Abandoned National Insurance building in Bucharest, Romania

Today, we continue the series ‘Abandoned places in Romania’, but this time with a building from Bucharest, the capital city.

The National Insurance building is located on the ‘Doamnei’ street, number 12. I was always passing by and I was extremely curious to find out how the interior looked like in this huge building. I’ve managed to get in and take a peek inside.

Immediately, my expectations were fulfilled. The building was extremely spacious, split in many rooms and halls.

There is a sign mounted on the wall that recognizes this building as being an historic monument. From that sign, I found out that the Hungarian architect, Adolf Lang, finished the construction in 1866.

This is the original location plan described by the registers in the year 1911.

Inside the building the atmosphere was suffocating. Almost all the windows were closed and I felt like I was going to run out of air. However, it was fun talking to the people walking by via a window. I felt like I was inside another world.

In the picture above you can notice a piece of furniture. It was full of dust so I didn’t attempt to sit there.

Next, I found a piece of paper. After revolution, in 1998 the building became the headquarters of the Commercial Bank Ion Tiriac. In the paper, you can see the exchange rate for the US Dollar, highly rated at that time.

The wood inside the building was very shaky so I had to be careful in order not to get injured. I even found a little crib belonging most probably to a homeless man taking shelter inside this building.

On the last floor, there is the key panel. It contains the keys for all rooms.

On the roof, there is a nice place to sit, drink your coffee in the morning and enjoy the view. I will surely miss this place, once an important business center.