Great Bucharest fire

In the 19th century, a large part of Bucharest was built up with wooden houses, which together with the narrow streets posed a great threat to residents in the event of a fire. Since the time of fanariots, there has been a constant danger of fire, therefore, by order of the Turkish Aga, people were constantly on duty around his residence ^[4] . After the adoption of the Organic Regulation , firefighters appeared in Wallachia equipped with West European water pumps ^[4] .

The fire began in the afternoon in the house of the housekeeper Zoitsa Drugenski at the compound of Bishop Buzau in the church of St. Demetrius ^[5] . Due to the strong south wind, the fire spread over a triangular section: one corner was in the house where the fire started; one side of this corner passed through Curtea Veche and the Bucharest Pushkarnya; the second went through Lipskan , the tavern of St. George and the monastery of St. George ^[5] . Fire escaped to the outskirts of the city, but there it could no longer spread so quickly, since the area of ​​the yards there were larger ^[5] . The rest of the city did not burn out due to the intervention of firefighters, who were helped by soldiers ^[6] .

However, as a result of the fire, great damage was caused: the mahal (district) of St. Demetrius burned down, the streets of French, Deutsche and Shelari, Pushkarnya on Flower Square, Lipskan (from Piccolo to Markitani), Hanul-Louis-Zamfir, Beratius Church, Papazoglo Tavern burned to the ground , the new and old Churches of St. George, the districts of Targul-Kukului, Mahalua-Stelei, Udrikani, Good Friday, Lukaki, St. Stephen and others ^[5] . 158 730 square fathoms (61.38 ha) burned out, 15 people died. 1850 buildings were destroyed: 686 residential buildings, 1142 shops, 10 taverns and 12 churches ^[7] . The amount of damage is 100 million lei ^[7]

Finance

After extinguishing the fire, the authorities began to rebuild the city. George III Bibescu personally contributed 6 thousand lei, and a total of 2 million 200 thousand lei were collected, including ^[8] :

• 500 thousand lei from the Romanian Orthodox Church , a quarter of its annual income
• 220 thousand lei from the National Bank, all income
• 700 thousand lei from the Romanian monasteries of the Greek Orthodox Church
• 300 thousand lei from the reserve fund of the Romanian treasury
• 300 thousand lei monthly salary of all soldiers and employees
• 180 thousand lei from the city administration ^[8]

Funds for the restoration were allocated by Austria, Turkey and Russia, as well as by businessmen of Leipzig, bankers of the Rothschild family and personally Georg von Sina , who contributed 3401 thalers (45584 lei) ^[8] . The poet Vasile Alexandri, together with a group of Moldovan residents, also made a donation of 50,715 lei ^[8] . The Wallachians, who lived outside the capital and who were not injured during the fire, Bucharest residents allocated another 276,357 lei ^[9] .

Commission

In order to help those who lost their homes and work, a merchant commission was created, which was to check the possibility of using a reconstruction fund to restore buildings and allow trade to continue, as well as collecting mandatory contributions from salaries of employees and church income ^[9] . The commission included Ion Otetelishanu, Mikhail Kalifarov and Lazer Kalendergly ^[9] . The commission began to study information about burnt houses, namely about their owners and who lived there, about professions of owners, types of buildings, the cost of buildings and things in them, etc. On June 26, 1847, a list was published: the amount of 2573250 lei had to be divided between 1559 owners of the burned buildings ^[9] .

The largest funds were given to the boyars who lost their property, merchants, and even relatives of the commission members (8 thousand lei for Elena Kalifarova), someone received more than 10 thousand lei ^[9] , while many of the poor people received no more than 100-200 lei ^[10] . This led to indignation among the poor who sent petitions and refused to accept the amount ^[10] . Foreign consuls intervened in the matter: the consul of the Russian Empire distributed an amount of 236800 lei among the victims, the French consul distributed part of the funds to 12 persons who admitted that they had not received fair compensation ^[11] .

In April 1848, the commission decided that 52 people refused to receive their compensation and that the amount of 3195759 lei was divided between 2887 people ^[11] . At the suggestion of the Metropolitan of Bucharest, part of the funds was spent not on the distribution between the victims, but on the restoration of burnt buildings: 12 thousand lei for the old church of St. George, 8 thousand for the church of Vergului, 10 thousand for the church of Lukaci, 6 thousand for the church of St. Stephen , 8 thousand - for the Chaush Rad church, 6 thousand - for the Olteni church ^[11] .

City Restructuring

According to the testimonies of civilians who left for the Russian Empire, the government accepted to rebuild the parts of the city affected by the fire ^[12] . An amount of 230,552 lei was allocated for this, which was taken from the reconstruction fund in order to pay it to the owners of the confiscated lands ^[11] . Mayor Rudolph Arthur von Borrochin, head of the technical department, played a big role in city planning and suggested expanding the streets and changing the safety rules for buildings ^[12] .

• Florian Georgescu, "Focul cel mare din martie 1847", in București: Materiale de istorie și muzeografie : VII, 1969, Muzeul de Istorie a Municipiului București
• Florian Georgescu (coord.), Istoria Orașului București , 1965, Muzeul de Istorie a Municipiului București