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Basarab Tower

Buildings and structures demolished in 2020Demolished buildings and structures in BucharestSkyscrapers in Bucharest

Basarab Tower was an elevator testing building in Bucharest built between 1986 and 1988. It had 23 floors and measured 114 meters. The surface of a level was 400 square meters. The tower's components consisted of 8 wells and laboratories built for testing elevators. It was the tallest industrial building in Romania and the tallest elevator testing tower in Europe. The main purpose of the tower's existence was for testing the elevators which were scheduled to be added in the Palace of the Parliament of Romania. Demolition of the tower (and the rest of the IFMA factory), began in April 2020, in its place being built a residential complex.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Basarab Tower (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Basarab Tower
Calea Giulești, Bucharest Belvedere

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N 44.45208 ° E 26.06036 °
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Calea Giulești 8
060274 Bucharest, Belvedere
Romania
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Basarab metro station
Basarab metro station

Basarab is a metro station in Bucharest. It is located near the Basarab railway station (Gara Basarab), which is part of Bucharest's main railway station, at the intersection of Calea Griviței and Nicolae Titulescu Avenue. The M1 station was added on 26 August 1992 to the already operating extension from Crângași to Gara de Nord. The M4 station was opened on 1 March 2000 as part of the inaugural section of the line from Gara de Nord to 1 Mai.Access to Gara Basarab proper (a small annex of Gara de Nord, used mainly for commuter trains) is possible via a tunnel crossing the 14 platforms and tracks of Gara de Nord. The Basarab metro station was added after Line M1 was finished, with the sole intent of providing a means to change from M1 to M4 (while initially the trains of M1 and M4 were supposed to run on the same trackage up to Crângași, a change of project in 1988 involved building separate trackage for each, with the trains running exclusively under Calea Griviței and no longer reaching Crângași, with access between the two at Gara de Nord 1 being impossible without leaving the system and paying for a fare again). The station is extremely close to the Gara de Nord metro station (not only are the lights of Basarab easily visible through the tunnel at Gara de Nord 2, but both stations are built below the platforms of Gara de Nord railway station), a situation uncommon for a system characterized by large distances between stations (up to 2 km (1.2 mi)). The construction of the station began in November 1990 and was completed in January 1992 for the M1 section and March 2000 for the M4 section. The station has four tracks on the same level, two of the tracks on each side of the station, and two as a pair in the center, leaving space for two wide platforms. The two central tracks are used by M1 while the outermost tracks are used by M4, leaving one platform to be used for northbound trains and one for southbound trains. Each platform has very long and thick wall-like columns, spanning for three quarters of the station, allowing access between the M1 and M4 sections through 6 points. This was done to easier conceal the work being done on the M4 side while passengers were using the M1 side. The design of the two sides, although part of the same station and even the same platform, is quite different – the M1 side features white-grey marble walls and floors, with a grey travertine roof arranged as to form a square grid, lit by square white fluorescent neon lights built inside the grid while the M4 side features orange synthetic walls, black Azul Noce granite on the floors, and yellow neon lighting running in a continuous line along the station, above the tracks. The station is usually announced in trains at Gara de Nord, Grivița, and Crângași as "the place to switch between M1 and M4".

Grivița

Grivița ([ˈɡrivitsa]) is a district of Bucharest, Romania, centered on the Grivița Railway Yards (Atelierele CFR Grivița), which were and still are an important landmark within the manufacturing landscape of the city. Located near Gara de Nord, their history dates back to the late decades of the 19th century, when they were developed in order to perform maintenance and overhaul of railway equipment serving Căile Ferate Române. The name reflects the Romanian spelling for Grivitsa, a village near Pleven, where one of the Ottoman redoubts in the Plevna's defenses was stormed and captured with heavy casualties by the Romanian Army during the Romanian War of Independence (see Siege of Plevna). In honor of this victory, Calea Târgoviștei, a street in Bucharest that led to the road that connected the capital with the city of Târgoviște, is renamed Calea Griviței. What initially started only to serve the city of Bucharest and the surrounding areas, grew over time into a cornerstone of the entire railway industry of Romania. In the interwar period, after the start of the Great Depression in Romania, Grivița Railway Yards also become a focal point of the labor movement. The Grivița Strike of 1933 and its violent repression by the authorities are still remembered in Romania. During the communist regime, their name was changed to Grivița Roșie ("Red Grivița"), in memory of the 1933 events. The area surrounding the Yards, one of the oldest of the city of Bucharest, became known as Cartierul Grivița ("Grivița Borough"), populated by the workers of Grivița Railway Yards. To this day it remains a blue collar neighborhood.