“From Filaret Street to 11 June Street” Exhibition

The exhibition at the Bucharest Municipality Museum offers a documented and visual foray into the history of one of the oldest thoroughfares of the Capital

Călin Coțoiu, 07.03.2026, 03:00

The exhibition at the Bucharest Municipality Museum offers a documented and visual foray into the history of one of the oldest thoroughfares of the Capital, tracing its urban, social and architectural transformation from the 19th century to the present.

At the end of September 2025, the exhibition “… From Filaret Street to 11 June Street” opened. The exhibition is open in the house that is home to the Ligia and Pompiliu Macovei Art Collection of the Bucharest Municipality Museum (MMB), on 11 June Street in the capital, near the Metropolitan Hill, on which the headquarters of the Romanian Patriarchate are located. The exhibition traces the transformation of an old Bucharest street into an important thoroughfare of the city, through documents, images and period testimonies. It can be visited until March 29.

We spoke to the museum curator at the BMM Florentina Limban about the exhibition:

“This exhibition is an attempt to bring back to life a page from the past and present history of 11 Iunie Street, its architectural-urban and historical values. 11 Iunie Street starts under Dealul Mitropoliei and ends in the square at the entrance to Carol I Park, connecting Regina Maria Boulevard with this park. The previous names of the street were “Strada Nouă”, meaning New Street, and “Strada Filaretul”.”

What is the history of the name of this street in the capital?

“Its name recalls the events that took place on June 11, 1848. At the call of the leaders of the revolution, the people of Bucharest gathered in the center of the capital, where the Proclamation of Islaz was read. Since 1848, Filaret Square is called Freedom Square. The crowds walked Filaret Street, which, starting in 1878, would be called June 11 Street. In the exhibition you can admire paintings and engravings with the faces of some of the revolutionaries of the 1848 revolutionaries, as well as printed documents supporting the actions of these personalities. The name of the street also recalls the political measure taken 100 years later, on June 11, 1948, when the Grand National Assembly voted Law 119 on nationalization: the transfer of private property to state ownership. This was also the fate of many buildings on the June 11 street. Maybe that’s why the street name was preserved even during the communist period.”

Florentina Limban gives us some examples of what visitors can see in the exhibition:

“The exhibition presents the topographic plans made by Major Baron Rudolf Arthur von Borroczyn in the period 1846-1852, Lieutenant Colonel Dimitrie Papazoglu in 1871, and G.M. Mumuianu in 1895. The plan from 1895 includes private buildings with the names of their respective owners, public buildings, the distribution of urban property, and the number of inhabitants. It represents an important document for historians, geographers, economists, and statisticians. In the exhibition you can admire four creations by the painter Theodor Romanați, made in 1932. They are colored ink on paper and present the architectural and landscape transformations of Dealul Mitropoliei over time. The exhibition also presents Silaghi’s creation from 1929. It is a drawing in ink and with pen and watercolor, and presents a holiday celebration at the foot of the Metropolitan Hill. It also holds 2 church books: The June Minstrel, printed in 1780, and a Liturgy printed in 1784. Both religious books are written in Cyrillic letters, in Romanian.”

We also talked about the area where 11 Iunie Street is located, and about one of the most beautiful parks in Bucharest:

“On Filaret Hill is Carol I Park. The park was designed between 1900 and 1906, according to the plans of the French landscape architect Edouard Redont, and was inaugurated in 1906, on the occasion of the celebration of 40 years of the reign of King Carol I, and 25 years from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Romania. The exhibition presents photographs of monuments from Carol Park.”

At the end of our discussion, museographer Florentina Limban told us a few words about the significance of this old Bucharest street:

“11 Iunie Street presents the transformation of Bucharest from a peripheral slum into an important urban area. Initially inhabited by craftsmen, greengrocers, merchants, over time it became the space of an urban middle class, made up of civil servants, teachers and workers from the south of the city. The street also preserves buildings from the 19th century, as well as boyar and merchant houses from the 20th century.”