Pedestrians can cross the streets only by University Passage, constructed during the development of M2 metro thoroughfare and leading, as well, to a metro station. The space that now extends from the InterContinental hotel and National Theatre once was home to an outdoor circus, around which existed shops with "mititei" (small Romanian sausages) and beer, and a stum shop named "Zori de zi" (Daylight). All this disappeared after urban planning in the 1960s proposed the idea of developing the area through tourism, cultural or administrative functions. Between 1968 and 1970 the Hotel InterContinental (architects Dinu Hariton, Gheorghe Nădrag, Ion Moscu and Romeo Belea) was built, and the new National Theatre was constructed between 1964–1973 in the style of that period, the halls being equipped with top stage installations. Damaged during the 1977 earthquake, the theater was rebuilt 1982–1984, under the aegis of Cezar Lăzărescu, in a heavy form and lacking spectacular elements. The square was the site of the 1990 Golaniad, a peaceful student protest against the ex-communists in the Romanian government. The demonstrations ended violently when miners from the Jiu Valley were called in by president Ion Iliescu to restore order in Bucharest ("see: Mineriad").