A park with enough history- Carol Park

Today I shall take you on a new trip we will go for a walk in Bucharest, in a park with history. This park was designed by the French architect Edouard Redont under the supervision of Constantin Istrati, president of the Romanian Academy. It started to be created in 1900, and it was inaugurated in 1906 with the 40 anniversary of king Carol the first. The park had a surface initially of 36 ha, which included the 20000m of Filaret lake. Let’s go a bit in time. We are in 1906, celebrating the 40th anniversary of we have a king. All the good people are present. Of course, there will be some speeches. We will go to visit the exposition that was presented. First, we will go to the Art palace, beautiful construction that had 2413 m, and it was designed by Victor Stefanescu and Stefan Burcus realized by engineer Robert Effingham Grant. This palace started to be built in 1905. In the palace, we can see the museum of ower past- designed to keep track of our history from the beginning until the now current year 1906.

We can admire some beautiful painters that are exposed, Romanian ones like George Demetrescu, Nicolae Grigorescu, Theodor Aman, Ion Andreescu. Then, we will visit the central room dedicated to king Carol the first and Traian, the Roman emperor. We can admire their busts and the she-wolf of the Capitolium. Also, two statues represent a Roman legionary and a Dacian fighter. There was exhibited a miniature of Traian bridge from Severinand another one from the bridge of Cernavoda. There were also reproductions of bas-reliefs of the metopes making the monument. Also exhibited were maps and photos of medieval monuments and exponents reminding of Romanian rulers.

Here you can see how it was looking:https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatul_Artelor#/media/Fi%C8%99ier:Palatul_Artelor_-_Muzeul_Militar_din_Parcul_Carol.jpg. After we enjoy Art palace, we will go with our walk to a nice cave that was situated bellow the palace. This place later will have added some beautiful 3 statues, two representing two giants brothers and a beautiful figure representing their love but about that, I will tell you later( here are some photos that I found over the internet https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statuile_Gigan%C8%9Bii, and this https://bercenidepoveste.ro/gigantii-din-parcul-carol/ 

We will enjoy the view and then go walking more. We shall go now to a mosque that was that is situated on the tiny island in the park. This was built in honor of the Muslim people from Dobrogea that fought against the Ottoman Empire. The mosque is small but beautiful and bears the name Carol- Hunchear, which means Carol, the governor from Turk ( here you can see how it was looking as today doesn’t exist there anymore https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscheea_Carol-Hunchiar#/media/Fi%C8%99ier:K%C3%A1roly_Park_(Parcul_Carol)._Fortepan_62590.jpg 

Then we will walk on the first bridge that was made from reinforced concrete, made with an arch. At that time, using reinforced concrete was a total fail, at least in two of the cases on which it was used in Europe ( at celestial Globe at universal exhibition of Paris and in 1903 at the Black bear hotel from Basel). This time this bridge lasted quite a long time. The bridge was designed by Gogu Constantinescu and will last quite more than he probably imagined.

From there we will go and visit a castle that is a reproduction of the Poenari castle of Vlad Tepes,, this was inaugurated today in 1906 in the same exhibition it looks beautiful as you can see it (https://once.mapn.ro/pages/view/85).

We shall see another beautiful summer theatre where you can enjoy a bit of Roman feeling like a Roman Arena. It was designed by the architect Leonida Negrescu, and the engineer Elie Radu, at the construction contributed the engineer George Constantinescu. Here we will witness the first spectacle called the story of the nation that presented the history from the beginning of our history until more recently, from the entrance of emperor Traian of the Roman Empire in Dacia until the independence war. Here you can see it:https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arenele_Romane#/media/Fi%C8%99ier:Arenele_Romane.jpg

After we enjoy this story we will go to see a new fountain that was built in the park. It was realized in Italian style made of different kinds of marble and granite. Has 4, 10 m, and the stones come from many quarries from Romania. It is near the Roman Arens. Here you can take a look https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A2nt%C3%A2na_1906#/media/Fi%C8%99ier:F%C3%A2nt%C3%A2na_1906_-_Parcul_Carol_I_-_Bucure%C8%99ti.jpg

Now we shall go to an older place, another fountain a little older that replaced an even more, older fountain. This fountain bears the name of her founder, the mair of Bucharest. It was built much before 1870 in a neoclassic style designed by architect Al. Freiwald and Karl Storck. Before this, it was an old fountain known as the fountain from Filaret hill. It was made with a watchtower. Somewhere down was the house of water that had 12 pipes of bronze on which was sculpted a zodiacal sign. Inside the watchtower were also some places to stay. This fountain and the tower deteriorated with time, so later in 1861-1870, there were tries to save it. But in 1863 it was decided to be built another one. This one is made out of the mair own money. The new fountain was built on massive stone blocks that looked like rocks. 

It has a paralipipedic shape in two registers. The facade is framed by bas-reliefs having pillars and supporting pillars. Each is covered with ceramic tiles and presents embossed coats of arms of some medieval knights. The fountain was at that time famous for pure water. Here you can see it https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A2nt%C3%A2na_George_Grigorie_Cantacuzino#/media/Fi%C8%99ier:Fantana_cantacuzino.JPG.

This walk was one in time as I told you, but we won’t yet stop we have more epochs to go in time until the present day as this park had different beautiful places displayed over the years until the current year 2022, but all of that will be for a next time.

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