The passion for the history of the capital caused Aurel Ionescu to get involved in a complex research activity resulting in the elaboration of a number of comprehensive works referring to the names of the streets in Bucharest. And as he has always had a complex way to see and know the world, Aurel Ionescu succeeded in combining perfectly the interest for exact sciences (he graduated from the Polytechnics University in Bucharest) with his love for the Romanian language, history, geography, but also other fields, more or less connected to the basic specialty.
What significances do the names of the streets in Bucharest have for Aurel Ionescu?
The first significance is the one related to the need for orienteering in the city. As regards the streets with tradition, as many of them as there are still around, there is a great pleasure for me to know something about their history and name, potentially about the personalities who used to live there, and be able to introduce all that to the interested ones.
How did you get to devote yourself to this painstaking job of doing research in the way certain historical changes reflect themselves in the name of the streets?
In the beginning I wished to know who are those who have given names to a number of of the streets of Bucharest. Bishop Timuş, Dr. Iatropol, General Doda or Amza, the founder of the church in the city center, what mysterious names! I had not learned about them in my history classes at school, and there was no mention of them in DEX / Romanian Explanatory Dictionary. And these were not the only ones. In Bucharest there are about 5000 streets, out of which about 1500 bear people’s names.
The answer to these questions could only be found in the resolutions ascribing or changing the names of the concerned streets, so I started searching those documents. In 2006, at the National Archives – the Directorate of the City of Bucharest, then at the Bucharest City Hall. In mid-2008 I was possessed of all the relevant resolutions for ascribing names, and I knew rather well the steps of this process: getting from a city with streets having virtually no name – in 1948 – over to the city with 900 streets – in 1890 – followed by the accelerated modernization (alternated with destructions) in the 20th century.
In what way your engineering profession helped you in your historical research endeavor?
I have been working for 28 years as a scientific researcher at the Institute for Atomic Physics in Bucharest-Măgurele. This activity with its both sides, theoretical and practical, helped me a lot in the historical research I’ve done in archives, libraries, both on site and at home.
What is the end result of your work thus far? Where can we find the works accomplished by you?
Up till now, 5 volumes have been published in the series “Streets in Bucharest and their names” at the Vremea / Time Publishing House in Bucharest. They can be spotted in bookshops, and, best of all, at the Publishing House headquarters.
Information about the streets bearing people’s names have been grouped according to socio-cultural and professional categories: aviators, militaries, physicians, church personalities, architects, artists, etc., assigning a whole volume for one or two categories. For each designation there is an artery historical background, as well as a note containing biographical information. All the name changes are introduced, beginning with the oldest name, and the connection between the biography of the person that offers the current name and the name (the evolving of the name) of the street was pursued.
When did the naming of the streets in Bucharest begin and what criteria have been taken into account when the name of a street has been determined?
Many of the names of streets belong to the old, traditional background, with topographic motives or pertaining to the local history, but there are also names ascribed by the community through the local or higher administration. The main reason the streets began to receive names was facilitating the orienteering of citizens and identification of properties. Beginning with the old approximate formulas (Oprea de la povarnă / Oprea at the “povarna” [t/n: rudimentary small plant used to make spirits or liquors], Lixandra ce şade la Iane Cărămidă / Lixandra who lives at Iane Caramida, etc.), the methods got more refined, getting gradually, during the 18th century, to the identification by a named street and a house number. The names acquired by streets and city squares belonged to an important edifice nearby (Biserica Enei / Enea Church; Academia / The Academy; Bursa / The Stock Exchange, Palatul Regal / the Royal Palace etc.), to a landowner who divided his land into parcels and built houses that he later sold (Suter, Mitu Tudorache etc.) or even to a famous personality who used to live there (Dr. Carol Davila, Matei Millo etc.). Another way originated from the desire to perpetuate the memory of public personalities (war heroes, politicians, physicians, etc.) or of a number of important events (Piaţa Unirii / Union Square, Splaiul Independenţei / Independence Embankment, Bd 1 Decembrie / December 1st Boulevard, etc.). A universal phenomenon, this one emerged in Bucharest as well in the mid-19th century and was handed down till nowadays.
Are there streets in Bucharest that kept their names ever since 1920, when the Street Numbering and Nomenclating Regulation was enacted in Bucharest? How did they succeed in escaping the wave of the successive changes of designations?
After the enacting in 1920 of a Regulation with force of law “concerning the numbering and nomenclating the streets of the city of Bucharest”, it was set up within the Capital City Hall a Nomenclating Committee. Typically, this Committee consisted of specialists, and its proposals were referred to the City Committee, who approved of them as they came, or could make comments on them and change them. Its activity, under a designation or another, spanned more than fifty years. Over the period of 1921-1944, the Nomenclating Committee conducted more than 150 sittings in which more than 2000 changes or ascribing of artery names in Bucharest were carried out.
Many streets received the names of a number of heroes (militaries, aviators, physicians) in World War I and kept them uninterruptedly: Lt. Aurel Botea, Gen. Ernest Broşteanu, Lt. Mihail Foişoreanu, Mr. Aviator Nicolae Capşa, Lt. Aviator Şerban Petrescu, Dr. Haralambie Botescu, Dr. Jean Clunet, etc.
Could you tell us what is the street or streets in the Capital City with the oldest name?
Amongst the very old names that are still preserved we will mention Căldărari (1683), Colţei, Lipscani. Calea Şerban Vodă / Prince Şerban Avenue is the artery with the oldest name of person in Bucharest, the first mentioning dating ever since 1721, and makes reference to the bridge built over the Dâmboviţa River by Prince Radu Şerban between 1602 and 1610.
There are many streets that bear the names of certain historical personalities. How were they selected / or in what way these personalities are selected?
Following the example of other capitals of Europe, the Bucharest aediles have ruled in 1909 that ascribing names of illustrious deceased persons to public places is the best way to perpetuate the remembrance of these people in the collective memory. They also enforced a condition, namely that this would be done only after “five years from death […]” when “it could be determined whether or not the memory of that person lasted, and to what extent.” Subsequently reduced to three years, that timeframe has always been breached. Under political or emotional pressure, the exceptions became rule. Rivalries of all sorts, or human weaknesses, brought about many name changes, sometimes regrettable.
What are the main historical moments generating changes in street designations in the capital?
A first significant moment was in 1878, after the termination of the Independence War. At that time, the Communal Committee ruled that a number of traditional designations would be changed to names that honor the places of victory and its authors. Amongst others, Calea Mogoşoaiei / Mogoşoaiei Avenue, Calea Vergului / Vergului Avenue, Calea Craiovei / Craiova Avenue, Strada Germană / German Street, all became, respectively, Calea Victoriei / Victory’s Avenue, Calea Călăraşilor / Cavalrymen Avenue, Calea Rahovei / Rahova Avenue, Strada Smârdan / Smârdan Avenue.
Another important moment was in the aftermath of the Great Union at 1918, when the names of many war heroes, historical provinces (re)united to Motherland, and a number of important localities therein emerged.
What are the reasons generating changes in the designation of a number of streets?
Besides a number of designations becoming obsolete (Str. Furiilor / Furies’ Street, Str. Discordiei / Discord’s Street, etc.) or replacing a number of designations devoid of significance, the urban toponymy and public monuments (statues, museums) constituted a space that all the political regimes tried to dominate and take over. This became very visible ever since 1940, each new administration desiring to assert specific values and, if it were possible, to rewrite history. Many names of streets removed in those years came back on the street signs only after 1989.
Were there cases in which living personalities enjoyed the privilege of their name being ascribed to a street in Bucharest?
The first formal ascribing of name in Bucharest was that of name of Russian General P. D. Kiseleff (1788-1872), former Plenipotentiary President of the Councils in Moldova / Moldavia and Ţara Românească / Wallachia during the period of Russian occupation (October 1829 – April 1834). Political man with liberal ideas and good diplomat, he encouraged many positive measures in administrating the Romanian provinces and had a momentous contribution to the drafting of Regulamentul Organic / The Organic Regulation. His name was ascribed in 1843 to the Băneasa Alley in the northern part of the city, and for a half of the artery, it stood until today.
A street in close proximity to Cişmigiu Park (former Fântânei / Fountain, then “Karl Lueger”) received in 1919 the name of the French General H. M. Berthelot (1861-1931), former Chief of the French Military Mission in Romania (1916-1918) and Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Army at the Danube that contributed during the fall of 1918 to the Romania’s emancipation from under the occupation of the Central Powers.
In the Royalty Period (1866-1947), the names of the Kings and Queens of Romania and of other members of the Royal Family were ascribed to a number of streets and important places in Bucharest and other cities of the country.
After 1947, these names have been replaced with maximum urgency, in their place appearing the names of a number of Communist frontrunners, especially Soviet, the one of I. V. Stalin being the most utilized.
Closer to nowadays, in 2001, Strada Canalului / Channel Street in Capital District 6 [of the capital] received the name of the well-known athlete Gabriela Szabo (b. 1975), World Champion (1998, 1999) and Olympic Champion (2000).
Many times, the designations of a number of streets are changed, but in the collective mentality the old designation persists for a long time. How long can it take until the ordinary people assimilate the name of a street?
There is a conservative tendency as far as the public designations are concerned. Once entered into the public awareness, certain toponyms can be preserved for decades on end. Moreover, the changes made out of political motives led to situations sometimes hilarious. Thus, Andrei Pippidi recounts «a tale that circulated forty years ago. One evening, the actor Emil Botta was returning home, in a state of relative confusion (…). Getting into a cab, he ordered with his sepulchral voice: “Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Boulevard! [n/t the name of the Communist leader at that time who had just deceased]”; then, faltering, he corrected himself: “Excuse me, Regina Elisabeta / Queen Elisabeth”. To which the reactionary driver would exclaim: “May God grant that!”.» (Andrei Pippidi, Names of streets, II, in “Dilema veche / Old Dilemma” [Magazine], 4th Year, No. 167, April 23rd, 2007).
What are the effects that change of a street’s name brings about in the day-by-day living?
Changing a street’s name may be an occasion for joy when it is an undesirable word (Suferindă / Suffering, Sarsailă / Horny Devil) or that seems… indecent (the name of the Epicur Street, Greek philosopher, has been changed to Epicol), but also for regret, when names such as Clemenţei / of Clemence or Pietăţii / of Piety are replaced.
In general, a name means an address. Its change is extremely unpleasant to those who live on that street, since they need to change their ID cards and notify all their acquaintances about their new address. An example that triggered strong discontent was that of the former Orlando Street near Piaţa Victoriei / Victoria’s Square, whose name, after 85 years of stability, was changed three times in a row, every two years between 2004-2008, in the end remaining with the name of the great actress Gina Patrichi, who used to live on that street.
Are there streets in Bucharest that you would name differently?
That is a temptation that I will resist, having in view the above considerations. Moreover, it is good to remember that, in 2018, The Committee for Ascribing Designations of the City of Bucharest completed a table with all the streets in Bucharest, that was made available to the City Hall in order to be checked by the public.
