The Big Theatre square Situated on the Victoria Avenue (the present Novotel Hotel, whose façade reproduces the one of the old theatre), the Big Theatre, as it was called in the beginning, has a complicated history: it was built in the Baroque style, according to the plans of Catalan architect Xavier Villacrosse, between the years 1842 and 1852 at the initiative of Wallachian prince Gheorghe Bibescu and later at that of prince Barbu Stirbei.