Photo credits: Willy Prager (1, 2)

In the Cotroceni district there are such character-like houses whose material expression is sure to amaze us. Neither can the one at 32 Dr Lister Street, with its flamboyant outbursts, pass unnoticed. The exalted ornaments spectacle is evident on the main façade, due to the window opening decorated with Venetian Gothic-inspired arches, the bow window supporting the massive stone coat of arms, the stone framework and the iron work garnishing some of the windows, the intermediate tiled cornice. The introductory space is located on the lateral façade, the entry in the shape of an ogival arch with a panoply of stone coats of arms at the top and visible from the street. The texture coating the house excites our faculties of sight and touch, attempting to carry out a uniform connection between decorative elements imported from a variety of styles.

Nicolae Herlea inhabited, in the 1970s, this building with sumptuous décor, erected in the 1930 and property of Otto Gagel, owner of the biggest bread factory in inter-war Bucharest. The house is on the List of Historic Monuments under the code LMI B-II-m-B-19056.