Unusual times, unusual buildings: The upside down house in Romania

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the world about a year and a half ago, turning our lives upside down. Inspired by these strange times, local entrepreneur Alex Lutan decided to build something that fits the “new world” perfectly: the first (and only) upside-down house in Romania.

“This idea seemed to be the most suitable for this period when everything turned upside down. I had three ideas in mind, and this was the main criterion that helped me choose between them.” - Alex Lutan, the owner of the upside-down house.

The Romanian county of Gorj is home to popular tourist landmarks such as the Constantin Brancusi sculptural ensemble in Targu Jiu or the Oltetului Gorges and the Polovragi Cave. The famous Transalpina high mountain road also passes through this area. But there’s also a new, odd-looking attraction in the county’s small Bumbesti-Pitic commune: a yellow house that stands on its roof while everything inside is turned upside down. Its owner is Alex Lutan, a young Romanian entrepreneur who hopes his idea will make the area even more popular among tourists.

Alex Lutan (or Ducu, as friends call him) has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. He was only 18 years old when he started his first business, making and selling the famous Hungarian pastry known as kurtoskalacs. A small business that gave him the courage to do more, to try something else.

So, one day, Alex decided to buy a plot of land in his home commune of Bumbesti-Pitic and build an adventure park for children there. But, inspired by the strange times of the COVID-19 pandemic, he decided to change the initial plan and bring to Romania a bizarre attraction that he saw while on vacation in Turkey in 2018: an upside-down house.

“I was already building the adventure park, and the initial plan also included a tiny upside-down house meant to attract more visitors. But it was more of an extra attraction, something for the parents to do while the children play. They could take some photos with the house, but only from the exterior because it was not initially planned to be this big. In the last moment, I changed my mind and changed the dimensions,” Alex Lutan told Romania-insider.com.

The construction of the upside-down house (Căsuţa răsturnată in Romanian) started around mid-August 2020. The first tourists photographed the strange new attraction in early November, but only from the outside, as the interior was not ready yet. Today, after a total investment of about EUR 30,000, the house offers visitors a full upside-down experience.