Bucharest, as you have never seen it before. Where the University fountain is today was the Britania hotel, owned by the son of the mayor Pake-Protopopescu

Hotel Britania is a lost story of the city. Some photos and postcards from the interwar period show us that on the place where the artesian fountain square in Piata Universităităi, across the street from Architecture, is located today, there was an impressive building, as if taken from Walt Disney’s films. A hotel with two rococo towers in the middle of Bucharest, the great Hotel Britania.

The building, erected in 1920 by I. Pache-Protopopescu, the son of the mayor Emanoil Pache-Protopopescu, Advertisements in period newspapers tell us that the great Britania hotel had rooms from 80 to 200 lei per day, “with modern comfort”, and it is “near the Central Hall (National Square, today’s Union) and three minutes from the National Theater (Capital Center).

There was an advertisement for Adesgo on the front of the hotel, and later advertisements for Minimax and Kodak appeared. On the ground floor, Britania had the C. Sărățeanu wine shop, Anghelescu sold candies, there was also a “special sausages” shop and a drug store.

But the spectacular building caught fire on December 29, 1932, when the top floors and towers were badly damaged. After the devastating fire, the Britannia Hotel was repaired, but the towers were never rebuilt.

But another terrible event would seal its fate, and this happened not even 10 years later after the repairs.

Discover, on B365.ro, Bucharest, as you have never seen it, in a series of documentary photos, accompanied by an extraordinary story of the city center.