site.btaStructural Reinforcement of Historic Solakov Inn in Bucharest Goes Full Steam Ahead

Extremely hot weather in Bucharest has not interrupted the structural reinforcement of the historic Solakov Inn, where exiled Bulgarian revolutionaries found shelter in the 1860s and 1870s. The base and the metal framework of the ground floor's front wall are being built. Three conveyor belts are carrying wreckage and waste from the ground level of the building to the courtyard.

In May, workers reinforced the passages leading from 134-134A Calea Mosilor Street to the courtyard of the former inn, and later laid the foundations for metal structural elements. The courtyard was largely cleared of earlier wreckage piled up over the years, to make room for construction machines.

The Solakov Inn was initially built as a pasta factory in 1859, the year of the unification of Moldavia and Wallachia. It was named after the Solakoglu brothers from the Danubian city of Svishtov. It gradually became a haven for Bulgarian revolutionary immigrants in Romania prior to Bulgaria's liberation from Ottoman Turkish rule in 1878. The Solakov Inn housed the press where the great Bulgarian National Revival figure Lyuben Karavelov published the newspapers Freedom and Independence, as well as the Knowledge journal. There, too, poet and revolutionary Hristo Botev and national hero Vassil Levski spent the harsh winter of 1868, which was immortalized by Botev in a memoir.

The 100-room building was nearly destroyed in World War II bombings and then nationalized by the Romanian government in 1948. Until the end of the 1980s it housed low-income people and gradually fell into disrepair. Bulgarian ambassador to Romania Petar Danailov began negotiations with Romanian authorities for the inn to be restored and become a Bulgarian cultural centre.

In 2003, descendants of the Solakoglu brothers succeeded in regaining their property, but it was in terrible condition. Restoring it required a considerable investment, which they failed to provide. After part of the front wall fell in 2019, the Bucharest authorities launched an alienation procedure. In January 2022, Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan announced that they had the green light to commence work on the Solakov Inn. The salvaging of the historic building would begin soon, and the former inn would be turned into a cultural hub of the Romanian capital.