Seismic risk in Bucharest
Bucharest's red-dot buildings, one by one
The official list of assessed buildings has 2,796 addresses. We placed 2,606 of them on their own outlines, at their own heights, in today's city. The map also shows where the list stops.
415 buildings are in class RsI, the one marked with a red dot: their expertise found them liable to collapse, wholly or in part, in the design earthquake. The class does not say when an earthquake will come. The list records 6,593 flats in them; for 48 the number is missing.
1,453 buildings, 52% of the list, have no risk class under today's rules. They carry only an 'urgency category' assigned between 1991 and 1997 under rules since repealed.
Near 23 of the 27 central sites where blocks fell in 1977, less than 100 metres away, we mapped an RsI building of today.
The city with every red dot#
Each coloured building is an address on the list. Grey are buildings with no row on the list; the map cannot tell whether they were ever assessed. Outlines come from OpenStreetMap; heights are estimated from the number of storeys.
- RsI (red dot)
- RsII
- RsIII
- Urgency U1
- Urgency U2
- Urgency U3
- Strengthened
- Unclassified
- Not on the list
- Fell in 1977
2,606 of 2,796 buildings on the map
Your browser cannot draw the 3D map, so you see it from above. Drag to move it; + and − zoom.
Drag to move the map; right-click or Shift-drag to turn it; wheel to zoom. Click a coloured building to see its row on the list.
One finger moves the map, two fingers turn and zoom it. Tap a coloured building to see its row on the list.
This is the whole list, as much of it as we could map: 2,606 of 2,796 buildings. The rest have addresses we could not place with certainty. They are in the table at the end, without a point on the map.
Class RsI only: 415 buildings, 402 on the map. 337 of them are in sectors 1, 2 and 3, and for 381 the list gives a construction year of 1940 or earlier.
A red dot does not mean a tall block. 206 RsI buildings have a ground floor and at most two storeys, like these in the Old Town, on Lipscani and Franceză. Only 90 have seven levels or more.
The 90 with seven levels or more are mostly old blocks. You find them on Calea Victoriei, on Regina Elisabeta and Kogălniceanu, on Carol I, on Bălcescu, and on the streets around them.
In white: where blocks fell on 4 March 1977. Near 23 of them, less than 100 metres away, there is a red-dot building today. That is proximity on a map, not a forecast.
Purple: 1,453 buildings with only an 'urgency category', U1, U2 or U3, assigned between 1991 and 1997. The code set a deadline for strengthening: 2, 5 or 10 years. The last were assigned in 1997, 29 years ago. Of 476 re-assessed by 2022, 347 came out RsI; they are not a random sample.
Green: 117 buildings strengthened since the 1990s. In 2024, according to the head of AMCCRS, only 30 had been strengthened with public money.
And the rest, in grey. For a building not on the list, we don't know whether it was ever assessed; that does not make it safe. In 2024 the head of AMCCRS quoted a World Bank estimate: about 20,000 vulnerable buildings built before 1977. It is an estimate by building type, not an expertise.
What is on your street#
Type the street name. You see every building on the list along it, with its class and the year of its expertise. If your street does not appear, it only means no building on it made the list. The page shows list data, not the expertise report or the building's condition today: for that, ask your building manager or AMCCRS for the report.
What the classes mean#
A class is set only by a technical expertise from a certified engineer. Law 212/2022 defines them by what would happen in the design earthquake, the strong quake new buildings are calculated for.
RsI
May collapse, wholly or in part. City Hall must put a notice panel at every entrance of a residential building in this class: that is the 'red dot'. From notification, owners have two years to get a strengthening design and, from its approval, two more to start work. The map shows the class on the list; it does not check whether the panel is up.
RsII
Major damage that endangers people, but collapse is unlikely.
RsIII
Moderate damage that may endanger people.
RsIV
Behaves like a building designed to today's codes.
U1, U2, U3
1990s codes under repealed rules: deadlines for strengthening of 2, 5 or 10 years. City Hall says they cannot be converted automatically into RsI–RsIV. A new expertise is needed.
Strengthened
Buildings whose strengthening works are finished.
Unclassified
Assessed, but listed with neither a risk class nor an urgency category.
On the list, RsI grows every year: 363 buildings in 2022, 390 in 2024, 415 in May 2026. Part of the growth comes from buildings in the urgency category that finally got a new expertise.
What the list misses#
- RsI (red dot) 415
- RsII 489
- RsIII 162
- RsIV 11
- Urgency U1 273
- Urgency U2 552
- Urgency U3 621
- Urgency, no code 7
- Unclassified 149
- Strengthened 117
The list has 2,796 buildings. City Hall itself says the city has no real inventory of its buildings. The World Bank estimate quoted by the head of AMCCRS puts the number of vulnerable pre-1977 buildings at about 20,000. Data exists for about 2,000.
In 2023 City Hall announced a rapid visual assessment of more than 20,000 buildings. The municipal programme that started in 2026 covers more than 6,000, in the centre and the middle ring. A visual assessment gives no risk class; it only says where an expertise should come first.
So grey, on the map, means 'we don't know'. Not 'safe'.
The whole list#
All 2,796 rows as AMCCRS publishes them, with street names spelled as in OpenStreetMap where we found the address.
25 of 2,796 rows
| Address | Sector | Built | Height | Flats | Expertise | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strada Academiei 1 | 3 | 1905 | S+P+2E | 0 | 1993 | RsI |
| Strada Academiei 15 | 1 | 1890 | S+P+3E | 10 | 2020 | RsI |
| Strada Academiei 19÷21 (corp A+B) Hotelul „MUNTENIA” | 1 | 1935 | S+P+Mz+5E S+P+4E | 0 | 2005 | RsI |
| Strada Academiei 3÷5 imobil cu destinaTia de birouri – PRIMARIA MUNICIPIULUI BUCURESTI | 3 | 1906 | 2S+P+3E | 0 | 2012 | RsI |
| Strada Alexandru Beldiman 1 | 5 | 1935-1947 | S+P+9E | 82 | 2023 | RsI |
| Bulevardul Alexandru Ioan Cuza 9 | 1 | 1929 | S+P+2E+Ma | 6 | 1993 | RsI |
| Piața Alexandru Lahovari 5A | 1 | 1933 | 2S+P+7E | 18 | 2023 | RsI |
| Strada Alexandru Xenopol 3 | 1 | 1940 | S+P+8E | 37 | 1994 | RsI |
| Strada Arcului 4 | 2 | 1932 | S+P+7E | 26 | 2000 | RsI |
| Strada Armenească 17A | 2 | 1933 | S+P+3E+Ma | 11 | 2023 | RsI |
| Strada Armenească 28 | 2 | 1935 | P+5E+Ma | 20 | 1999 | RsI |
| Strada Armenească 28A | 2 | 1935 | P+5E | 20 | 1999 | RsI |
| Strada Aurel Vlaicu 55 | 2 | 1940 | S+P+4E | 11 | 1993 | RsI |
| Strada Baia de Fier 1 | 3 | 1885 | S+P+1E+Ma | 3 | 1993 | RsI |
| Strada Baia de Fier 4 | 3 | 1922 | S+P+2E | 3 | 1995 | RsI |
| Strada Baia de Fier 6 | 3 | 1930 | S+P+2E+Pod | 11 | 1993 | RsI |
| Strada Baia de Fier 5 | 3 | inainte de 1880 | S PARTIAL+P+1E | 2019 | RsI | |
| Strada Baltagului 17 | 5 | 1960 | P+2E | 12 | 2026 | RsIII |
| Strada Băniei 1 fosta Strada SFANTUL GHEORGHE NOU | 3 | 1935 | S+P+5E+Ma | 10 | 2014 | RsI |
| Strada Bărăției 29 | 3 | 1910 | S+P+2E+Ma | 3 | 1993 | RsI |
| Strada Bărăției 37 | 3 | 1900 | S+P+1E+Ma | 5 | 1993 | RsI |
| Strada Bărăției 42B | 3 | 1920 | S+P+2E+Pod | 1 | 1993 | RsI |
| Strada Bărăției 44 | 3 | 1935 | S+P+Mz+2E+Ma | 7 | 1993 | RsI |
| Strada Bărăției 50 | 3 | 1824 | S+P+1E | 2019 | RsI | |
| Strada Batiștei 5 | 2 | 1933 | 2S+P+10E | 26 | 2020 | RsI |
How the map was made#
We looked up each address on the AMCCRS list among OpenStreetMap's addresses: same street, same number, in the sector the list gives. No position is guessed or interpolated. For '11–13' we looked first for the whole range as OpenStreetMap writes it, then for each end. When the number turned up in several places far apart, the building stayed in the table only. We fixed 17 spelling differences by hand, such as 'Batiste' and 'Batiștei'. Where we found no address, we used the hand-verified points of DupăCutremur (Re:Rise and geo-spatial.org, CC BY 4.0) with the same street, number and sector, or with the same AMCCRS row number, confirmed by street, number and sector; where both placed the same building, the median gap between the points is 7 metres.
That put 2,606 of 2,796 buildings on the map. Each took the outline of the OpenStreetMap building the address falls in, or the nearest one within 12 metres; 26 without one appear as a 14-metre square. Height comes from the list's own storeys: 4.2 metres for the ground floor and 3.1 metres per storey. Where list and map do not line up perfectly, the outline may belong to the building next door; the row on the list is still the right one.
Sources#
Data
- AMCCRS (Bucharest City Hall), list of buildings with a technical expertise and a seismic risk class, table updated 19 May 2026
- OpenStreetMap: addresses and building outlines, downloaded 28 Sep 2026 (ODbL)
- DupăCutremur (Re:Rise and geo-spatial.org), points for the AMCCRS list buildings, export of 20 Jul 2026, CC BY 4.0
- The buildings that fell in 1977: INCDFP's layer of buildings affected by earthquakes, as used in the 1977 earthquake page
Law and City Hall
- Law 212/2022 on measures to reduce the seismic risk of buildings (arts. 1, 3, 5, 6, 33, 36)
- AMCCRS, clarifications on myths about seismic risk classes and technical expertises, 4 Mar 2025
- AMCCRS, more than 6,000 buildings enter the municipal rapid visual assessment programme, July 2026
Press
- Digi24, Bucharest's 1,600 'ghost blocks', 28 Nov 2022 (AMCCRS figures: 2,165 expertises in 1991–97; 476 re-assessed)
- HotNews, 47 years after the 1977 earthquake, 4 Mar 2024 (AMCCRS director: 112 buildings strengthened; 20,000 vulnerable buildings per a World Bank estimate)
- PressOne, on why Bucharest strengthens so few buildings, 26 Oct 2023
- Știrile ProTV, more than 20,000 pre-1977 buildings to be assessed, 31 May 2023
Other seismic-risk maps
- DupăCutremur (Re:Rise and geo-spatial.org): vulnerable buildings, collapse zones and roads that could be blocked; downloadable data, CC BY 4.0
- INCDFP, 'The seismic risk of Bucharest': a 2D/3D app with hazard, historic damage and emergency routes
- Acasă, în siguranță (Commit Global and MKBT): nationwide lookup and guidance for residents
- RIEVA: a map of 117,090 Bucharest buildings with typology-based risk estimates (not expertises)
- HartaBlocuri: Bucharest's blocks with years, storeys and plans, compiled by hand