• the choir of Stavropoleos Church, an Eastern Orthodox church in central Bucharest, Romania, sings (neo-)Byzantine music, now a rare occurrence for churches in Romania?
• the Bucharest school of Jean Alexandre Vaillant contributed to Westernization in Wallachia during the 1830s?
• the Athénée Palace hotel in Bucharest, Romania, now a Hilton, may have been Europe's most notorious den of spies in the years leading up to World War II, and only slightly less so during the Cold War?
• the French Church in Bucharest, Romania, is topped by a Gallic rooster?
• the Russian administrator Pavel Kiselyov was responsible for the creation of an important transport artery in Bucharest - a boulevard which now bears his name?
• in January 1859, over 30,000 people gathered on Dealul Mitropoliei in Bucharest in support of Alexander John Cuza (pictured) in his election to become the first Domnitor of the United Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia?
• an area of 500 hectares in the centre of Bucharest razed in the 1980s at the orders of Ceauşescu was called Ceaushima by the Bucharest residents?
• Apartment Building 63 located in Bucharest is the largest single residential building in Romania with a total of 950 apartments and over 1,600 residents?
• Ionel Fernic made the first parachute jump in Romania on May 31, 1936, at an aviation meeting held on the Băneasa Airport in Bucharest?
• Mitică, a character in the works of Romanian writer Ion Luca Caragiale, has become, especially in Transylvania, a stereotype of both Bucharesters and Wallachians?
• Kir Ianulea, a 1909 novella by Romanian author Ion Luca Caragiale, relocated Niccolò Machiavelli's Belfagor arcidiavolo into Phanariote-era Bucharest?
• Caryl Churchill's play Mad Forest, developed partly in Bucharest in collaboration with Romanian and English drama students, was in production less than six months after the Romanian Revolution of 1989?

Facts on topics related to Bucharest

Belgrade

• Crveni Krst, a neigborhood of Belgrade, Serbia, was built around the alleged burial site of Saint Sava?
• Joseph Cornelius O’Rourke, an Irish Count born in Estonia, became a Russian Lieutenant General, and was honoured with a statue in Belgrade for his victory over the Ottoman Empire in 1810?
• notable figures buried at New Cemetery in Belgrade include Ivo Andrić, winner of the 1961 Nobel Prize in Literature, and Zoran Đinđić, the Prime Minister of Serbia who was assassinated in 2003?
• the Museum of Vuk and Dositej is the oldest preserved residential building in Belgrade, Serbia?
• the Theatre on Terazije is a Broadway-style theatre in Belgrade where the Serbian version of Chicago, Kiss Me, Kate, A Chorus Line and other musicals are performed?
• the first McDonald's restaurant in Eastern Europe was opened March 24, 1988 in a former family house in Belgrade, constructed by Serbian architect Dimitrije T. Leko in 1893?

Rome

• Kermit Roosevelt's co-brother-in-law Mervyn Herbert played first-class cricket for Somerset County Cricket Club and died in the British Embassy in Rome, Italy?
• British athlete Don Thompson was nicknamed "Il Topolino" (Italian for "Little Mouse") when he raced to victory in the 50km walk at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome while wearing a képi and sunglasses ?
• Alan de St Edmund, while in Rome as chaplain to Cardinal Hugh of Evesham, was made Bishop of Caithness after its previous bishop-elect died there while seeking consecration?
• Eddisbury hill fort, the largest and most complex Iron Age hill fort in Cheshire, was destroyed by the Romans to prevent it being used against them?
• Ethelbert of York's 8th century library was probably the largest book collection of its day outside of Rome?
• Flaithbertach Ua Néill, king of Ailech in Ireland, was called Flaithbertach an Trostáin, Flaithbertach of the Pilgrim's staff, as a result of his pilgrimage to Rome in 1030?
• Jakub Uchański, a 16th-century primate of Poland, was suspected of heresy and summoned to appear before the inquisition in Rome?
• John Devitt was awarded a gold medal in the 100m freestyle at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome despite all three timekeepers awarding a faster time to the silver medallist?
• Michael Stern was one of two journalists to enter Rome on June 3, 1944, one day ahead of American forces?
• Monte Testaccio (pictured) in Rome is an artificial hill, 35 m (115 ft) high and 1 km (3,300 ft) in circumference, consisting entirely of the fragments of 53 million ancient Roman amphorae?

Bratislava

• a 200 m section of wall by St. Martin's Cathedral from Bratislava's fortifications (gate pictured) was reconstructed, after the area was demolished due to construction of the Nový Most bridge?
• the Trinitarian Church (pictured) in Bratislava was built on the place of an older settlement which was demolished in 1529 due to the Ottoman wars?
• the last territorial expansion of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, took place in 1972, creating Greater Bratislava with the 17 current boroughs?

Paris

• 16th-century English diplomat Francis Bryan disgraced himself by throwing eggs and stones at the common people during a mission to Paris?
• French anarchist Theodule Meunier, responsible for several bombings in Paris in 1902, was featured as a Sherlock Holmes antagonist in René Réouven's L'Assassin du Boulevard?
• Bandung in Indonesia was dubbed the "Paris of Java" (Parijs van Java) in the 1920s due to the European ambience of Braga Street?
• Honoré de Balzac once observed that "the heart of Paris today beats between rue de la Chaussée-d'Antin and rue du Faubourg Montmartre"?
• Mexican cuisine celebrity chef and author Marcela Valladolid has also been classically trained as a pastry chef in Paris?
• Paris currently has more than 360 working fountains, including one, the Fontaine des Innocents (pictured), in use since the 16th century?
• Paris has held six BIE-sanctioned world's expositions, but the most recent was in 1937?
• Paris-based Naye Prese was the sole Yiddish-language communist daily newspaper in Europe during the interbellum period?
• Peter Paul Rubens produced a series of paintings depicting episodes from Marie de' Medici's life for the Luxembourg Palace in Paris?
• Philippe Égalité's Château du Raincy near Paris contained an outcrop of houses scored to resemble traditional Russian log huts?

Athens

• Brigadier Ronnie Tod was awarded the freedom of Athens by Archbishop Damaskinos in 1944?
• American statesman John Milledge named Athens, Georgia, the city surrounding the University of Georgia, after Athens, Greece, the city of Plato's Academy?
• Epimachus of Athens, an ancient Athenian engineer, constructed the Helepolis, which remains the largest siege machine ever built, at over 60 feet in width and 125 feet in height?
• after previously competing at the 2004 games in Athens, Brooklyn-bred Erinn Smart and her brother Keeth are again part of the U. S. Olympic fencing team at Beijing?
• during World War II, the SS-run Haidari concentration camp near Athens was so infamous that it became known as the "Bastille of Greece"?
• the 1st century Greek historian Nicolaus of Damascus reported the embassy of holy men from India to the Levant, Athens and Rome during the time of Jesus?
• the International Olympic Committee has shortlisted five cities — Athens, Bangkok, Moscow, Singapore and Turin — out of nine bids to host the first Youth Olympic Games in 2010?
• the Athenian coup of 411 BC temporarily replaced the democratic government of Athens with a narrow oligarchy?
• the Panhellenic Union of Fighting Youths, a Greek Resistance organization, set a bomb that destroyed the headquarters of the pro-Nazi ESPO organization in the very centre of occupied Athens?
• the Plague of Athens devastated ancient Athens in 430 BC, perhaps leading ultimately to the city's defeat in the Peloponnesian War?

Moscow

• Moscow is home to an estimated 35,000 stray dogs, about 500 of which live in the metro stations?
• Russian architect Lev Kekushev built Art Nouveau buildings in Moscow, Russia, in the 1890s and early 1900s, "signed" with a lion (Lev) ornament or sculpture?
• American Jesuit priest Walter Ciszek was imprisioned by the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1963, and sentenced to 15 years hard labor, six of which were spent in Moscow's infamous Lubyanka prison?
• American communist Dennis E. Batt took part in the founding of the Red International of Labour Unions in Moscow in 1921?
• Archangel Gospel, the fourth oldest Eastern Slavic manuscript, was brought by a peasant from Arkhangelsk to Moscow in 1876?
• Bogdan Saltanov, the court artist of Tsar Alexis I of Russia, was born in Persia and granted Russian nobility eight years after arrival to Moscow?
• Emil Stang was a delegate to the Founding Congress of Comintern in Moscow in 1919?
• Endel Puusepp became a Hero of the Soviet Union after flying a Soviet delegation over the front line from Moscow to Washington and back to negotiate the opening of the Western Front?
• Fyodor Schechtel, the architect of Yaroslavsky Rail Terminal in Moscow, Russia, was expelled from his classes at Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1878 for "bad attendance"?
• Inteco, a Russian company owned by Yelena Baturina, controlled 20% of the construction in Moscow?

Budapest

• Colonel Gerardo Huber, a former DINA agent in charge of buying military supplies for the Chilean Army, disappeared in 1991 shortly after weapons disguised as humanitarian aid were discovered in Budapest?
• as Charles I of Austria attempted to regain the Hungarian throne in 1921, Czechoslovakia nearly entered Budapest in order to prevent a Habsburg restoration?
• banker Jacob Furth, whom historian Bill Speidel called "Seattle's leading citizen for thirty years," began his career as a confectioner in Budapest?
• seven months after the reported execution in Budapest of Sári Petráss as a spy, she debuted on Broadway?
• the 1997 Budapest wedding of Duchess Eilika of Oldenburg to Archduke Georg of Austria was broadcast live on Hungarian television?
• the original specimen of the mauve splitting waxcap, a fungus from eastern Australia, found its way from Melbourne to Budapest but disappeared during the First World War?
• the Art Pavilion gallery was originally built for an exhibition in Budapest and then transported to Zagreb, where it was re-built in 1898?

Kiev

• Hetman Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny enrolled his entire Cossack army as students to prevent a Kievan school's conversion to a Jesuit Collegium?
• Kiev's Museum of Western and Oriental Art houses the largest collection of foreign art in Ukraine?
• Agatha, mother of Saint Margaret of Scotland, could have been either a daughter of Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev or a daughter of the Bulgarian Tsar?
• Bykivnia, a former village, now part of the Ukrainian capital Kiev, was the burial site of thousands of enemies of the Soviet power?
• Kyiv Arsenal is one of the oldest and most famous industrial companies of the Ukrainian capital Kiev?
  
• Lysa Hora hill in the Ukrainian capital Kiev is both a historical fortress and a mystical "bold mountain" where witches are believed to gather for their sabbaths?
• Obolon CJSC, the largest Ukrainian brewer based in Kiev, was the first private company of the independent Ukraine?
• St. Cyril's Monastery in Kiev, Ukraine was closed by the Tsarist Government and its living quarters were converted into a hospital and later an insane asylum, which lasted until the mid-late 20th century?
• St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kiev may have been the first Russian and Ukrainian church to have a golden dome?
• among many historic landmarks at the Andrew's Descent in Kiev, there is a medieval Gothic style castle that locals call the "Castle of Richard the Lion Heart" due to the legend the 12th century King of England had visited the building?