A new journey is ahead,this time i will take U to a place not to far from Bucharest. It is situated 10 km from Bucharest , it is a beautiful palace as U will see in the pictures. Around the palace it is a nice park were U can take a walk and admire the view.
But lets take a walk trough the history of the palace :).
It was built between 1698-1702 by Constantin Brancoveanu( prince of Wallachia) on the land that was owned before by the widow of boyar Mogos, from this the palace was named Mogosoaia .
The palace is in a Romanian Renaissance style or what is also called Brancoveanu style .
The palace became an inn after 1714 when the owner Brancoveanu and his family were executed by the otomans and their wealth confiscated.
The palace suffered some damage on the Russo-Turkish war between 1768-1774, later it was granted by prince Grigore to his daughter Zoe Mavrocordat. She married George Bibescu, sovereign prince of Wallachia , the palace remained in the family and was renovated by Nicolae Bibescu.
In 1916, the palace was bombed by Germans air forces. Princess Martha spent all her private fortune for reconstruction.
Later in 1920-1930, the palace became the meeting place for politicians and for the international high society.
After the second war in 1945 the palace was forcibly nationalized by communist authorities and the owners were arrested.
In 1957, the palace became a museum, what it is also today .
Coming back to present 🙂 the palace is nice for a walk and to admire some nice architecture. Also at the basement of the palace U can see the walls that belonged to the Vacaresti monastery and read a bit about the history of this monastery. Talking about monasteries and churches there is one in the garden of the palace .
U can also go up in the tower and admire everything from up, the view is really beautiful as U would see in the pictures,or U can just take a walk and admire the view of the lake .
I hope U will enjoy the view and maybe come to really visit it!
I will start my story in a simple way and I hope my reader won’t get bored. I’ll just tell you a few things about București (Bucharest), which remains my favorite city.
Many will say it’s an ugly city, very crowded and very loud at times, but I think if you will take a walk and start exploring it, you will find a beautiful town that waits for you to discover. If you like history and old architecture you will probably agree.
First a bit of history about it so you can know what you can expect on this little journey where I try to convince you how nice my city is.
The legend say that the city got its name from a shepherd called Bucur who came in this place and liked it so much that he settled here. We have a little church and a market with that name but we’ll talk about those later.
Another legend that it’s more likely to be based on real facts tells that București was founded by Neagu Voda, the one that founded and ruled Wallachia around 1290. Another legend says that București was founded somewhere in the 14th century by Mircea the Elder, the ruler of Wallachia from 1386 to 1418.
The historical document where the name București appears for the first time is in the year 1459 in a property document during the reign of Vlad the Impaler, the guy that everyone knows as Dracula. It’s a pity he wasn’t a real vampire because we might have won all the fights against the turks who were always visiting us.
At that time București wasn’t yet the capital of Romania… but then we didn’t have yet what we call today Romania. Back then it was just Wallachia, Moldova and Transilvania, different countries ruled by different rulers. At that time, the capital of Wallachia was Targoviște. Soon București becomes a summer residence of the princely court. During the reign of Radu cel Frumos ( the Handsome ) București becomes the capital of Wallachia.
Between 1459 and 1660 București and Targoviște swapped places as Wallachia’s ruler’s residence. After 1659 București becomes the only capital.
That’s the beginning of București. I will tell you more later. Now, I’ll take you to my first stop, a place full of history, the old Princely Court. It is situated in the old center of București. Probably if you never heard of it you will just walk by without giving it a chance. But if you are in the center near it you should go and take a look.
It is the oldest building in București, probably built but Mircea the Elder and made bigger by other rulers over the time.
Here you can have a look at some pictures of how it looks now, after more than 600 years after it was constructed.
The old Princely Court, that probably dates from the 14th century, was the residence of the wallachian rulers starting around that time. Since then, the court suffered many reconstructions and periods when it was badly damaged.
Over the time, when the rulers rebuilt it, they’ve made it bigger and nicer. This happen mostly when the country was ruled by Laiota Basarab, Mircea Ciobanul ( the Shepard ), Patrascu cel Bun ( the Good ) and Matei Basarab.
In 1660 the ottomans pillaged the palace damaging it badly. We don’t know the exact how it looked prior it’s reconstruction.
Later, in Șerban Cantacuzino’s reign,1678 to 1688, it was added a new building in the north of the palace.
At the beginning of the 18th century, a big fire damaged the court badly and it was partially abandoned.
Șerban Cantacuzino will completely reconstruct the part built by Laiota Basarab.
Another ruler that improved the looks of the palace was Constantin Brâncoveanu (1688 – 1714). During his reign, the court was looking very elegant. He constructed a new princely manor.
The decline of the court came during the phanariot rule. The phanariots were greek guys brought by the turks to rull us, most of them greedy guys. Before them, the court endured the fires from 1718 and 1719, than the Russian-Austro-Turkish war between 1736 and 1739, the earthquakeof 1738, the Russian-Turkish war between 1768 and 1774. To that you can add the lack of interest of the phanariot rullers for the court.
The history of the princely court used as a palace ends with Alexandru Ipsilanti. In 1775 he builds another court on top of the Spirii hill, somewhere around the actual Parliament palace.
The court was sold by Vodă Constantin Hangerli. The transactions were done between 1798 abd 1799 and it was sold to more than 50 buyers.
In 1847, there is a big fire that burns a big part of București that also affected the court.
In the 19th century, near the court walls appears a lot of new streets full of shops. The place becomes a commercial center. One of the streets near the court gets it’s name “Lipscani” from the merchants that came from Lipsca, the actual Leipzig.
The princely court was restored between 1967 and 1972 and it was made a museum and you can visit it ever since.
Today, I will take you to Lerna, a place with a long history, in Greece, of course, where the Gods lay. We can see a nice ancient archeological site, called The House of Tiles, but before let’s go on the road of history. Lerna was considered the gate to the Underworld. In this region used to be a lake and some springs. The secret of the springs was given to Anymore, daughter of Danaus, by Poseidon himself. According to geographer Strabo, the springs were considered healing waters. The lake that vanished in time was long ago the gate to the Underworld, heroes could gain access to the Underworld, but for the mortals, the lake was perilous. In this lake was the lair of the Lernaean Hydra, the snake with many heads. She was the gatekeeper of the Underworld. There were offerings made for the gatekeeper. Dionysus, son of the Bull, was summoned with a strange archaic trumpet. A lamb was cast into the waters of Lerna as an offering for the Lernaean Hydra. Lernaean Hydra had many heads, and if you had cut one, two would grow instead of one. The Lerna Gatekeeper of the Underworld was slain by Heracles, as his second labor as the legend says.
As I said earlier, in the same region is an archeological site called The House of Tiles. The structure dates from the Early Helladic II period (2500-2300 BC), probably was an administrative center or a proto-palace for the elite. The exact function remains unknown. The house was a massive rectangular two-story-high with a roofed balcony upstairs. The name comes from the baked clay tiles found in its ruins, also known as the earliest roof tiles. Let’s have a walk inside.
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Today, I shall take you on a new trip we shall go to see a miniature of a doomed city. You will ask which city. Well, the miniature represents Pompeii city. You know the one city that had a volcano erupting and that in the process was destroyed and also at the same time very well preserved. But let’s go back to the miniature. The miniature is made out of Lego and represents the city before being destroyed. It was created by Ryan McNaught of Melbourne, an artist known as “The Brickman”[2]. Here its a video I found on YouTube about what they did and how and what they choose
Today I shall take you on a new trip. We will go far away, to Vietnam, to Hue. We will try to find an abandoned amusement park. For an unknown reason, this park was abandoned even if it had all the chances to be a great place. It was supposed to be a water park. It is guarded by a dragon, a beautiful dragon, even if it is starting to decay( some say that besides the dragon, there is also a human guardian that might not let you pass inside the park). The dragon is situated in the middle of the lake. You can actually go on a kind bridge inside the dragon. I think it was supposed to be an aquarium, or so it looks like. While you walk inside the dragon, you think you are really in a dragon. You can even go to the mouth of the dragon and enjoy the view. From there you can see the lake and the park. It is a big park that could be a big attraction. Even in this state still brings enough people to see it.
Some waterslides were supposed to go in the water. There are also big pools that were probably designated for water shows as nearby them is a kind of amphitheater.
At some point, it seems the park was inhabited by some crocodiles, but it seems they left the premises with the help of PETA.
The park is interesting to see. Some rumors say it might be cursed, and that’s why it wasn’t finished. Anyhow, we don’t know the reasons it wasn’t finished were. For sure, it does attract people.
Bellow, it is a video that I found about it that will help you more to understand :
Today, I shall take you on a new trip we shall go, to Spain in Seville. You might ask me what we would do there? Well, we shall enjoy a good drink in a bar. It is an old bar named Cervercería Giralda, it seems to have been open since 1923, but what makes it interesting is that recently the owners after, deciding to take advantage of the pandemic time and started to renovate the place they found out that the place is way older. It seems that long ago like somewhere in the 12 century there was a bathhouse that preserved quite well.
There were rumors and also some old documents that indicated that on bar place might have been such a place, but most of the people thought they were just stories and that the look of ceiling and walls were more recent and that they belonged to neomudéjar style or a revival of the Islamic style. Fortunately, when the renovation, was done there was also an archaeologist involved. So the chance was on their side, so they discovered that the place was much older. What they uncovered was from the 12 century from the time of the Almohad caliphate. The decorations are well preserved, better than any know bathhouses from the Iberian Peninsula.
So we can have a drink and admire the place and enjoy the story.
Today, I shall take you on a new trip. We will go to meet someone. Who will we meet with is Annabelle. She is a doll, but not a common one it seems. Annabelle seems to be a possessed doll, or so the story goes. But before we shall meet her, let me tell you more about her. Sometime in 1970, she was given as a gift to a young student woman by her mother. At first, Annabelle seemed like a regular doll. But after a short time, she often changed the way she was standing. Also, the woman who received the doll started to notice writings on the walls. First, they thought that someone was getting inside the house and writing the messages on the walls as a joke. They even started to put signs to see what was moved around the house. In the end, they noticed that the doll moved to other rooms than it was initially. Annabelle started to make herself noticed. So the woman and her roommate, from that time decided to do something about the doll, as the doll was starting to creep them out. So they decided to bring a medium to learn more about the doll. The medium that came told them that the doll was possessed by a young girl’s spirit. The spirit didn’t have who to play and when she found the doll she tried to get in and possess her. This spirit even asked permission to use the doll, to live inside her. The two women agreed, considering it was the spirit of a young girl. But, things didn’t go as they thought they will. This spirit that inhabited the doll was called Annabelle. Annabelle didn’t prove to be a good girl. She started to react badly, she was doing all kinds of evil things to her roommates. It seems one of the women had a boyfriend who didn’t like Annabelle. So she started to scare this guy, even attacking him to make him go away. The women decided in the end to bring someone that could help them with the doll. They contacted their local priest, he told them that they were all in danger, that soon things shall escalate to a worse situation. Later, the priest asked for the help of some paranormal researchers, who said to the women that they didn’t allow a young girl to inhabit the doll as they first thought. What was possessing Annabelle was a demon who will soon put all of them in danger. Even more, as they gave their permission for him to inhabit the doll. They asked the priest to come and bless and exorcise the apartment. The priest said some nasty things to the doll, and it seems later he got into a car accident.
The paranormal researchers on their name Ed and Lorrain Warren(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_and_Lorraine_Warren) brought Annabelle with them in the car. Their trouble just started with that. They were close to having an accident. So, in the end, they decided to put Annabelle on a glass box and exhibit her in a museum that they made.
Annabelle was the inspiration for a few movies and books.
We can’t know if she did all of those things she was accused of. Annabelle might just be a regular doll about whom people invented things. Some say that even at the moment, she does harm to some. Let’s hope that everything is just a story. Or if not that she will behave nicely with us.
Here are some links that I found over the internet that might help you to find more if you want her to haunt you more.
Here are some links that I found over the internet that might help you to find more if you want her to haunt you more
Today I shall take you on a new trip. We will go to a museum to visit a doll. This doll is a special one. So grab my hand, and let’s find out more about this doll. We have to be careful. The doll might get upset and curse us.
Why is it so special? Because it is supposed that was alive or acting like being alive. It is believed that the doll was manufactured by Steiff company from Germany. Richard Steiff was the German designer that helped design the Teddy Bear.
Robert the doll was given as a gift. A grandfather gave his nephew the doll. He bought it from Germany around the year 1904. Some say that the doll was manufactured by a woman employed by Eugene’s parents. In this part, the story goes that she put a spell on it as revenge. Whatever version you believe, it seems that the doll liked to do things around the house, like moving things talking.
At first, everything seemed ok, but the doll started to appear alive with time. The little boy that received the doll was Eugene Otto( painter and author). He began to say that the doll was alive. He wasn’t the only one who thought that the doll was alive. His parents started to feel the same after they heard noises coming from their child’s room one night. When they got into Eugene’s room, they saw him frightened, saying that Robert the Doll had started to move the furniture. Often when Eugene was doing something nasty, he would say that the doll put him to do it
His parents heard them often talk in different voices. On many occasions, Robert the Doll made things that scared people. Years after Eugen grew up, he returned to his parent’s house and found Robert once again. After his parent’s death, Eugene moved with his wife in his parent’s house, and Robert started to do nasty things once again. Eugene at first gave Robert the doll one room, but later, when his wife complained that she felt uneasy with Robert, Eugene moved the doll to the attic. Staying there wasn’t too pleasant for Robert, so the story goes that he was heard by visitors pacing up and down. He will also be seen at another room window by kids from outside. Or find it in another corner of the room than the left one. Robert the doll lived in this house until 1994. Until that time, Robert did many nasty things to curious people to come near him. Some even blame him for car accidents, broken bones, accidents, or other bad things that were happening to them. Robert moved in 1994 to a museum. The museum’s name is East Martello Museum. Even here, the doll still does nasty things makes the people that take care of the museum feel a bit frightened. Some still blame the doll after they visit it for all the troubles that come after
It seems that Robert doesn’t like to be touched or photographed. People have issues when they try to take pictures. Pictures are not good, or equipment doesn’t work, at least that’s what people are saying. I hope with us he will be gentle.
cursedtraveler 