documents.

In the 19th century the inn became the Grand Hotel Dacia, with masked balls and theatre.

3What to look for

• The wooden galleries on the upper floor.
• The great roof, which gives the building its silhouette.
• The courtyard, usually visible from the restaurant entrance.