The square in a hemicycle shape in front of the University, having in its center Michael the Brave's statue - the first monument of the kind raised in Bucharest - was only partly lined by the Insurance Company building (now the Romanian Commercial Bank).
The city's north-south axis - Coltei Boulevard - from the St George Church and Coltea Hospital to the Regala Street, was under construction: the old building of the University was being extended with a large, new wing; right near it a School of Architecture was under construction, both buildings begun before the war.
More narrow streets led from St George to the Big Market place and farther on, up the Metropolitan Church Hill. The present I.C.Bratianu Boulevard and the Metropolitan Lane did not exist yet.
