After passing the numb boulevard ( Unirii Blvd.) you will see the huge House of the People, pass the former historical quarter Uranus-Antim-Roahova, assassinated by Ceausescu, and on the left you can see some red buildings. You can not ignore them because they almost scream.
No matter how decrypt they are, they are beautiful, with personality, with walls that have columns framing the windows, with brickwork that looks like a house.
But the walls are from a factory, from a brewery. Built on an empty lot, but near the center, by a fabulous character, bringer of wealth both for its owner and for the workers, the building seems to have the fate of the neighborhood dissolved by Ceausescu, over 30 years after his disappearance.
It does not matter who took it over after the revolution, what matters is that none of the easy ideas of profit could be applied to it. The area is not conducive to tourism, let alone a place for a factory, turned into a store, not so much.
And considering that the French have turned their ugly factories into cultural centers in the middle of the industrial era, where modern art is successfully asserted, one can not help but dream of all sorts of innovative activities, under a full moon, on summer nights, among the walls that seem to speak. Or, why not, music and dance festivals from the interwar period, those romances or fiddle songs that are still in fashion in the capital, on many Bucharest terraces. There is no place more fitting for the colorful slum of the Romanian capital.
Certainly, everything that has to do with the interwar period would be fitting there, not that of the aristocracy, but that of the local who began to have a better life, of the one who, through hard work and skill, was able to become plentiful and why not, really rich, if he had courage, ideas and ambition.
Everything is connected. Owner, beer, beer drinker.
The owner of the factory was by no means born into a wealthy family. As a child Dumitru Marinescu, he later added Bragadiru , was an apprentice in a distillery. It is the brandy that led him to wealth, the brandy he sold to the soldiers from the war of independence.
It seems the brandy helped both the soldiers and the seller.
The brandy came from factories he leased – he saved money during his apprenticeship. How much did he sacrifice to save money at such a young age? Also, to maximize profits, Dumitru Marinescu did not even turn to a distribution company, he went to the front with the goods himself.
For those who do not know: Spirits are weaker in the southern part of the country than in other regions. Dumitru Marinescu realized that beer could become Bucharest’s favorite drink, so he started a brewery. His beer was better than the two competing German breweries.
Because it was good and in demand, Dumitru Marinescu invested in the most modern technology available at the time and significantly increased its production.
The almost dilapidated Bragadiru Brewery actually represents the man who built it. In addition to his entrepreneurial talent, Dumitru Bragadiru also put a lot of heart into it.
It is said that in those times the happiest workers in Bucharest were those from Bragadiru.
He also built a place of recreation, which today is called Bragadiru Palace. It has not only been preserved but also renovated. Now it is again owned by the Bragadiru family.
It is said that the first telegraph line in the country connected the brewery with the estate of the industrialist from the village of Bragadiru.
The brewery was renamed during the communist era, the Rahova Brewery. The moment they came to power, the communists removed the name of the former owner with a chisel and a hammer. They did so well that the brewery was never returned to the family of the visionary brewmaster. It is currently left for dead. Every vacant lot is coveted in the capital.
