House of the Free Press

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Casa Presei Libere, as seen from Herăstrău

Casa Presei Libere is a building in northern Bucharest, Romania.

The construction began in 1952 and was completed in 1956. The building was named Combinatul Poligrafic Casa Scînteii "I.V.Stalin" and later Casa Scînteii (Scînteia was the name of the Romanian Communist Party's official newspaper). It was designed by the architect Horia Maicu, in the pure (albeit comparatively small-scale) style of Soviet Socialist realism, resembling the main building of the Moscow State University, and was intended to house all of Bucharest's printing presses, the newsrooms and their staff.

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Lenin's statue being pulled down

It has a foundation with an area of 280x260m, the total constructed surface is 32,000 m² and it has a volume of 735,000 m³. Its height is 91.6 m without the television antenna, which has an additional 12.4 m.

In front of the building, on 21 April 1960 was placed a giant statue of Vladimir Lenin, made by Romanian sculptor Boris Caragea. This statue was however removed on 3 March 1990, following the Romanian Revolution of 1989.

It has basically the same role nowadays, with many of today's newspapers having their headquarters in the same building, now renamed Casa Presei Libere ("The House of the Free Press"). The Bucharest Stock Exchange is located in the southern wing.

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Casa Presei Libere, frontal view