Hanul Solacolu

A Bucharest landmark is in danger to disappear.

This was an inn built in 1859 by two merchants from Istanbul: the Solacoglu brothers. Throughout the years the name has been slightly misspelled by people there, so the Solacoglu Inn remained known in Bucharest as Solacolu Inn (Hanul Solacolu).

It was an imposing household, hosting merchants on their way from the Balkans toward Central Europe, offering stores for their goods, offering generous spaces for their carts and their horses.

Lyuben Karavelov, one of the founding fathers of modern Bulgarian culture lived there for a number of years. A plaque on the wall facing the street, inscriptioned in Romanian and Bulgarian, celebrates his memory.

(Musical Background: 16 Second Hum, Late Tuesday, from the album Singles)

Unfortunately the building has been in a continuous degradation during the last decades; no effort was made to modernize its comfort conditions and more and more it has become a space for squatters.

I remember the times when the Solacolu Inn was a normal dwelling, I was young. I was passing by pretty often, I was always looking at the memorial plaque and I was feeling proud: proud for my country, a natural host for our neighbors in their struggle for independence, in their struggle for building their modern national conscience. Solacolu Inn is not so far from Hristo Botev Boulevard: Botev and Karavelov, two builders of Bulgarian nation, two witnesses of the friendship our country had for the neighbor South of Danube.

And I remember the times when the building had become an unsafe place, looking more and more decrepit: there is a sickness of buildings, too, not only of humans. Also buildings suffer of sickness, when they enter old age and nobody cares.

The municipality decided to empty the space and to find funds for rehabilitation. Due to lack of funds this landmark is in a serious danger to be destroyed.

I passed by today and seeing the wounded building it hurts. I felt the need to close the eyes, but I thought it is my duty to take images and to send this dramatic message.



At least the municipality should take care of the memorial plaque of Lyuben Karavelov, to erase the graffiti. Even the effigy was stolen from the plaque! It wouldn't cost money to keep the plaque in order: it is scandalous that the municipality does not care for the memory of a great personality of Bulgarian history. It is scandalous that the municipality does not care for the memory of an important episode in the Romanian - Bulgarian common past!





(Bucuresti)