The Grand Hotel Continental is a 5-star luxury hotel and a historic landmark on Victory Avenue in central Bucharest.
On the location of the hotel once stood an old house that belonged to the Tache Ghica ban. In 1816, Ion Ghika, former Prime Minister of Romania, was born in the house. Later, the residence came in the hands of Ghita Niculescu who sold it to the wealthy Belgian Charles Brofft in 1867.
Charles Brofft extended and renovated the building in a Florentine Renaissance style and in 1868 it was opened as Grand Hotel Brofft. It was one of the most elegant and luxurious hotels in Bucharest with a private bathroom in each of the 40 rooms and a French restaurant on the ground floor. The expensive hotel quickly became a gathering place of the 19th century aristocratic elite. At the time, it was located in front of the National Theater, of which now only a replica of its entrance is visible in front of the Novotel Hotel.
In 1882, Grand Hotel Brofft was sold to the Jewish businessman Menachem Elias and his brother, who kept the name of the previous owner until 1887. The building was however in a deteriorating state and despite their efforts te remodel it and fight their case in court, they were ultimately forced to demolish the building.
Between 1886 and 1890 a completely new hotel was built on the foundations of the Brofft hotel. The new Grand Hotel Continental was designed in a German Renaissance style by the architects Enil Ritten Forster and I.I. Rasnovanu.
During World War II the hotel suffered severe damage by a bombing, after which repairs took place. Under the communist regime, the hotel was deemed to decadent for guests and therefore confiscated by the state and turned into government offices. In 1979, the hotel was reopened again as a state hotel, but after the 1989 Revolution it was closed again and returned to the heirs of the Elias family.
Because the building had deteriorated over time, it underwent a much-needed restoration which took 4 years and an €8 million investment. In 2010 the Grand Hotel Continental was reopened again as a 5-star luxury hotel.
Both the old Brofft Hotel and the Grand Hotel Continental have had several notable guests. At the end of the Russo-Turkish War and the Ottoman defeat in 1877, the commander Osman Pasha was detained in the hotel before being deported to Russia. Prince Napoleon, the cousin of Napoleon III, stayed in the hotel on a diplomatic visit to King Carol I.
After the 1989 Revolution, the royal family in exile returned to Romania. King Mihai and his nephew Prince Nicolae went out on the balcony on the first floor overlooking Victory Avenue, where a crowd of 1 million people had gathered to welcome back their king.
Do you want to live a life of luxury like a king? Then book a stay in the Grand Hotel Continental.
