Kisseleff?s dreams promptly become real: the city perimeter is set at 19 kilometers, while entrance to and exit out of the city is possible through one of the 10 military outposts. For the first time, streets are given names and houses are numbered systematically, the city center is paved in stone and a boulevard connecting the Mogosoaia Bridge and Baneasa (North of Bucharest) is designed in 1832. In 1831 and after, a population census is completed; according to 1831 statistics, Bucharest had about 70 thousand inhabitants, out of which 58 thousand permanent and 10 to 12 thousand temporary, which testifies to a remarkable dynamics of population (to be compared with Sophia and Athens, which had merely 20 thousand inhabitants each).

            In April 1829, due to the efforts of the local intellectual élite, the National Courier periodical appears (Curierul National), to which the local authorities add, in 1832, the Official Monitor, another influential periodical; a noteworthy success is reported by the Walbaum bookshop, so well-furnished with books that Russian officers would purchase here books forbidden in Tzarist Russia. In the early 1830?s, the National Archives are raised, taking over from the Metropolitan Seat the task of keeping ancient acts and documents. Later on, towards the close of the century , more exactly in 1882, the impressive building of the Official Monitor (later to become the locale of the National Archives) is positioned opposite to the Cismigiu Garden.

            Due to these cosmopolitan imports and to an obvious urge to change as well, Bucharest initiates an accelerated a process of westernization that is noticeable in terms of fashion, mores, and even the sound of the streets, where all Eastern European languages could be heard (it is true, however, that the most refined would hear French exclusively). The attraction of the city was still represented by the dazzling coexistence of windswept shacks and always more impressive and daring palaces.

            Under the reign of Gheorghe Bibescu, the raising of a National Theater began in 1846, supervised by Austrian architect Hefft. Inaugurated on New Year?s Eve in 1852, with the participation of Barbu Stirbey, the prince at the time, the National Theater was the third largest theater house of Europe; its destruction caused by the German bombing after August 23^rd 1944 deprived the city of one of its best designed buildings.