From my photo archive -top view over the Mitropoly Hill, the Alley leading to it and a portion of the city on the southern side.

The plateau on the Mitropoly Hill (known by the locals as Dealul Mitropoliei) is home to a number of major historical and architectural landmarks in Bucharest: the Patriarchal Cathedral (1658), main center of the Orthodox Christian faith in Romania ever since it was built; the former Palace of the Chamber of Deputies (1907, easily recognizable from the dome), the Bell Tower (the apparent brick tower, 1698), the Chapel (1723) and the residence of the Patriarch of Romania.

The former Palace of  the Chamber of Deputies (which is now the Palace of the Patriarchate of Romania) served as a seat to successive Romanian legislatures since the time of the Kingdom of Romania, throughout communism and until 1997 when the parliamentarians moved to the current location -the Palace of Parliament. (picture taken March 2017)

I can hear the bells of the cathedral ringing in times of danger or for a Te Deum,  and I can imagine Prince Serban Cantacuzino, Prince Constantin Brancoveanu, Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, King Carol I or King Ferdinand walking up the Alley to the Cathedral. It was on the plateau of ”Dealul Mitropoliei” that on January 24th, 1859 the Elective Assembly voted The Unification of the Romanian Principalities, under Alexandru Ioan Cuza. It was here that the Independence of the country (1878) and the Kingdom of Romania (1881) were proclaimed…

(Cris)