Bucharest villa that served as Gestapo HQ up for sale

A neoclassical-style villa, designed by architect Dimitrie Herjeu, is up for sale for EUR 1.5 million, Artmark Historical Estate announced.

The villa was built around 1927. It is located close to the Cişmigiu Park, on Mihail Kogălniceanu boulevard.

The building used to serve as an HQ for the Gestapo and for the Embassy of Germany prior to 1944. After 1990, it became the HQ of the Romanian state-owned film production company RoFilm.

Herjeu was a chief architect of Bucharest between 1910 and 1960, and, alongside architects such as Ion Mincu, Ion D. Berindei, Jean Monda and Horia Creangă, contributed to the design of several residential ensembles in the capital.

The villa that is up for sale has a yard of 430 sqm and over 34 rooms, with surfaces ranging from 30 sqm to 85 sqm, and multiple storage spaces. It also features a large stained-glass window showcasing four of the seven arts as feminine characters rendered in an Art Nouveau style: the art of writing, of music, of theater and of painting.

Consolidation and restoration works to the building started in 2009 but were stopped because of financial reasons.

(Photo:Gabriel Ghizdavu/ artmarkhistoricalestate.ro)