Two century-old buildings in downtown Bucharest were demolished last weekend, despite protests from several NGOs which argued the buildings should have been classified as historical monuments.

A five-floored apart-hotel building will be erected on the site now left empty at 16 Christian Tell street in the Amzei area.

Only the facade was left from one of the buildings, and will be incorporated into the new project, while the other was completely demolished.

One of the two houses used to belong to the family of Prince Ghika.

The future apart-hotel project will be built on the site by a company called Romtal Invest, represented by Jacob Freund.

The developer said they had all the required approvals from the city hall to demolish the houses and build their new project.

The Association Salvati Bucurestiul (Save Bucharest) said it plans to file a criminal complaint against the owner of the land plot and the City Hall, as well as against a state secretary in the Culture Minister who blocked the procedure to classify the two houses as historic monuments, which led to the recent demolition.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: DincolodeFatade on Facebook)