The University of Bucharest, aprox. 1864
Photo by Carol Popp de Szathmari
A brilliant visual artist, Carol Popp de Szathmari (181201887) was also a promoter of photographic art. His talent, skill and passion for his profession gave Szathmari a status unanimously recognized in the national and universal patrimony, both as painter and photographer.
Tireless traveller and fine observer of the people and place he travelled through, Szathmari was not just a studio portraitist, his photographic was perfected, among others, by numerous architectural monuments.
One such photo that stands out is the one representing the building of the University of Bucharest. Initially called the Academy, after the former Princely Academy at St. Sava Monastery, on whose foundation it was built, the building designed by architect Alexandru Orăscu was finished in 1864, becoming a prestigious high education institution in Romania.
