BUCHAREST ("Little Paris")
- The Bucharest Coat of Arms
- The Bucharest’s map
- The function: The city of Bucharest is the capital of Romania
since 1862, the biggest town, both as surface and population, the
political, cultural and scientifical centre and the most important
economical centre of the country (15% of the national potential is
focused here).
- Documentary certified: September
the 20th 1459, by
Vlad Tzepesh, nicknamed"Dracula" (since its
set up as a human settlement, in the early antiquity, Bucharest has been a town, not a village).
- Position: in the South of the
country, in the middle of the Romanian Plain, on the shores of Colentina
and Dambovitza rivers, 64 km away from Danube, 100 km away from
Carpathians and 250 km away from the Black Sea.
- Co-ordinates: 44°24’ northern
latitude and 26°06’ eastern longitude
- The area: 228 square km (0.8% of the
area of the country).
- The average altitude: 85 metres over
the sea level.
- Administrative distribution: 6
sectors.
- Hidrography: Bucharest is traversed by Dambovitza and Colentina
rivers, affluent of Argesh river (affluent of
the Danube); Dambovitza is the main river of the
city, which traverses along 25 km, from north-west to south-east;
Colentina traverses Bucharest along 34.7 km, forming 9 lakes (Baneasa,
Mogoshoaia, Strauleshti, Herastrau, Floreasca, Tei, Fundeni, Pantelimon
and Cernica).
- The vegetation: In Bucharest there
are a lot of parks, gardens, woods and natural reservations (giving it
the "garden-city" name): The Cishmigiu Park (the oldest park,
inaugurated in 1860, made after the plans of the architect Wilhem Mayer,
on a 16 ha surface, in the middle of the city), the Botanical Garden
(arranged between 1860-1884, the first public garden in Bucharest, area:
17.5 ha, contains over 10,000 species of exotic, medicinal, industrial,
decorative plants, high altitude plants, cactuses etc.), the Herastrau
Park (lies in the North, on over 200 ha, around the harmonious 77 ha
lake, arranges between 1910-1936, contains exhibition pavilions, an
entertainment park, a sporting base, restaurants and terraces; near it
there is the Village Museum), the Liberty Park (inaugurated in 1906, it
is 36 ha wide), the Youth Park (the most recent park in the city, almost
200 ha wide; in the park there is a lake and The Sports and Culture
Palace, built in 1974), the Baneasa Forrest (where lies the ZOO) etc
- The climate: continental-temperate;
the yearly average temperature: 10-11° C.
- Population: 1,996,612 inhabitants
(the 9th place in Europe and the 81st in the world) (aprox. 10% of Romania’s population): 8,892.6 inhabitants/square
km.
- The street’s network: has 5,340
streets, with a length of 1,820 km (of which 600 km are main streets),
16 passages and 27 road-bridges
- The public (surface) transport:
2,174 vehicles (641 tramways, 265 trolleybuses and 1,268 buses).
- Subway: entirely made by the
Romanian specialists, from design to execution, and completely equipped with
self-made outfits; between 1975-1989, 3 main lines were made, totalling
59.5 km (of double way) and 40 stations
- Railway stations: 5: The Northern
Station, Baneasa, Basarab, Obor and Titan
- Bus terminals: 6: Baneasa, Filaret,
Grivitza, Militari, Obor, Rahova
- Two airports - both international:
Bucharest-Otopeni and Bucharest-Baneasa
- Health: 51 hospitals, 370 health
units, 58 polyclinics, 384 pharmacies
- Education: primary and gymnasium:
235 schools; high-schools: 99; superior: 31 institutions
- The culture (at the end of 1997):
347 libraries, 17 cinemas, 40 museums, 1 opera house, 17 theatres, and 1
astronomical observatory.
- Historical and architectural monuments:
The Old Court - The Voivode Palace (dating from the 14th-15th century),
the Shutzu Palace (built between 1832-1834 in neogotic style by the
Austrian architects Witald and Konrad Schivink; now it houses the Art
and History Museum of the Municipality of Bucharest), the Central
University Library (built between 1891-1893 by the French architect Paul
Gottereau in the French classic style), the Ghica Palace (built in 1822
in the neo-classic style), the CEC Palace (built between 1896-1900 by
the French architect Paul Gottereau), the Telephones Palace (53 metres
high, built in 1933 by the Americans architects Louis Weeks and Walter
Roy), the Bucharest University (the University’s Palace was built
between 1857-1869 in the neo-classic style) a.s.o.
- Places of worship: The Romanian
Patriarchal Complex (includes a church, a monastery and the Patriarchal
Palace, built between 1654-1708), the Church of Baratzia (built in
1672), the "Buna Vestire" Church (St. Anthon) (it is the
oldest religious monument, it is placed in the Princely Court and was
built in the 16th century), the Lady’s Church (built in 1683), the Radu
Voda Church (built between 1613-1614), the St. Joseph Cathedral (built
in 1883 by the architect Friedrich Schmidt in Roman style with Gothic
elements) a.s.o.
- Museums: The National Cotroceni
Museum (including the monastery built between 1679-1681, the old wing of
Cotroceni Palace built at the end of the 19th century by the architect
Paul Gottereau and it houses the National Cotroceni Museum and the new
wing housing the Presidency of Romania), the Village Museum (one of the
first ethnographical museums in the world, built in 1936 on the shore of
the Herastrau Lake), The National History Museum builded between
1894-1900 in neoclassical style, it has 60 halls with 600,000 pieces of
artistic and historical value, including a copy of the antique monument
"Columna lui Traian" (The Traian’s Column), The Art and
History Museum of Bucharest’s Municipality (it includes over 300,000
objects in collections of archaeology, coins, graves, paintings, photos,
books, diverse religious objects, old costumes etc.; among the most
values exhibits it is the sword with precious stones who belonged to the
Prince Constantin Brancoveanu, the burnt clay statue dated in
neolithikal epoch, named "The goddess from Vidra" and the
document issued by Vlad Tzepesh in 1459 who mentioned for the first time
the actual name of the capital city), The National Arts Museum (a
building with 2 floors, builded between 1812-1842 in new-classic style,
the former Royal Palace, has a big European art collection with over
100,000 exhibits), The National Natural History Museum Grigore Antipa
(includes over 300,000 pieces in collections of zoology, oceanography,
palaeontology, exhibited in 42 halls and a library with 30,200 volumes
and 20,000 periodics), The Romanian Literature Museum (an architectural
monument builded in 1863 in new-classic French style; includes over
300,000 pieces organised in 250 collections; the library of the museum
has over 25,000 volumes), The Astronomical Observatory (builded at the
end of the 19th century) and many more.
- Culture institutions: The Romanian
Athenaeum (inaugurated in 1888: The Concert hall is 16 m high and has a
diameter of 28.5 m; here concerted in time famous composer and
interpreter: Maurice Ravel, Yehudi Menuhin, Richard Strauss and many
more); The Romanian Opera (builded in 1954 with a capacity of 1,200
spectators).
- Another objectives: The Parliament
Palace (builded between 1984-1986 it has 6,000 rooms and is the 2nd
building of the world after the Pentagon buiding (Washington D.C.), The
Press House (finished in 1956, occupying a surface of 25,000 square
metres), The Justice Palace (builded between 1890-1895 in French
renaissance style; the main front of the building is 100 m long), The
Triumphal Bow (inaugurated in 1918 and rebuilded between 1935-1936,
builded in memory of the Romanian army victories in the first world war
and the unity of the Romanian state), The "Lupoaica Romei"
Monument (The Rome’s She-wolf Monument) (a gift received by the Romanian
capital city from the municipality of Rome, in 1906) (Bucharest is the
European city with the most casinos).
- Images and photos gallery:
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