The first in a new series on cities living with risk assesses the problems facing Romania's capital, where hundreds of ornate buildings in the historic centre are in real danger of collapse

Dan Lungu, a sprightly 70-year-old expert on seismological risk, is taking a morning stroll down a street in the centre of the Romanian capital, pointing out historic buildings that are slowly falling apart as he goes. They are the victims not only of neglect, but seismic activity. “Bucharest is the most dangerous major city in Europe when it comes to earthquakes,” Lungu explains.



Nearly 40 years ago, an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale struck 60 miles away from Bucharest. The resulting shockwaves destroyed more than 30 high-rise buildings in the Romanian capital as well as thousands of other structures. An estimated 1,578 people were killed with a further 11,000 injured. It was one of the most devastating events in recent Romanian history.

“In that 1977 quake, 33 [high-rise] buildings in Bucharest were completely destroyed, but many others were damaged,” says Lungu. The former director of the Romanian National Institute of Historical Monuments points to the metal brackets that were attached to building walls as a quick-fix solution soon after the earthquake struck. The fact those brackets are still there today, and that little has been done to shore up these heritage buildings, is of major concern to Lungu and others trying to protect both the city and its structures.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest This sign in Bucharest warns that the building is in the highest risk category in the event of an earthquake. Photograph: Vadim Ghirda/AP

Bucharest is a beautiful and little-known European city, with an historic heart full of crumbling, ornate, early 20th-century buildings. A walk down Calea Victoriei (Victory Avenue) in the heart of the city takes you past former palaces, majestic hotels dating from the turn of the 20th century, and the homes of some of the country’s most renowned historical figures, including George Enescu, the country’s best-loved composer.

But Bucharest is also the most earthquake-prone capital in Europe, affected by numerous small tremors every year – and many of its older buildings are in real danger of collapse.

In the late 1990s, the Romanian government began a programme of building assessments, placing red circular plaques on buildings that were deemed likely to collapse in an earthquake of magnitude 7 or higher. The idea was to identify the buildings so that efforts could be made to preserve them and protect their inhabitants, with residents being given interest-free loans to carry out the necessary repairs.

To date, 374 buildings in the heart of the old city (containing as many as 2,700 apartments) have been classified as Class I risk. Many are still inhabited by long-term residents; people seeking cheap rent or those unable to afford to live elsewhere in the capital. Rents can be a third less in these buildings than in neighbouring apartments.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Some of Bucharest’s older buildings have stood empty for years. The deteriorating structures could easily fall on those passing by. Photograph: Kit Gillet

The testing process was begun at the request of the apartments’ residents, who then quickly realised the negatives of owning property in a building with a “red spot”. Repair loans would only be awarded if every homeowner in the building agreed – if just one resident refused, the building would still be given a red spot without any way to remove it.

“People realised it was pointless, that property prices would go down. There have been no more than 17 requests for red spot tests since 2000. If people see the spot, the price lowers and it is harder to sell,” says Lungu, adding that many residents have removed the plaques from the sides of their buildings.

“Probably nearly all of the buildings in Bucharest’s old town should have red spots,” he adds, almost as an afterthought.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Artist Daniela Turcu looks out over Bucharest: 'After one of last year’s bigger earthquakes I got scared.' Photograph: Kit Gillet

Sitting in her apartment on the fourth floor of a 1930s tenement building, 34-year-old Daniela Turcu says she fell in love with Bucharest’s old architecture soon after arriving in the city a year ago – but is now planning to move from her building, which has a prominent red plaque on it. “It is cheap and everywhere in the city centre is so expensive, but after one of last year’s bigger earthquakes I got scared,” the 34-year-old Romanian artist says. “I’m not sure if I am being paranoid, but it is just not worth the risk.”

Turcu says few of the owners or landlords here bother spending money to do up the apartments, when there is a chance that the building could fall down or become uninhabitable after the next major earthquake hits – whenever that is.

According to Nicusor Dan, a 45-year-old mathematics professor who moved to the city as a 20-year-old and eventually set up his own small NGO to protect Bucharest’s heritage architecture, the fact the buildings are now nearly 40 years older, yet have had little done to preserve them, “means that if an earthquake happens again similar to 1977, we can expect an even greater number of deaths”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Some buildings are left to deteriorate until they have to be pulled down for safety reasons – with high-rises appearing in their place. Photograph: Kit Gillet

Dan estimates there are around a thousand historical buildings in danger in Bucharest, with just 26 having been strengthened in the past 20 years. “The buildings most at danger are the high-rises built between the wars,” he says. Many of these buildings still bear the scars of the earthquake in 1977.

Despite his mathematical background, Dan declines to offer odds on the next quake happening soon – but says his logical thinking comes in useful when preparing to go to court to try to get yet another building placed on the heritage list, or protected from demolition. “When a house is destroyed, I resent it very strongly,” he says.

Hundreds of buildings dating from the early 20th century remain empty across Bucharest, having been allowed to fall into disrepair. In the pedestrian heart of the city, where revellers sit at cafe and bar terraces in the evenings, some buildings have wire-mesh netting to try to protect passersby from any falling masonry.

Critics say a significant number of these historic buildings could be strengthened, rejuvenated and saved – but that the owners prefer to leave them empty, waiting until it is necessary to tear them down for safety reasons and then, in their place, building a modern high-rise.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Maths professor Nicusor Dan reckons a thousand historical buildings are in danger in Bucharest, with just 26 strengthened in 20 years. Photograph: Kit Gillet

“A get-rich-quick mentality has been responsible for much of the destruction of Old Bucharest,” says Roxana Wring, founder of the Association for the Protection and Documentation of Listed Monuments and Heritage of Romania. “There is not even a beginning of a modern approach to what it means to preserve the cultural landscape in Bucharest.”

Wring suggests the local authorities need to treat the city’s historic buildings in a holistic way, rather than as a set of disparate objects that can be replaced by modern buildings which are, often, in stark contrast to the “historical character of the neighbourhoods”.

“Urban regeneration and conservation can only be created with decent regulations,” says Wring. “There is no political will to change things related to heritage.”

Some of Bucharest’s older buildings have stood empty for years; others are being aided in their deterioration at night through strategic vandalism. Once they reach a certain stage of disrepair, the owners will have no choice but to finish the job. In the meantime, they are dangerous shells of buildings that could easily fall on those passing by, with or without the help of an earthquake.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Buildings in Bucharest's Old Town. Seismology expert Dan Lungu says it is impossible to predict when the next big earthquake will strike. Photograph: Kit Gillet

“It is impossible to predict when the next major quake could happen,” says Lungu, as we continue our walk around the old city centre. “A similar magnitude earthquake to the one that occurred in 1977 happens every 50 to 100 years.”

And so, people in Bucharest must go on living in and around dilapidated buildings that are at serious seismic risk. As Daniela Turcu says: “I guess most of my neighbours just try not to think about it too much.”

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