Carturesti Carusel

Cărturești Carusel occupies a building raised at the start of the twentieth century for the Chrissoveloni family, Phanariot Greek bankers whose bank operated from the site for close to forty years before the Romanian communist state nationalized it in the late 1940s. The building then passed through a men's clothing shop and later the Familia department store, and by the late 1990s had fallen into serious decay. A five-year rehabilitation and conservation project, completed in 2015, returned the structure's spiral staircases, natural skylights and cast-iron balconies to public view, and Cărturești -- a Bucharest chain that had opened its first small shop in 2000 -- moved its flagship in behind the restored facade on Strada Lipscani in the city's Old Town. The result is a six-floor "carousel" of books rising around an open central well, with a top-floor bistro overlooking the shelves and a basement given over to music, design objects and curiosities rather than more books. Alongside the printed stock, the shop pours tea and coffee and sells locally made design pieces, treating the building's own restored architecture as much a part of the visit as the inventory on the shelves.