Mircea Eliade, a leading historian of religion in the 20th century and one of the most valued Romanian writers, was fascinated with Mantuleasa Street in Romania’s capital of Bucharest. For Eliade, Mantuleasa was a street of mythical beauty, where the sacred infiltrates the profane. The street’s first historic mention was recorded in 1707 and was centered around its church, which was finished in 1733. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it was a residential area, mahala, for rich merchants, while in the early 20th century it became a select street in Romania’s capital.