Muntenia

The Romanian Capital is a city of contrasts, where historic buildings stand side by side with skyscrapers of glass and metal. Bucharest, located in the country’s south east, is by far the largest Romanian City with almost two million people and it is the nation’s cultural, industrial and financial centre. According to local legend , the city was established by a shepherd named Bucur who tendend his flocks on the bank of the River Dambovita. Although it was documented for the first time in official 15^th-century records , Bucharest only became the capital of Romania in the middle of 19^th century. The streets of Bucharest often reflect its nickname Little Paris of the East, given to the capital between the wars for its elegant architecture and thriving cultural life. Bucharest also bears the scars from four decades of a communist regime, wich ordered the demolition of entire residential neighborhoods to make way for wide boulevards and massive monumental buildings, and the rapid and sometimes chaotic development since 1989.   

 

Considered by some a testament to Romanian builders’s craftsmanship and by others an architectural monstrosity, the Palace of Parliament is nonetheless a principal landmark of the Bucharest cityscape. The subject of three entries in the Guiness World Records, it is the largest and most expensive civic administration building in the world, at 270 metres long, 245 metres wide, and 86 metres high. It also extends  some 82 metres deep below ground, and its footprint covers 66.000 square metres.      

 

Cismigiu Gardens, the capital’s oldest public park, lies opposite Bucharest City Hall, on Regina Elisabeta Boulevard. The park is a green oasis of 17 hectares in the heart of the city, with a lake at its centre. It was designed in the middle of the 19^th century by a landscape gardener previously responsible for the Viena Imperial Gradens. Attractions include a circular outdor gallery displaying busts of great Romanian writers, a marble monument in hounour of the French heroes who died in World War I in Romania and, on a site called La Cetate , the ruins of a monastery built in the 18^th century.

 

The largets Park in Bucharest occupies an area of 187 hecatres and was inaugurated in 1936. Developed in the north of the city around Herastrau, one of the lakes formed by Colentina River, the park is perfect for a relaxing stroll, a cycle ride, rollebladingor skateboarding or a walk with friends to one of the local terraces. The park also contains the fascinating Dimitri Gusti national Village Museum, one of the largest and oldest ethnographic museums in Europe, with 70 houses from all over the country, wooden churches, a water mill, a wind mill and many traditional tools. 

Rich in historic and artistic significance,  Peles Castle is one of Romania’s most visited tourist attractions and one of  the  most important monuments of its kind in Europe. It has been built between 1873 1914, by order of King Carol I of Romania. Pele; was the first electrified castle in Europe and had a dedicated electric plant. In 1896, the emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Joseph, visited the castle and was extremely impressed by its beauty and wealth. Set in a fairytale location in Sinaia 44 km from Brasov and 122 km from Bucharest , the castle was built in the predominant style of the German Renaissance, incorporating Rococo, Baroque, Gothic and Italian Renaissance elements. The castle was built of wood, stone, brick and marble and has more than 160 rooms. The wood decorations, both on the outside and inside, give the castle an unmistakable aesthetic. Around the castle are seven ledges decorated with statues by the Italian sculptor Romanelli, fountains and ornaments sculpted in stone and Carrare marble.

 

On this location it was the Episcopal Church of the Diocese, which was reconstructed during the reign of Neagoe Basarab Voivode, and subsequently consecrated in 1517. The paintings inside the church were executed by Master Dobromir during the reign of the Voivode Radu of Afumati, in 1526. The monastic establishment underwent extensive repairs and restoration during the reign of Matei Basarab, who also had the belfry tower at the entrance to the monastery reconstructed. Another round of repairs and restoration were made under the earnest care of Serban Cantacuzino Voivode (in 1682). Curtea de Arges Monastery is the place where craftsman Manole's legend was born. The legend is telling that one day, a very wealthy and religious Walachian prince, the Black Prince, rode with nine stonemasons and their master Manole to find a place and build a church more beautiful than anyone may have seen before. They founded a very nice place and the stonemasons started to work, but whenever they almost reached to the top, the walls would collapse before they could ever finish it. After a dream of Manole, they decided and made a vow that the first women seen by them to be sacrificed in order to see their work done. And it so happened the Manole's wife showed up to bring her husband's lunch, so that he had to keep his vow and immure his own wife alive within the church walls. The place of this immolation can still be seen between two walls of the southern front side of the church.

 

The legend of this mountains goes back in time for thousands of years. It is believed that Bucegi Mountains were the Kogaion mountains from ancient times. It is said that Zamolxis, the supreme God of the Dacians (who are the ancestors of the Romanian people), had his home and sanctuary in a cave, inside the Kogaion. According to Strabo, Zalmoxis retreated in the Kogaion cave to consult the oracles.  In our days this mountain water is known as Ialomita, and the cave from the legend is the Ialomita's cave. The cave can be visited by the tourists, it is illuminated and has wooden made passages to avoid the interior water. "The Old Ladies" (Babele) is another place surrounded by legend. It is said that the old woman Dochia, has been transformed in rock together with her sheep exactly in this place. Both "The Sfinx" and "The Old Ladies" are close to Babele Hut. The hut can be reached either by taking the Cable Car from Busteni, or hiking from Sinaia via Piatra Arsa Hut or hiking on the Jepi Valley, from Busteni.

 

In volcanic craters, natural gas surfaces from the depth of 3.000 m bringing with it cold, liquid mud. The mud concentric patterns in its surface film of petroleum, coloured various shades of grey, which supports anly specialized vegetation. Two separate points offer rewarding views of this environment’s phenomena – Paclele Mari (Big Mists) where cones with bases larger than 100 m have formed and where several craters buddle, and Paclele Mici (Small Mists).