Bucharest Centennial: The National Theater, the grand stage of the Romanian culture

Romania-Insider.com has started a series of articles about Bucharest landmarks of architecture or history, which have witnessed the last century of what is now the Romanian capital, and noteworthy people who have helped build the Romanian capital as it is today. This project is supported by the Bucharest City Hall through the Public Monuments and Touristic Heritage Administration (AMPT), within the cultural program Bucharest-Centennial.

Check the full series of articles dedicated to the Centennial on Romania-Insider.com here. Similar to other institutions with a great history in Romania, the I.L Caragiale National Theater (TNB) went through many difficult challenges over time, especially during the great historical events that marked the last century. The National Theater institution was born in a building that no longer exists. The current imposing building of the theater, recently renovated, is located in the Universităţii Square in Bucharest. The story of the National Theater begins more than 180 years ago, in 1836, when the Philharmonic Society, an important cultural society founded on the initiative of Ion Heliade Rădulescu and Ion Câmpineanu, bought an inn located next to today’s Calea Victoriei – which was then called Braşovului Road - to build the National Theater. Prince Alexandru Ghica approved the project four years later. Five more years have passed until the design of the Viennese architect Heft was chosen for the new construction. The Grand Theater (Teatrul cel Mare) was inaugurated in late 1852. Costache Caragiale was the first director of the theater. He was the uncle of famous Romanian playwright Ion Luca Caragiale, whose name was given to the National Theater a century after the inauguration. A year after the opening, Matei Millo, a famous actor and dramatic Romanian playwright, staged for the first time in Bucharest the play „Chirița în provincie” by Vasile Alecsandri, an important Romanian poet and playwright. Two years later, Prime Minister Mihail Kogalniceanu signed a decree by which the Grand Theater became a national institution. Thus, in 1875, director Alexandru Odobescu, another important national writer, added on the frontispiece the new name of the institution: the National Theater. During the War of Independence (1877-1778), the theater organized several performances and the money raised was used to treat wounded soldiers and help keep the hospitals working. During World War I, the National Theater Company took refuge in Iaşi, in Northern Romania. The National Theater continued to be a landmark of the cultural life in Bucharest after the Great Union of 1918. Countless plays by great Romanian playwrights premiered on its stage. In 1919, the year after the Great Union, the Theater organized the first national tour throughout Great Romania, reaching Transylvania and Banat with the play “Apus de soare/Sunset” by Barbu Ştefănescu Delavrancea and “Răzvan & Vidra” by Bogdan Petriceicu Hașdeu, both important historical dramas of the Romanian literature.