Bucharest

The town of Bucharest ( Bucuresti ) is the capital city of Romania, the most important political, administrative, economic and cultural centre of the country. Bucharest is situated in a full plain, at a distance of 60 km from the Danube River and 100 km from the foot of the Carpathians Mountains. Situated at 26° 06' Longitude East and 44° 26' Latitude North, at an average altitude of 70-80 metres from the sea level, Bucharest occupies an area of 60,500 hectares and the town is divided into 6 administrative districts. The population, estimated 1st of January 2009, was of 2,151,000 inhabitants. The town is crossed by the Dimbovita river and by its tributary the Colentina, which flows almost parallel from North-west to South-east. In the greater part the Dimbovita is embanked. Located in the middle of one of the richest and most populated regions of the country, with an abundant vegetation, the town is surrounded by a chain of lakes, meadows and woods constituting as many tourist attractions.

Bucharest map

Bucharest Sightseeing Spots

Monuments of architecture, museums, important public edifices

The urbanistic beginnings of Bucharest had been around the Curtea Veche, the former princely residence on the left bank of the Dimbovita. The documents maintain that Vlad the Impaler (1456-1462) built the citadel, but recent restauration works have offered the archaeologists and historians the surprise of uncovering a mediaeval fortification from the second half of the 14th century, which sent the evidence of the existence of the town 100 years back, to the reign of Mircea the Old (1386-1418). Very soon, this important edifice was reconstructed in the form it had in the years when it served as residence of Wallachian princes becoming one of the most original points of interest of the Capital (today a museum). In the immediate neighbourhood, Mircea Ciobanul (1545-1554 and 1558-1559) erected the Curtea Veche Church (33, 30th of December street), the oldest church preserved in Bucharest. The Turkish invasions and fires ruined it repeatedly. The latest re-makes, enter prised by the Commission of Historical Monuments in 1928-1929, made it look like the original one. One may notice the abutments, an architectural element of Moldavian origin and the portal, added in 1715, an expression of the skill of stone carvers in Constantin Brancoveanu's time. Some three other valuable Bucharest monuments belong to the 16th century: the monasteries of Marcuta, Plumbuita and Mihai Voda.

The "Grigore Antipa" Museum of Natura/ Sciences (1, Soseaua Kiseleff). It is the oldest (founded in 1831) and the greatest (has about 300,000 pieces) museum in Bucharest. For over 25 years, beginning with 1867, the museum was run by Grigore Stephanescu, who had discovered the huge skeleton of Dinotherium Gigantissimum, a unique example in the world, today the most precious piece of the museum, then, for half a century, by scientist Grigore Antipa (1867-1944). In that period the museum was reorganized and settled its profile, was moved, in 1908, in the present-day building, and was enriched with new collections (the butterfly collection is considered one of the richest and most interesting in the world).

Parks, Public Gardens and other Amusement Places

Bucharest is well-known as a "garden-town", owing to its parks and innumerable flowers. One of the most beautiful gardens is the Cismigiu Garden in the very core of the Capital (between Gh. Gheorghiu-Dej Boulevard, Schitu Magureanu Street, Stirbei Voda Street), arranged in 1850 according to the plans of German landscape painter Wilhelm Mayer. The lake, originating from a former tributary to the Dimbovita, was drained, and all around, on an area of 14 ha, there was arranged a beautiful park with trees brought from the region. The terrace of roses, the beds of flowers changed according to seasons, "The Roman Round", where there are busts of Romanian writers, are some of the points of interest of the garden. The Botanical Gardens (32, Cotroceni Street), arranged on an area of 17 hectars cluring 1884-1895, under the guidance of the scientist, botanist Dr. D. Brandza, is famous for the abundance and uniqueness of its plants (it has over 10,000 species of plants).