Current Time in Sector 5, Romania

Sector 5 is one of the six administrative sectors that make up Bucharest, the capital of Romania. It covers the south western part of the city, beginning close to the very centre and extending outwards to the edge of the built up area, with the Dambovita River forming much of its northern boundary. Like all the sectors it is a slice of the capital rather than a separate town, so its territory takes in grand public buildings, nineteenth century villa quarters, socialist era housing estates and quieter suburban streets.

Roughly a quarter of a million people live in Sector 5, and its significance comes above all from what stands within it. The enormous Palace of the Parliament, one of the largest administrative buildings in the world, rises at its northern end, together with the wide boulevard and government quarter created around it in the 1980s. That concentration of national institutions gives this part of Bucharest a political weight out of all proportion to its size.

The area developed as the southern approach to the old city, a district of craftsmen, market gardens and inns along the roads leading towards the Danube. The nineteenth century brought elegant streets and the first university faculties, while industry and workers housing spread across the Rahova and Ferentari neighbourhoods. The most dramatic change came in the 1980s, when a large historic quarter was demolished to make room for the new civic centre, an episode that still shapes debate about the city today. Since 1989 the sector has seen both substantial new investment and persistent social problems in its poorest districts.

Visitors usually come first for the Palace of the Parliament, whose marble halls, chandeliers and vast staircases can be seen on guided tours, and for the National Museum of Contemporary Art housed in one of its wings. Nearby stand the new national cathedral, the tranquil Antim Monastery with its finely carved stone doorway, and Izvor Park, a broad green space that offers the best views of the palace. The faculty buildings of the University of Bucharest on Kogalniceanu Boulevard are handsome examples of Romanian academic architecture.

Everyday culture is found in local markets, in the older Rahova and Uranus streets where community arts projects have taken root, and in the cafes and student bars near the university buildings. Traditional food, from grilled mititei to sweet pastries, is easy to find, and open air concerts and festivals fill the parks in summer. The mixture of monumental architecture and ordinary neighbourhood life is exactly what makes the sector interesting.

Two metro lines cross the sector and meet at Eroilor station, and an extensive network of trams, trolleybuses and buses connects it to the rest of Bucharest. Major roads lead south towards Giurgiu and the Danube, and the ring road passes along the outer edge.

Sector 5 offers a compressed portrait of Bucharest itself, mixing monuments, layers of history and everyday urban life within a short walk of one another.