Carpet hanger

[citation needed] In Romania the carpet hanger (bara de bătut covoare or bătător de covoare) was an important landmark in the social life of each neighbourhood during the communist and post-communist period, where it served as a meeting point for neighbours and was frequently used in children's games.

[6] Before important holidays, queues would form around the railing, as few people owned a vacuum cleaner, and even those who did would still beat their carpets in order to 'freshen them up'.

[7] During the rest of the year, "it was generally used as a football goal by the boys, while it suddenly transformed girls into Nadia Comăneci.

"[7] The carpet hanger has been described as representing a sort of "Arc de Triomphe in front of the apartment block",[8] while writer Paul Gabor dubbed it "the ancestral belly of the totalitarian regime" during the communist era.

[9] In recent years, the carpet railing has been a topic of debate for urban planners and local authorities, as many Romanian cities have passed (and sometimes rescinded[10]) laws forbidding their placement or decreeing their immediate removal, citing aesthetic or noise pollution reasons.