The Ashes of Communism: Private Tour of Bucharest

Bucharest – a city once called Little Paris, a city that could have been much more than that. You’ll easily see this for yourself during our Ashes of Communism tour, a tour that’s characterised by emotive visual contrasts.

You’ll visit two areas that perfectly depict the opposition of two eras: the massive communist Civic Centre – an empty shell admired mostly by foreign tourists, and the beautiful Old City with its Belle Époque perfume.

Walking around the Old City, you’ll be charmed by the gorgeous architecture of old palaces, byzantine churches, bohemian cafés and 19th-century houses. You’ll also learn that all of these historical treasures had to be restored or entirely rebuilt. Why? To hide the marks of bullets, to hide scars that have not yet healed even though almost three decades have passed since the fall of the regime and the bloody revolution.

The tour is much more than a visual experience – it’s a story that takes you through 45 years of communism, allowing you to see beyond Bucharest’s colourful present: Stalin and his monstrous enslavement, the genocide committed by the KGB secret police, the eradication of culture, private property and free press…

Behind Stalin’s Iron Curtain there was no good or evil, no black or white. Not even grey. Just red.