Constanta Casino
The Constanța Casino (Romanian: Cazinoul din Constanța) is a defunct casino, located in Constanța, Romania. It has been designated by the Romanian Ministry of Culture and National Patrimony
The Constanța Casino (Romanian: Cazinoul din Constanța) is a defunct casino, located in Constanța, Romania. It has been designated by the Romanian Ministry of Culture and National Patrimony as a historic monument.
The casino is on the Constanța seafront at 2 Elisabeta Boulevard along the Black Sea in the historic Peninsulă District of the city. The casino was built three separate times, with the first structure being erected of wood in 1880. It was designed to be a club and community center for elite and upper-class socialites willing to spend. Once considered Romania's Monte Carlo and a symbol of the city of Constanța, the most-recent and modern version was built in Art Nouveau style, also being the most important Art Nouveau building in the country, designed and built according to the plans of Daniel Renard and inaugurated in August 1910.
The most modern version of the Casino was in operation for 38 years, with interruption due to the two world wars, attacked and bombed by Bulgarian and German troops in World War I, ravaged in World War II and, at one point, acted as a makeshift wartime hospital. In 1948 it was taken over by the Communist government becoming a House of Culture (Casa de Cultură a Sindicatelor) for the party until 1960 when it was handed to the National Office of Tourism (Oficiul National de Turism (ONT)). The last major repairs took place in 1986–1988, and the building is currently abandoned.
Due to large operational expenses, the building has remained closed since 1990. The last major repairs of the building took place in 1988.
Constanța City Hall tried to rehabilitate the building in 2006. In 2007, the casino was leased for 49 years to the Israeli "Queen" group. After numerous delays, local authorities took back the building more damaged than before its transfer to the Israeli company.[. January 2018, Europa Noastră, with the support of the European Investment Bank Institute, as a founding partner, and the Council of Europe Development Bank as an associate partner, listed the Casino as one of 7 most endangered sites in Europe.
In 2014, the edifice was transferred to the administration of the National Investment Company .as a final rescue solution. An auction was held to award the contract for the execution of rehabilitation work in the casino, with 5 private companies signing up. All five firms were disqualified for to not meeting the minimum qualification standards set by the government. A period of appeals and litigation followed, meanwhile the casino remained abandoned.
10 Million Euro were allocated to the rehabilitation of the Casino, but due to litigation and political frenzy, the money and Casino have remained untouched. The mayor of Constanța in 2018, Decebal Făgădau, announced that the City of Constanța would begin public works and conservation efforts. Finalization of the works were to occur on 14 November 2018, on Dobrogea Day, independent of the National Investment Company's auction date