Day Tour 7: Bucharest parks: cultural heritage and urban nature
on May 14th, 2024
The visit will take a tour through different urban green spaces; both form cultural, social and landscape point of view, and trough the city’s history. It will be more of a relaxing walk through the city, as a green cross-section of its structure.
A bilingual tour guide will accompany participants during their trip, telling storeys about what we got to visit.
9:00 am - Departure from Izvor Metro Station in Izvor Park, the first visit site
Izvor Park is an eternal unfinished one, almost a leftover of the megalomaniac project of the House of People / Parliament Palace. Yet, its lack of design and identity allowed different uses and appropriations by the people.
10:00 am - Visit of the Văcărești Natural Park
Văcărești Natural Park represents the main natural reservation of Bucharest, resulted from the abandonment of a gigantesque communist project for a lake that aimed to became an urban harbour towards the Danube. The abandoned area evolved along time to a rich ecosystem, being declared natural reserve, in 2016, under the public pressure opposing the development of the place.
Although we cannot speak of natural habitats, as all communities are recently installed in an anthropic area, we can observe a typical wetland landscape, with specific species of plants forming clear communities as the ones Danube like (Lemna minor, Lemna trisulca, Spirodella polyrhiza, Wolffia arrhizal community and Typha angustifolia,Typha latifolia one) or anthropic communities (Polygonum aviculare, Lolium perenne, Sclerochloa dura, Plantago major / Agropyron repens, Arctium lappa, Artemisia annua, Ballota nigra). We can find as well rare species as Menyanthes trifoliata, Lindernia procumbens or Wolffia arrhizal (endangered in Romania).
From the fauna point of view, we can find a diversity of amphibians (Triturus cristatus, Triturus vulgaris, Bombina bombina, Rana ridibunda, Hyla orientalis), reptiles (Emys orbicularis, Lacerta viridis, Lacerta agilis, Natrix natrix, Natrix tessellata), mamals (Microtus arvalis, Sorex minutus, Ondatra zibethica, Mustela nivalis, Vulpes vulpes, Lutra lutra) and of course the specific Danube Delta birds.
13.00 pm – Picnic in Tineretului Park
The next place will be Tineretului Park (Youth Park), one of the main urban parks built over a garbage damp between 1965 and 1974. The park, of around 200 ha., was designed by Valentin Donose, the main landscape architect of the city during the era. It include an artificial lake (13 ha.) created by draining the swampy area, and part of the Dâmbovița cliff that marks the general topography.
It is still considered as ”the communist park” due to its gigantic features as Polivalentă Hall and the main entrance alley. Its generous lawns will allow us to have a picnic with what we going to grab on the way
16:00 - Visit of Carol I Park
Carol I Park was created, along the Filaretului Road (now embeds as an alley in the park) by the landscape architect Eduard Redont in 1900-1906, as background for the ”General Romanian Exhibition, for the 40 years of glorious reign of M.S.R. Carol I”.
It was subjected to multiple interventions and transformation, the most important one, giving it the present aspect, being realised in 1960-1963 under the name of Libertății Park (Freedom Park), when the monument for the ”Monument of the Heroes of Fighting for the Freedom of People, Fatherland and Socialism” was erected. The park includes monuments from different stages and represents one of the most important historical parks of the city.
Aside from its beautiful vegetation and panoramic views, the park also includes several monuments, such as a Mausoleum, the Cantacuzino Fountain (built in 1870), the Mines and Quarries fountain (still in place since the 1906 fair), the Giants' Statues, the Zodiac Fountain (1934), the Technical Museum (first opened in 1909). Also in the park are the open-air Roman Arena – an open-air concerts stage, and the Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy.
19.00 – Dinner at Fabrica
The tour will be closed by a beer at Fabrica, a popular pub in an abandoned industrial facility, one of the important cultural hubs of Bucharest and one of the favourite pubs in the city.
Please register before 31 March 2024! The technical tours have limited places.
*50 seats available
**Contact person - Ioana Tudora +40766380580; ioana.tudora@horticultura-bucuresti.ro
