A member of the Bellu family [ro], of Aromanian origin,[1] he was born in Bucharest.
[2] He was a prosecutor at Curtea de Argeș in 1856 and starting 1859, a judge at the Romanian High Court of Justice.
In 1866, Austrian Emperor Franz Josef gave him the title of baron.
After Alexandru Ioan Cuza abdicated, Barbu Bellu retired from public life.
In the fall of 1889 he drove around Bucharest in a 4-seat, 4-hp Peugeot automobile that could reach a speed of 18 km/h (11 mph); it is said that he was the first one to drive a car in Romania.