Bucharest

Description:

Bucharest is Romania's capital and at the same time, the largest city, industrial and commercial centre of the country. The population of 1,944,367 inhabitants (January 1, 2009) qualifies Bucharest the sixth city in population in the European Union. In fact, however, Bucharest gathers daily over three million people, and experts predict that over the next five years, the total will exceed four million.

Bucharest is located in south-east, between Ploiesti at north and Giurgiu at south. It lies in Vlăsiei plain, which is part of the Romanian Plain. To east Baragan Plain, on the west Plain Gavanu Burdea and  the south is bordered by Burnazului Plain

Waters, flora and fauna

Bucharest is situated on the banks of the Dambovita River, which flows into the Arges, a tributary of the Danube. Several lakes lie along the river Colentina, in  the perimeter of the city, such as Herăstrău Lake, Floreasca Lake, Tei Lake and Colentina Lake. And in the centre of the city there is a lake in Cişmigiu Park. This lake, formerly puddle in the medieval old town is surrounded by Cismigiu Garden, opened in 1847 following the plans of German architect Carl FW Meyer. In addition to Cişmigiu there are other large parks in Bucharest: Herastrau Park (the Village Museum) and Botanical Garden (the largest in Romania and which has over 10,000 species of plants, including exotic), Youth Park, Alexandru Ioan Cuza Park (known as Titan Park or IOR Park), and many smaller parks and green spaces arranged by district mayors.

Climate

Climate is specific to the capital of Romania, namely temperate continental. Specific are four seasons: winter, spring, summer and autumn. Winters in Bucharest are quite mild with little snow and relatively high temperatures, while in recent years the summers are very hot (with very high temperatures of up to 35/38 degrees) and little precipitation. This causes high temperature differences (winter - summer)

Economy

Bucharest is the largest economic centre of Romania. It fulfils about 19% of the annual Romanian Gross Domestic Product, and together with Ilfov it goes up to 21%. In Bucharest, one can find most of the specific Romanian economic branches excluding agriculture, starting with the construction and ending with services. There are machine-building enterprises (heavy equipment, tools, steel factories, oil companies, agricultural machinery, locomotives, cars, planes and helicopters, buses). Other industries: electricity, electronics, fine mechanics, optics, chemical companies, construction materials, wood processing. Bucharest is an important railway, road and air point.

Public transport

The extensive system of public transport in Bucharest is the largest in Romania. It is composed of 71 km metro system operated by Metrorex and the buses systems (116 lines), trolley (20 lines), trams (25 lines) and light rail- all operated by  RATB. There are many taxi companies (10,000 licensed taxis).

Air transport

In Bucharest, there are currently two functioning airports: The Henri Coanda International Airport (formerly Otopeni) and The Aurel Vlaicu International Airport (formerly Baneasa). The Henri Coanda Airport is the largest Romanian serving five million passengers in 2007 and is the main centre for the national operator TAROM. It is the place for  daily departures and arrivals from other cities in Romania and many other airports in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. The Aurel Vlaicu is used by low cost airlines but also by charter planes.

Rail transport

Bucharest is the core of the national Romanian Railway Company. The most important railway station is Gara de Nord from which come and go trains either from Romanian towns and cities or from foreign countries/cities: Belgrade, Budapest, Sofia, Vienna, Prague, Moscow, Istanbul, Chisinau, etc. There are othe stations as well: Basarab, Baneasa, Obor / Eastern Progress, South and South Titan. 8 main railway in the city: 300 (Bucharest-Oradea), 500 (Bucharest, Bacau, Suceava-Vereşti), 700 (Bucharest-Braila-Galati), 800 (Bucharest-Constanta), 900 (Bucharest Drobeta-Turnu Severin - Timisoara-Jimbolia), 901 (Bucharest-Pitesti-Craiova), 902 (Bucharest-Giurgiu) and 903 (Bucharest-Oltenita).

Road transport

The basic element of urban street network in Bucharest is represented by great avenues, which go from the urban centre to the suburbs. The principal axes (north-south, east-west, north-west-south-east) and two rings (inside and outside) help to reduce traffic congestion. The streets in the city are usually crowded during peak hours due to the increase number of cars in recent years. Every day, over one million vehicles move inside the city.

Bucharest is the main hub of the Romanian national road network, the starting point of two highways (A1 to Pitesti and the A2 to Cernavoda and the A3 motorway also planned to start in Bucharest) and nine national roads (DN1 to Oradea, DN1A to Brasov, DN2 to Suceava, DN3 to Calarasi, Oltenita to DN4, DN5 to Giurgiu to Timisoara and Cenad DN6, DN7 and DN71 to Nadlac to Sinaia).

Water transport

Although situated on the banks of the Dambovita river because the river is navigable, Bucharest has never functioned as a port, this role being reserved for other cities, such as Constanta and Braila. However, the Danube-Bucharest Channel of 73 km, is being built and will connect the city with the Danube and Black Sea. The Channel is expected to become an important component of urban transport infrastructure.

Institutions, monuments and tourist attractions

In Bucharest one can admire:  The Parliament (House of Parliament or House of People), the Government and the Romanian Presidency. Also, they are established many cultural institutions, and are Romanian Academy (founded in 1866), over 60 research institutes, University, Polytechnic Institute, Institute of Medicine, numerous other higher education institutes, large libraries (Academy, founded in 1867, some 8 million volumes, The National Library, founded in 1955, 7 million volumes, Central University Library, founded in 1896, 2 million volumes, burned during the Revolution of 1989), etc..

Major parks in the city are Herastrau Park (187 ha) Cismigiu Park (13 ha), inaugurated in 1860, Youth Park (200 ha) and Carol Park (36 ha), inaugurated in 1906.

Although it has suffered much over time, invasions, fires, floods, earthquakes, and fury of a mad dictator, but perhaps the most serious the  indifference of everyone, Bucharest has what to present to  the visitor whether it comes from the province or abroad. It would be a waste to go through Bucharest without seeing at least part of which will offer next.

Romanian Athenaeum

C. Esarcu, VA Ear and N. Kretulescu founded in 1865 the Institution called Romanian Athenaeum with the purpose of „offering the people with useful knowledge" To raise the necessary money for the construction this motto was preferred "Give one leu for the Athenaeum". In 1886 the construction was started following the plans of French architect Albert Galleron and it was inaugurated on February 14^th, 1888. The place represents the headquarters of  "George Enescu" Philharmonic  and the space where some of the most important conductors and soloists of twentieth century performed: Erich Kleiber, Sergiu Celibidache, Ionel Perlea, Herbert von Karajan, Dinu Lipatti, Arthur Rubinstein, Pablo Casals, Yehudi Menuhin.

Opera

Although in Romania manifestations of the lyrical genre date back to the nineteenth century the House of Romanian Opera is a relatively new building (1953) built following the plans of architect Doicescu Octav. It has a capacity of 2200 seats, and it also hosts at the top floor Opera Museum in which one can search documents, photographs, costumes depicting the development of this artistic genre in Romania. In front of the building there is the statue of the great musician George Enescu, a bronze sculpture created by Ion Jalea.

Cismigiu Park

At the time of Alexander Ypsilanti there was a large pond on the place of nowadays Cismigiu Park, called Dura merchant's pond. In 1847, under the guidance of Carl F.W. the works began, and in 1854 was officially inaugurated. The garden impresses today with flowers, special collection of dendrological material, here there are some examples of  protected trees. Cismigiu is never empty, on summer being searched for coolness, vegetation and its  lake full of boats and on winter it  becomes a natural ice rink.

The National Military Circle

The National Military Circle building was built in 1912 using the plans of the architects Maimarolu D., V. Stefanescu and E. Doneaud, being influenced by the French neoclassical style. It has sumptuous interiors that have hosted over time dances, meetings and, today, exhibitions of paintings, sculpture book launchings, etc. Although this place has an interesting history few people know it. The first clue is the fountain in front of the National Military Circle which is called Sarindar, related to the name of the church probably built by Matei Basarab, much later on in the late eighteenth century was noted for the miracle icon of the Virgin.  Rebuilt several times, the church was severely affected by the earthquake of 1838.

CEC  Bank

CEC as an institution was founded in 1864 by a law initiated by Alexandru Ioan Cuza. At first it functioned in different buildings, then in 1875 the construction of its headquarters began. On the place where today CEC is there was the church of St. John the Great, which was demolished to make way for the first building. CEC was rapidly developing so that the old establishment was not appropriate to host so many people so it was decided to demolish the old place and on the same place it was started the construction of the new building, following the plans of the French architect Paul Gottereau. Early works were marked by a ceremony held on 8 June 1897. Among participants there were: the royal family, members of government, members of the CEC Board of Directors, architect Paul Gottereau.  The construction was finished in 1900 and since then CEC has worked in this building without making other notable changes.

Church Stavropoleos

Stavropoleos Church, hidden between high buildings,is placed behind the former Palace of the Post (now the National History Museum). The small and very beautiful church was built by a Greek monk Pripas, named Ioanichie. It is a place representative and influential for  brincovenesti. There are stone columns, pedestals, capitals, porch with railing. Earthquakes over the years, especially "the big one" in 1802 and then the big challenges of the 1838 damage, demolished them. Even the tower above the nave was ruined Restoration begins only around 1900, under the direction of architect Ion Mincu, he put his back into until his death in 1912; the completion the work was fulfilled by one of students , the architect Alexander Zagoritz.

Manuc Inn

In the old borough of Bucharest, starting around 1700, there were dozens of inns, one more picturesque than the other, which had seen a real glory period for almost two centuries. After the origin or social status of the founder and specificity of these commercial settlements, the Bucharest inns were called "royal", "monastery" or "church", "mansions" and " merchant", although they all had the same economic purpose, the content old town. In the latter category, historians have settled and "Manuc's Inn" by far one of the most famous buildings of this kind in Wallachia, not only because of its impressive size, but the figure of its founder, the legendary "Manuc Bey".

Patriarchal Cathedral

The church building was begun by prince Constantin Serban Basarab in 1656, but it was finished much later by his successor, Roger Leon, only in 1668 and is dedicated to "St. Constantin and Elena". After this year, the ruler raised it up to the rank of Metropolitan of the country and ever since the hill on which the Metropolitan Church is located is called the Metropolitan Hill.

Palace of Parliament (House of People)

The Parliament House was built on the former Spirii Hill (named after the famous doctor in the area) in the '80s, when it was started the "urbanization" of the entire district, following the "indications of genius founder", i.e. the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Built on an artificial hill, the House of the People has a height of 84m, (includes 12 floors) has a dominant note, impressive, and with a surface of 330,000 square meters, is the second building in the world after the Pentagon. Ceausescu wanted this place to be presidential residence, the Central Committee of the Communist Party and some ministries. Pyramid-shaped  without a peak (some domes were tested, an idea which was dropped) the palace contains large halls, long corridors, many huge rooms. The largest is called Union Hall, with a height of 16 m and a surface 2200 square meters. It houses the biggest chandelier, weighing three tons and it has 7000 bulbs.

Arcul de Triumf ( Arc of Triumph)

Arch of Triumph was built in 1922 of wood and stucco, in honour of the proclamation Union, after the victory of the Romanian troops in the World War II, arch that would be replaced with one of stone, by the architect Petre Antonescu, between 1935 1936.

The southern facade is beautifully adorned with two bronze medallions, which depict the faces of King Ferdinand and Queen Mary, which replace the original ones, destroyed by the communist regime, after the '80s. In their place two large stone flowers were applied, which were put down after 1989. The royal faces were, again, replaced.

Village Museum

In the spring of 1936 Romanian Village Museum appeared, the collective creation of the Romanian Sociological School, founded and led by Dimitrie Gusti. The person who first thought of  the formation of a collection of folk art, of peasant households and their presentation in the exhibition, was the writer Al. Odobescu.

On its opening, the museum comprised an area of 5 ha and only 30 houses, characteristic of different parts of the country. For their location, culture people, specialists, 1,100 workers of different trades and 130 skilled craftsmen from the villages of the selected homes were asked to help the project.  Over the years, the museum has increased up to about 15 ha and the number of buildings located exceeds 300, of which more than 4 ha are equipped with everything necessary for a peasant (workshops, Annex Building, churches, etc.).