Romania: the golden age that an earthquake brought down
Romania's golden age: territorial expansion, oil and Art Deco. An earthquake in 1940 and communism buried that splendour.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Romania's golden age: oil, Art Deco and an earthquake
Interwar Romania was no mirage: it was a small-scale European power. In those years Bucharest amassed the wealth of oil, became a crossroads between East and West, and the country reached its greatest territorial extent, some 300,000 km². Yet the image of a thriving city shown in the 1923 photographs, with streets full of cars and its almost-skyscrapers in Art Deco style, belongs to the postcard of the elites, not to society as a whole.
The collapse, in the literal sense
The decline was not caused by the war alone. In 1940, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake brought down many of the buildings that had given Bucharest a modern skyline. Then came communism, and the memory of that splendour lay buried for decades. Anyone who wants a glimpse into that world has a literary gateway: the novels about Bucharest and Athens published by Libros del Asteroide, which portray life in Romania at the time and the squalor of Carol II's court. Today the country is growing again and exceeds 77% of the average EU per capita income, but the uncomfortable question remains: was it really a golden age, or a bubble for the few? The story of the urban-oil boom counsels caution: splendours built in haste also collapse in haste.
Interwar Romania was no mirage: it was a small-scale European power. In those years Bucharest amassed the wealth of oil, became a crossroads between East and West, and the country reached its greatest territorial extent, some 300,000 km². Yet the image of a thriving city shown in the 1923 photographs, with streets full of cars and its almost-skyscrapers in Art Deco style, belongs to the postcard of the elites, not to society as a whole.
The collapse, in the literal sense
The decline was not caused by the war alone. In 1940, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake brought down many of the buildings that had given Bucharest a modern skyline. Then came communism, and the memory of that splendour lay buried for decades. Anyone who wants a glimpse into that world has a literary gateway: the novels about Bucharest and Athens published by Libros del Asteroide, which portray life in Romania at the time and the squalor of Carol II's court. Today the country is growing again and exceeds 77% of the average EU per capita income, but the uncomfortable question remains: was it really a golden age, or a bubble for the few? The story of the urban-oil boom counsels caution: splendours built in haste also collapse in haste.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (32 replies).
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