Cişmigiu Gardens
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The Cişmigiu Gardens are a public park near the center of Bucharest, Romania, the oldest and largest park (17 hectares) of the city center. The main entrance is from the Elisabeta Blvd, near the Bucharest City Hall; there is another major entrance at the Ştirbei Vodă Boulevard, near the Creţulescu Palace.
[edit] Landmarks
The Rondul Român (Romanian Round) or Rotonda Scriitorilor (Writers' Rotunda) is a circular alley which has stone busts of twelve important Romanian writers: Mihai Eminescu, Alexandru Odobescu, Titu Maiorescu, Ion Luca Caragiale, George Coşbuc, Ştefan Octavian Iosif, Ion Creangă, Alexandru Vlahuţă, Duiliu Zamfirescu, Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, Nicolae Bălcescu and Vasile Alecsandri.
Monumentul Eroilor Francezi (The Monument of the French Heroes) commemorates the French soldiers who died fighting in Romania during the World War I.
Izvorul Sissi Stefanidi, created by Ioan C. Dimitriu Bârlad (1890-1964), represents a mother, aggrieved by the death of her daughter, pouring water from a pitcher.
Other statues located in Cişmigiu are the one of journalist Gheorghe Panu sculpted by Gheorghe Horvath and of writer and women's rights activist Maica Smara (1854-1944), sculpted by Mihai Onofrei.
[edit] History
Built in 1847 on land bequeathed to the city in 1845 by a Turkish water inspector, and designed by the German architect Carl F.W. Meyer, it predated the similarly-designed parks in many United States cities, such as those of Olmsted.
The word cişmigiu comes from Turkish: a cişmea is a public fountain and a cişmigiu used to be the person responsible for building and maintaining public fountains.
At the southeast corner of the park is the Gheorghe Lazăr High School, famous in the city.
[edit] External links
- Cismigiu at fotocomunity.de
- Summer picture
- Henri Daniel, Landscape in Cismigiu Park, watercolor (1935-1936)
- Gheorghe Lazar High School (official site): school adjacent to the park.
