Ceausescu Palace In Bucharest, Romania Stock Photo

The first mention of Bucharest is found by historians in the documents of Vlad III of Tepes from 1459, who built a fortress on the site of the modern city to protect Wallachia from the Turks. Two hundred years later, Bucharest became one of the capital cities of Wallachia, and Konstantin Brinkovian moved the capital of the principality here. In 1862, Bucharest was proclaimed the capital of the Romanian state. Before World War II, Bucharest was built in the French style Bozar; its wide boulevards were designed to resemble Ottoman Paris.