Cărturești Carusel is a bookshop at Strada Lipscani 55, in the middle of Bucharest's old town. It fills a restored building from the early 1900s that first housed a family bank, then a department store, and stood derelict for years after communism. Since 2015 its white, curving balconies, stacked around a bright central space under a skylight, have made it one of the most photographed interiors in the city.
Cărturești Carusel at a glance
- Where: Strada Lipscani 55, in the pedestrian Old Town (Centrul Vechi), a few minutes' walk from Stavropoleos Church and Calea Victoriei.
- Built: around 1903–1904 for the Chrissoveloni banking family; restored and opened as a bookshop in February 2015.
- By: the interior was designed by the Bucharest studio Square One (architects Adrian Cancer-Zeana and Sabin Dumitriu); the restoration was carried out by Capitel Avangarde.
- What it is today: a bookshop of the Romanian chain Cărturești on six levels and about 1,000 square metres, with books, music and films, an art space and a bistro on the top floor.
- Time needed: 20–40 minutes, longer if you stop for coffee or start reading.
From bank to bazaar to bookshop
The Chrissoveloni family, bankers of Greek origin, acquired the plot on Lipscani in 1903 and put up the present building soon after; a plaque on the facade gives the date 1904. It housed the first headquarters of the family's bank until the bank moved to a larger building further along the street. By the late 1920s the ground floor had become a department store, and Lipscani, the old merchants' street, was closed to car traffic in 1930.
After the Second World War the communist state confiscated the building and ran it as a clothing store. After 1989 the Chrissoveloni heirs reclaimed it, but by then it was falling apart, and it stood empty and decaying for years. A five-year project to strengthen and restore the structure was completed in 2015, and the Cărturești chain, which opened its first shop in 2000, moved in. The fit-out took 14 months, and the architects say every piece of furniture was made by Romanian workshops rather than bought ready-made. At the opening, Cărturești called it a 'carousel of light'.
What to look for
- The white balconies that wind around the central space: their railings are made of evenly spaced metal rods, which look solid from one angle and see-through from another.
- The skylight above the atrium. The scattered warm lights below were meant to recall a starry sky seen through it.
- The original columns and the exposed beams and patches of the restoration, left visible on purpose as part of the building's story.
- The view from the top floor, where the bistro sits: look straight down the levels to the ground floor.
- The facade on Lipscani, with the plaque giving the building's date. From the street it looks like a neighbourly old shop house; the surprise is inside.
Why a 'carousel'?
The name comes from the way the white levels seem to turn around the light-filled centre as you climb, like the tiers of a merry-go-round. It also carries a bit of the old street's spirit: Lipscani takes its name from the merchants who brought goods from Leipzig (Lipsca in old Romanian), and for centuries it was Bucharest's busiest shopping street. A bookshop where people come to browse, look and linger fits that history well.
Tips for your visit
- Go early on a weekday morning: by afternoon and at weekends the stairs fill up with visitors taking photos.
- It is a working shop. Take your photos quietly, don't block the stairs and leave room for people who came to buy books.
- The best overall photo is from the upper balconies looking down, not from the ground floor looking up.
Nearby
- Stavropoleos Monastery Church: a small church from 1724 with a carved stone porch and a quiet courtyard, a few minutes' walk away.
- National Museum of Romanian History: Romania's history museum in the former Postal Palace on Calea Victoriei, with a copy of Trajan's Column in plaster casts.
- Old Princely Court (Curtea Veche): the ruins of the palace of Wallachia's princes, linked with Vlad the Impaler, at the other end of the old town.
- Hanul lui Manuc: a large inn from 1808 with wooden galleries around a courtyard, still used as a restaurant.
See Bucharest with World City Trail
Our Bucharest scavenger hunt turns the old town into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops and takes around 3 hours, with about 44 minutes of walking. Cărturești Carusel is one of the stops, along with Stavropoleos Church and the National Museum of Romanian History. You can play in English, German, French, Italian or Romanian.
If you prefer a different format, there is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Bucharest.
Play the Bucharest scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Bucharest →
Play the outdoor escape game in Bucharest →
Facts checked in October 2026.