TToday, I will take you to one of my favorite places in Bucharest.
Maybe you will find it a bit spooky, but even if the place is actually a cemetery, come with me and let’s go for a walk.
I will take you for a walk in autumntime and winter, as you see in the pictures. But before you see the images, let me tell you a bit about the history of this place.
Before becoming a cemetery, it used to be a favorite garden for the people, a place where they could party a bit and enjoy good food. It belonged to chancellor Alexandru Bellu, also named the Old Bellu.
In 1821 the army of Tudor Vladimirescu was staying at Bellu garden because of its strategic position.
Some years later, the Mayor of Bucharest decided to stop using the cemeteries from the center of Bucharest and make some outside of Bucharest.
At that time, the domain of Bellu was at the edge of the city.
The son of chancellor Bellu, the culture and justice minister of that time, decided to donate his land to make a new cemetery. The monks from the Văcăresti monastery chose to follow his example and donated some land also.
The arrangement of the new cemetery started in 1852. The first person buried in the cemetery was the daughter of C. A Rosetti, politician, and writer of the time.
The buildings and the church in the cemetery were made later in 1899.
The church replaced a little old church that was already on the premises.
In 1864 and 1897, two new cemetery sections, one Catholic and one Protestant were designated, military and Jewish.
Around 1900, there used to be an inn near the cemetery where people could still spend leisure time. The inscription at the inn was, in fact, better than the one on the other side, where the actual cemetery was.
A tradition says that, later, in 1916, there used to be a small cemetery called the thieves cemetery, which would be incorporated with the military cemetery.
Around that same time, a greenhouse was constructed near the cemetery so that citizens could grow flowers.
Now, getting back to our times, the cemetery became a museum that you can also visit during the night of museums, in the middle of the night, and say hi to all the famous people buried here to listen to the stories of their lives.
Many famous writers are buried here. You can go for a walk and imagine that you are having a beer with them and listening to them talking about what’s new and what is old.
You can also hear some tragic love stories, like the story of the lady with the umbrella or the story of the woman who stands on a big rock, how they died or what the story of their life was. Maybe I will tell you their stories one of these days.
We can also go to the actor’s alley, where all the best Romanian actors are buried, and admire the beautiful cemetery architecture.
So I hope you will enjoy this walk with me.