First of all, I would like to thank all of you for supporting the ‘Abandoned places’ series and for your feedback. Your feedback means a lot for me. Thank you!
Today we take a look inside the giant, abandoned beer factory, called ‘Bragadiru Beer Factory’. It is located in my hometown, Bucharest. The factory dates back to 19th century.
At the end of the 19th century, Dumitru Marinescu Bragadiru, a tradesman, bought a land of 70.000 square meters very close to the center of Bucharest. He built a beer factory with the money earned from his business with refined alcohol during the Independence War. All the industrial buildings that formed the beer factory were designed by the German architect Anton Schuckerl.
At that time, in Bucharest, there were two other beer factories (Luther’s and Oppler’s). Bragadiru was a hardworking person, very honest and smart. He outclassed the other two competitors. In 1901 the factory was equipped with steam machines of about 120 HP that were processing the barley and the hop. The daily production was about 12 000 liters of beer with only 60 workers. After two more decades, 12 new specializations were born with about 261 people working there.
Dumitru Bragadiru died in 1915 after he suffered a cardiac attack. His legacy was kept by his older son, named Dumitru as well. He ran on multiple continents along with his family after World War II. The communists nationalized the factory in 1948 and they called it ‘Beer Factory Rahova’.
At one of the superior levels, I found some incredible wall paintings advertising Harmonia’s vacuum cleaner. It was the first time I saw vacuum cleaners painted on the wall. I was expecting to see ads related to beer.
Gods, goddesses and semi gods equipped with cleaning tools.
From the roof, you could see the security man. He’s doing a good job because I saw a lot of steel around.
On the roof, there was a mixed view, in which the old buildings blend with the newer ones.
I went down by the stairs, happily that I could visit most of the buildings that are still standing.
There was a huge maze of stairs and walls left undemolished, waiting for me. You need to have good photographic memory to get out of this den.
There are many abandoned buildings out there, screaming for your attention. You just need to find them and understand their past. The ‘Bragadiru Beer Factory’ is one of them, on this land full of history, sadly, they plan to build a huge shopping center.
