The Industrial Development of Bucharest

The history of the industrial development of Romania’s capital city, Bucharest, which kicked off nearly 170 years ago, has kept pace with the industrial development of Romania itself.

Steliu Lambru, 28.09.2026, 14:00

We somehow keep forgetting that if you want to build a country, the need for money is as important as the need for patriotic feelings and identity mobilization.  Romania was built with money, and in order to achieve that goal, at that time they needed an economy that was able to produce, particularly they needed an industry. From the viewpoint of the economic mindset of the 19^th century, industry was the key of technological advance, of progress and welfare. As a general feature, the Bucharest industry was based on the local output of raw materials, on opening the assembly lines for some products coming from the West, on maintenance and to a lesser extent on local creativity.

From historian Cezar-Petre Buiumaci with the Museum of Bucharest we have learnt how Bucharest developed in the second half of the 19^th century.

Cezar-Petre Buiumaci: ”We are speaking about a Bucharest, a small town at the crossroads of major trade routes, which morphed into a princely court and then into a capital city, the capital of Romanian Principalities and eventually into the capital of Greater Romania and the country’s main industrial hub. Its territorial expansion and the need for manufactured products led to a considerable increase in the number of workshops, which would later become factories and eventually big industrial platforms.”

The last two decades of the 19^th century and the first of the 20^th laid the foundations of the Bucharest industry. But it wasn’t only that! Industry was what influenced the city’s physiognomy and the identity of its citizens.

Cezar-Petre Buiumaci:” We have a period of beginning of the new century after WWI when the main components of the industrial development were being based on certain legislative measures. They fostered the appearance of new enterprises, which turned into the big factories, the communist regime would later decide to develop. We are seeing the development of these enterprises, but there were also setbacks. Such an element was the Big Crisis of 1929-1933. We have a radial development, circular, if you want, as most of those enterprises developed along a motorway surrounding the city. Another development area was on the rail infrastructure, with major railway stations, such Filaret, the North Station, the Obor Station and Cotroceni, as well as a highway linking them. The model was of French inspiration, like the French motorways delimiting the city’s domestic space at the end of the 19^th century. What was pollutant was located outside the city. Starting with the North Station, we have a series of enterprises, tram depots, hospitals, cemeteries all of them outside the city at that time. The fact they are inside the city nowadays is because of the new stages in the city’s territorial expansion. There were two areas of security in that perimeter, so to say, and then there was the development area. Even when the communists came to power, and there was a certain housing crisis at that time, everything they built was built outside. They were practically building cities within cities around this periphery line I mentioned earlier.”

The period between the two world wars was considered the golden period of Romania’s development, a period when the Romanian society gained momentum. That period was connected to the European modernization and the industry was trying to keep pace with the West. Here is Cezar-Petre Buiumaci at the microphone again.

Cezar-Petre Buiumaci:” The year 1938 is statistically a reference point for the Romanian economy and we have eight industrial centers, including Bucharest, which was the biggest. 40 years later, Bucharest was still the country’s main industrial hub. The preponderantly industrial areas were located close to the main railway stations, at Filaret, Obor and along the Dudești Way, the motorways of  Giurgiu, Rahova, Alexandria. These motorways are going outside the city and divide it in the future districts of Filaret, North Station, Stephen the Great, Timpuri Noi with Văcărești, Dudești, Cățelu, Policolor, Militari, Pipera, Bucureștii Noi, Berceni. All these are surrounding the city and make, so to say, an industrial shield around it. They had the tendency of attracting other industries, which are serving the main ones. Cotroceni had already been an area preponderantly attached to the military industry. There we have a military area and for this reason a railway station is there. Then there is a virgin area developing in the communist period, starting with APACA to the highway of today, which actually used to be a village.”

In the past 170 years, Bucharest has industrially developed according to the  historical periods it passed and the political leadership Romania had along the years. Industry has contributed to the formation of generations of Bucharesters and to what Bucharest is nowadays.

(bill)