Set on fire in 1658, struck by drought and famine in 1660 and almost simultaneously by the pest, Bucharest was therefore once more on the brink of total disaster; and once more its regeneration force proved stronger. Here is what Evlia Celebi, a Turk traveler, wrote around 1666: ?The houses (...), built of stone or brick (...) are not numerous and seem to be born under a bad omen, for every seven or eight years their owners start another uproar and the Turks and Tartars set the city on fire. However, the dwellers rebuild their small, one-storied, but vigorous houses within the same year.? As this description has it, the city had then about 12,000 houses (i.e. 50-60 thousand inhabitants), about one thousand shops (kept by ?beautiful girls?, says the Turk traveler), each of them furnished with a wine cellar, and about seven inns for the travelers. One thing is certain: nowadays the number of inns has increased (and they are known under different names), and the same goes for houses and shops. Wines are no longer as sought for as they used to be, but what remains the same, judging by the appearances, is the attraction of Turk visitors for the just as beautiful girls of the city.

5. Between the dagger and ?Caragea?s bladder?

            After going through great fires, famine and pest, Bucharest enjoyed a few decades of regained peace and prosperity under the reigns of Serban Cantacuzino (1678-1688) and Constantin Brincoveanu (1688-1714). Signs of modernity evolve in the most diverse forms: at the printing press of the first printing center of the city (settled in 1678 at the Metropolitan Seat) the splendid 1688 Bible of Bucharest is published. The number of schools increases due to Brincoveanu?s dilligence (for instance the St. Sava school or the school near the Coltea church, which was inaugurated almost simultaneously with the homonymous hospital). In 1692, the Mogosoaia Bridge, which was to become the main road of the city, is covered with oak tree beams. Brincoveanu also redecorates the Princely Court, without sparing a cent, using by and large stone and marble. 1702 sees the completion of the Mogosoaia Palace, meant as a gift to the second of his four children, Stefan, and nowadays a touristic attraction of the area. With a population of 50 thousand inhabitants, Bucharest was, according to data, the most important city of South-Eastern Europe in the epoch. As had been the case before with his predecessors, Brincoveanu?s passion for church-founding did not change his worldly destiny: on the 15^th of August 1714, he is beheaded by the Turks in Constantinople, together with his four sons.