Bucharest (Romanian: București) is the capital of Romania. With
just over 1.8 million inhabitants and an urban agglomeration of 2.2
million inhabitants, it is the seventh largest city in the European
Union.
After Bucharest had finally replaced Târgoviște as the
state capital of the Principality of Wallachia in 1659, it became
the political, economic and cultural center of Wallachia and later
Romania. The city has several universities, various other colleges
and numerous theatres, museums and other cultural institutions.
The city's cosmopolitan high
culture and the dominant French influence of neo-baroque
architecture earned it the nickname Micul Paris ("Little Paris",
also "Paris of the East"). During the tenure of the Romanian
dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, large areas of the historic district
were destroyed to make way for the head of state's monumental
confectionery style.
Unlike other parts of Romania, such as the Black Sea coast or Transylvania, the culture of Bucharest does not have a specific style, but includes elements of Romanian and international culture.
There are notable buildings and monuments in the city. Perhaps the
most prominent of these is the Palace of the Parliament, which was built
under the rule of the communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu in the 1980s.
It is the largest parliamentary building in the world, which houses the
Romanian Parliament (the House of Representatives and the Senate) and
the National Museum of Contemporary Art. The building boasts one of the
largest convention centers in the world.
Another landmark of
Bucharest is the Arcul de Triumf (The Arch of Triumph), which in its
current form was built in 1935 and was modeled after the Arc de Triomphe
in Paris.
The building of the Romanian Athenaeum (Ateneul Român)
is considered a symbol of Romanian culture. It was built between 1886
and 1888 by the architect Paul Louis Albert Galeron. Opened in 1888, the
ornate, domed, circular building is the city's most prestigious concert
hall and home to the "George Enescu" Philharmonic and the George Enescu
Festival.
The InterContinental Bucharest is a five-star hotel
near the University Square and is also one of the landmarks of the city.
The House of the Free Press (Casa Presei Libere, formerly: Casa
Scânteii) is a copy of the famous "Lomonosov" Moscow State University.
Between 1956 and 2007, it was the tallest building in the city. The name
of the building that houses the country's main printing house comes from
the name of the newspaper Scînteia, which was the main written
propaganda tool of the Romanian Communist Party.
Historical
The Parliament (wd) building
Athenaeum (Ateneul
Român) (1888), neoclassical concert hall, the most prestigious concert
hall in the city
Church of Stavropoleos Monastery (wd) in Brâncoveanu
style (1724)
Arcul de Triumf (The Triumphal Arch). The first wooden
triumphal arch was completed after the independence of Romania (1878).
This was replaced in 1935 by the current neoclassical style building.
the Mogoșoaia Palace (1702) near Bucharest
Kretzulescu Palace
(1902-1904), under Stirbei Vodă Street 39
The Patriarchal Cathedral
(Catedrala Patriarhală din București) (1655-1659)
Antim Monastery
(1715)
Radu Vodă Orthodox Monastery
Other religious
Cathedral of the Redemption of the Nation (Catedrala Mântuirii Neamului)
museums
Dimitrie Gusti Village Museum (open-air museum)
Peasant Museum (Muzeul Naţional al Taranului Român) is one of Europe's
popular art and tradition museums
Other
Parks (Herăstrău,
Cismigau)
Bucharest was built in the south of Romania, on both banks of the Dâmbovița River, 68 km north of the Danube and 280 km west of the Black Sea. The city is located on the Vlăsiei plain (Câmpia Vlăsiei), which is part of the Romanian lowland. To the east is the Bărăgan plain, to the west is the Găvanu Burdea plain, and to the south is the Burnazului plain. The plain area around Bucharest is also called the Bucharest Plain (Câmpia Bucureștiului).
The Vlăsiei Plain was formed in the Quaternary, when the Black Sea
retreated from the foreland of the Carpathians and Subcarpathians. Thick
layers of loess were deposited on the alluvial plain in the Pleistocene.
The area rose again in the Holocene. During this period, the valleys of
the rivers crossing the plain were formed, which in some places cut
deeply into the loess layers, thereby dividing the area. The height of
the plain is around 100-115 m in the northwestern part and around 50-60
m in the southeastern part, on the coast of Dâmbovița. Bucharest lies at
an altitude of 80-90 m above sea level.
The plain was divided
into several parts by the crossing rivers. The northern part is the
Băneasa Plain, which lies north of the Colentina River, followed by the
Colentina River Valley. After the river was regulated, a number of
reservoirs formed in its territory, which determine the geomorphological
profile of the northern part of Bucharest. These are Plumbuita, Ostrov,
Dobroești and Pantelimon lakes. The Colentina Plain or
Giulești-Floreasca Plain (Câmpul Colentinei) accounts for 36% of the
city's area. It is followed by the Dâmbovița valley to the south. The
river valley is regulated, as a result of which the former sand dunes
and islands have disappeared. South of the river there are some lower
mounds: Uranus-Mihai Vodă, Dealul Mitropoliei, Colina Radu Vodă, Movila
Mare. The geomorphological unit south of the Dâmbovița river is the
Cotroceni-Berceni or Cotroceni-Văcărești plain.
Its climate is temperate continental. Spring and autumn are short, summer usually arrives at the end of April. The hottest month is July. Winter usually starts in the first week of December, and the biggest snowfalls can also be expected in this month. This month is usually rainy and foggy, but the temperature hardly drops below -3 °C. The coldest month is January.
Bucharest is crossed by two rivers, the Dâmbovița and the Colentina, both of which have a regulated channel to the southeast. During the settlement of the Colentina, which crosses the northern part of the city, the swamps of the area were cleared and several collecting lakes were created. The most important of these are Herăstrău, Tei and Floreasca. In 1984, Nicolae Ceaușescu ordered a canal to be dug to the Danube, which would have made Bucharest a port city. According to surveys, about 70% of the canal was completed by the 1989 revolution.
According to legend, Bucharest was founded by a shepherd named Bucur.
This legend was first recorded in 1761 by a Franciscan monk, Blasius
Kleiner. According to the story, the pastor built a church that still
bears his name today, but investigations have shown that the church was
only built around 1743. The legend is based on the fact that the
elements of the Romanian name of Bucharest (București) are the Romanian
words "bucurie" (happiness) and "-esti" (place name-former, plural of
-escu). According to another legend, the city was founded by Negru Vodă.
This legend was first mentioned by Giacomo di Pietro Luccari from
Ragusa, who visited Havasalföld during the reign of Mihály Vitéz and
compiled a detailed monograph about the country.
Official
documents mention it for the first time on September 20, 1459, namely a
document signed by Prince Vlad Țepes confirming the property of a farmer
in Bucharest. A princely document from 1460 mentions it as castro fluvii
Dombovicha, while in 1461 it is listed as castro Bokoresth.
On
the order of Mircea Ciobanu, the Curtea Veche (Old Prince's Court) was
rebuilt between 1558 and 1559 and the Biserica Domnească (Prince's
Church), Bucharest's first major buildings, was built. Both were
significantly damaged in the 17th and 18th centuries. during the 19th
century Turkish invasions, earthquakes and fires; a museum currently
operates in the ruins of the yard, the church has been rebuilt several
times and is currently considered the oldest building in the city.
It was first mentioned as the capital in 1659, during the reign of
Gheorghe Ghica, and this is when the real development of the city
begins. The first paved roads appeared (1661), the first higher
education institution was founded, the Academia Domnească (Prince's
School, 1694) and the Mogoșoaia Palace was built (1698), where the
Brâncoveanu Museum is now located.
Colțea hospital was built in
1704 with the support of Mihai Cantacuzino. Within a short time,
Bucharest was also covered by the masters, and the first guilds were
established. While in 1798 there were only 30,030 inhabitants, in 1831
this number doubled. The first buildings of public interest appear, such
as the National Theater and Cișmigiu Park. In 1862, the city became the
capital of Romania, united in 1859.
After Romania declared war on
the Central Powers in August 1916, the Austro-Hungarian and German
troops occupied Bucharest on December 6. In the spring of 1918, Romania
asked for a separate peace and concluded. In the Second World War, the
city was not under siege, so it suffered less, the Soviet troops were
able to occupy it without resistance due to the Romanian transition.
In November 1956, students organized anti-communist demonstrations,
but the military suppressed and retaliated against the action. In
December 1989, revolution swept Romania and the people of Bucharest
overthrew the Ceaușescu dictatorship.
The infamous Romanian dictator considered reshaping the image of the
capital to be a matter of his heart. He bulldozed five hundred hectares
of downtown Bucharest (the largest peacetime urban destruction recorded
in the history of mankind) in order to build a new city center modeled
after North Korea in what he called his regime's lovely socialist
realist style, but which was actually neoclassical.
The gigantic
Palace of the Republic, otherwise known as the House of the People (Casa
Poporului), was built on an artificial hill in the middle of the city,
currently the Palace of the Parliament, which Ceaușescu intended as his
own residence. This building currently houses the House of
Representatives, the Senate and the Constitutional Court. The building
is also listed in the Guinness Book of Records: it is the third largest
building in the world, after the Pentagon, with a floor area of 330,000
m². An avenue wider than the Champs-Élysées in Paris (Victoria
Socialismului, currently Bulevardul Unirii) runs east from the palace,
and the elite of the party state could move into the panels erected
along it.
Due to the outbreak of the revolution, many Grandoman
buildings were left unfinished and are currently empty (National
Library, Youth House, Museum of Socialism / Radio House, market
complexes, etc.).
1459 Bucharest is mentioned for the first time in an official
document
1465 It became the residence of Prince Radu cel Frumos
1659 Gheorghe Ghica made it the capital of Havasalföld
1661 The first
paved roads appeared
1808 The Hanul lui Manuc inn is opened, the
Turkish-Russian pact is signed here in 1812
1847 A fire destroyed one
third of the city
1869 The first railway station was opened (Gara
Filaret)
1872 The first tram was put into operation
1912 Băneasa
(today Aurel Vlaicu) Airport opens
1916 The German army occupied the
city and left it only two years later
1922 The Triumphal Arch (Arcul
de Triumf) was built
1929 The first regular radio broadcast began
1936 The Herăstrău park is completed on an area of about 187 ha, and
next to it is the Village Museum, one of the first ethnographic museums
in the world
1944 The II. after exiting World War II, Romanian troops
cleared the city of German troops. They were replaced by the Soviets,
who left the country only in 1958
1954 The Romanian Opera House was
opened
1956 The first Romanian TV broadcast was broadcast on New
Year's Eve
1968 Otopeni (today Henri Coandă) airport opens
1977 An
earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale destroyed most of the
historic center of the capital
1979 The first metro line was built
According to nationality, 97-98% of the population is Romanian.
More significant ethnic groups are the Roma, Hungarians, Turks,
Jews, Germans (mainly the Regati Germans), and the Chinese.
The number of Hungarians in Bucharest is officially 5,800, but
according to estimates, their number is ten to twenty thousand, and in
addition, thousands of Hungarian civil servants, politicians and
journalists work here. The Hungarian-language Ady Endre Theoretical
Lyceum (formerly Industrial Lyceum No. 33) operates in the city; the
university also has a department of Hungarian studies. From November
2013, the paper Bucharesti Magyar Élet, published as a monthly
supplement to the Brasov Newspapers, was edited here, and after its
termination, the Bucharest Papers from 2018. RTV produces a 5-hour
Hungarian program a week, Bucharest Radio broadcasts a one-hour
Hungarian program a day. The spread of Hungarian culture is also ensured
by the Hungarian Cultural Institute and the Petőfi Sándor Cultural
Center. Hungarian amateur actors also operate under the name Petőfi
Színkör, and more recently an amateur folk dance group was established
under the name Bercsényi Baráti Tánckör. In the Bărăția Roman Catholic
church, mass is held twice a week in Hungarian. The Calvineum and
Szőlőskert Reformed churches hold services in Hungarian several times a
week. Bucharest had a Hungarian representative in the Romanian
parliament until 2004.
Famous Hungarians
Biochemist Júlia
Ibolya Kovács was born here in 1935.
Hungarian dance singer János
Koós was born here in 1937.
Hungarian-born Romanian singer Daniela
Györfi was born here in 1968.
During the 2011 census, 87.6% of the population declared themselves
religious, including 84.3% Orthodox, 1.2% Roman Catholic, 2.1% adherents
of other minor denominations, 0.6% non-religious and atheist. . No data
is available for 11.8% of the population.
Cathedral of the
Redemption of the Nation (Romanian: Catedrala Mântuirii Neamului),
Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lord and Andrew the Apostle, the
cathedral under construction of the Romanian Orthodox Church in
Bucharest. It will be the see church of the current Romanian patriarch,
and at the same time it will be one of the largest Orthodox churches in
the world. It stands in the center of the city, on the Spirea Hill, next
to the Palace of the Parliament.
Bucharest is crossed by two major international routes: IV. and IX.
pan-European transport corridor.
Railway
It is a hub of the
country's national railway network, operated by Căile Ferate Române. The
main train station is Gara de Nord ('North Station'), which provides
connections to all major cities in Romania, as well as international
destinations: Belgrade, Sofia, Varna, Chisinau, Kiev, Thessaloniki,
Vienna, Budapest, Istanbul, etc.
Air
Bucharest has two
international airports:
Henri Coandă International Airport (IATA:
OTP, ICAO: LROP), located 16.5 km north of Bucharest city center in
Otopeni, Ilfov. In terms of passenger traffic, it is the busiest airport
in Romania.
Aurel Vlaicu International Airport (IATA: BBU, ICAO:
LRBS) is Bucharest's business and VIP airport. It is located just 8 km
north of the city center of Bucharest, within the city limits.