Thursday, October 15, 2015

SpeD 2015 Galla Dinner will be held an Manuc's Inn, the The Voivodes Salon (Hanul lui Manuc - Salonul Voievodal), at 20:00 hours.

The inn was built in 1808, and originally owned by a wealthy and flamboyant Armenian, Emanuel Marzaian, better known under his Turkish name Manuc-bei. Very clever and intelligent, speaking a dozen languages to perfection, Manuc was involved in both political and love intrigues being a real novel character. The ambitious merchant bought a piece of land that had been part of the Princely Court and decided to build a large inn that he wanted to differ from the existing ones, which were much more austere in appearance. Particularly distinguishing Manuc's Inn, and conferring it the open and welcoming look, are the arcaded open galleries running around the courtyard on both levels. The arched arcades supported by carved wooden pillars originate in the rural Wallachian domestic architecture, and where quite common in Bucharest up to the half of the 19th century.

The inn was the site of the preliminary talks for the Treaty of Bucharest, which put an end to the 1806-1812 Russo-Turkish war. In 1842 it briefly housed Bucharest's town hall. Around 1880 a hall at the inn was used as a theatre, and was the site of the first Romanian operetta performance. Before Romania entered World War I, in 1914-1916, the hall "Sala Dacia" hosted meetings of the Wallachian pro-war party seeking to establish a Greater Romania by uniting with Transylvania and Bukovina.

By the middle of the 19th century, it was Bucharest's most important commercial complex, with 15 wholesalers, 23 retail stores, 107 rooms for offices or living, two receiving rooms and a pub. Its massive, multiply balconied courtyard hosted many performances and fairs and was a popular place for Romanian television crews to shoot folkloric performances.