ROMÂNIA	ROMANIA
municipiul București	Bucharest Municipality

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București (in English: Bucharest) is the capital and largest city of Romania. It is situated at an elevation of 70 m on the river Dâmbovița in southeastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated (20219 at 1.76 million residents within a greater metropolitan area of 2.3 million residents, which makes Bucharest the 8th most-populous city in the European Union.

First mentioned as the 'Citadel of Bucharest' in 1459, it became the residence of the ruler of Wallachia. The Old Princely Court was erected in the mid-16th century. Under subsequent rulers, Bucharest was established as the summer residence of the royal court. During the years to come, it competed with Târgoviște on the status of capital city after an increase in the importance of Southern Muntenia brought about by the demands of the suzerain power, the Ottoman Empire. Bucharest finally became the permanent location of the Wallachian court after 1698. The Ottomans appointed Greek administrators to run the town from the 18th century. The 1821 Wallachian uprising led to the end of the rule of Constantinople Greeks in Bucharest. The city was wrested from Ottoman influence and occupied at several intervals by the Austrian Habsburg monarchy (1716, 1737, 1789) and Imperial Russia (three times between 1768 and 1806). It was placed under Russian administration between 1828 and the Crimean War (1853–1856). In 1862, after Wallachia and Moldavia were united to form the Principality of Romania, Bucharest became the new nation's capital city. In 1881, it became the political centre of the newly proclaimed Kingdom of Romania. Between 1916 and 1918, the city was occupied by German forces as a result of the Battle of Bucharest, with the official capital temporarily moved to Iași in the Moldavia region. After World War I, Bucharest became the capital of Greater Romania. As the capital of an Axis country and a major transit point for Axis troops en route to the Eastern Front, Bucharest suffered heavy damage during World War II due to Allied bombings. After the establishment of communism in Romania, the city continued growing. During Nicolae Ceaușescu's leadership (1965–1989), a part of the historic city was demolished and replaced by 'Socialist realism' style development. The Romanian Revolution of 1989 began with massive anti-Ceaușescu protests in Timișoara and continued in Bucharest, leading to the overthrow of the Communist regime. Since 2000, the city has been continuously modernised and Bucharest's old historic centre has undergone restoration since the mid-2000s.

The former Post Services Palace [left, no. 0000] was commissioned in 1892. Its architect Alexandru Săvalescu took inspiration from various European postal facilities. The final sketches of his design were influenced primarily by the postal facility in Geneva. Built in an eclectic style, it is rectangular with a large porch on a high basement and three upper floors. The stone façade features a portico supported by ten Doric columns and a platform consisting of twelve steps spanning the length of the building. There are many allegorical sculptural decorative details. Today, the building is used as the National History Museum of Romania, which houses Romanian historical artifacts from prehistoric times up to modern times. With a surface of over 8,000 square metres, the museum has approximately 60 valuable exhibition rooms.

[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukarest, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucharest; http://www.fallingrain.com/world/RO/10/Bucuresti.html; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_History_Museum_of_Romania]