Colentina, Bucharest
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Colentina is one of the main neighborhoods in Bucharest's 2nd district located on the north-east of the city. Colentina can be called the greenest part of Bucharest due to the large surface covered by recreation areas created along the Colentina river (Tei, Plumbuita, Fundeni) and the Andronache forest, areas which are some of the main concerns for the local mayor and council.
Also Colentina is a nice place to settle because the 2nd district has no industrial plant or factory and has a lot of commercial areas: like the "Obor" shopping place (the biggest in Romania and one of the biggest in Eastern Europe), 4 hypermarkets and the "Europa" en-gross (the biggest of its kind in Eastern Europe) the Fundeni Hospital (one of the best in the country) and several traditional markets.
During the communist era the Colentina area was transformed from a poor neighborhood with small cheap houses on the outskirts of the city into an area dominated by new 10-floor apartment buildings made for the labour force brought from the countryside to work in the big industrial plants in and around Bucharest.
The main axis of the neighbourhood is the Colentina Road witch connects the Obor Commercial Area with the Europa En-Gross commercial area. This road is one of the main ways used for getting out of Bucharest towards the south-eastern part of the country and also the main access routes used by workers from Voluntari City that work in Bucharest. Also, to get downtown, 20 minutes is more than enough from the outer end of Colentina, via RATB (Bucharest's trasportation system).
As transportation Colentina is quite well covered by the public transportation network (RATB - Regia Autonoma de Transport Bucuresti) with the 21 train line(link to the center of the city (Sfantul Gheorghe square), the 66 trollbus line (link with the cernter of the city, Cismigiu park, The National Theater, Bucharest University and Armeneasca Church, the Fundeni Hospital) and several buses (182: link to the Nord Train Station, 282: link to Basarab train station, the Bucharest State Television, Floreasca Sport Base, 143: link the the Eastern Train Station, 682: link with the Andronache neighborhood and the eastern train station, 253:link to the Pantelimon and Tital neighbourhoods and to the Fundeni Hospital an several routes that link Bucharest to the nearby villages and small cities). There is no subway in Colentina because of the great difficulty of extending the network around Colentina river but the surface transportation can easily take people to the Obor subway station.
The area doesn't have a lot of historic places due to the great demolition done by the communists in order to make the new apartment buildings but a couple survived: the Plumbuita Moanstery, the Saint Dumitru church, The Ghica Family Palace and the old Gherghitei ceramics factory.
A local folk etymology says that the name is derived from "colea-n-tină" (there, in the mud), this being the answer given by a spătar to Matei Basarab, who asked the former where he had defeated the Ottoman army.
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