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Cristina Dumitru Călinoiu
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[itinerariu – Exerciţiu imaginar]
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[Hotel Opera – Biserica Kreţulescu - Calea Victoriei –
Piaţa Revoluţiei – Memorialul Renaşterii – Biblioteca Centrală Universitară –
Ateneul Român – Muzeul Naţional de Artă al României – Grădina Cişmigiu]
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Schiţă. Voi ghida un grup de turişti olandezi, cu vârste
cuprinse între 50 şi 65 de ani. Sunt cazaţi în Bucureşti, la Hotel Opera, pe
strada Ion Brezoianu, în apropierea Parcului Cişmigiu. Grupul
a ajuns cu o seară înainte, în jurul orei 20. Aceasta este prima zi în care
oaspeţii se familiarizează cu oraşul. Ne întâlnim la ora 10 în faţa hotelului;
de acolo, mergem spre Calea Victoriei, trecem pe lângă Biserica Kreţulescu, ajungem
în Piaţa Revoluţiei, ne oprim în faţa clădirii Bibliotecii Centrale
Universitare şi apoi în faţa Ateneului. Traversăm pe partea cu Muzeul Naţional
de Artă, în curtea căruia vom intra, urmând să coborăm spre Grădina Cişmigiu. Prezentarea
şi discuţiile se vor purta în limba engleză.
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Goedemorgen!
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Good
morning and welcome to Bucharest!
My name is Cristina and I will be your guide for today. I hope you enjoyed your
breakfast and that your accommodation is everything that you wished for. This
is your second day in the city that was once named “Little Paris”. For the next
three or four hours our itinerary will include a walk through one of the most
beautiful and old parks in Bucharest and an introduction to one of the most
iconic Bucharest avenues. Let’s begin our discovery!
On our
way to Victory Avenue,
I suggest we stop for a few minutes and admire Kreţulescu
Church. This is an
Eastern Orthodox Church, built in the Brâncovenesc style. The church was
commissioned in 1720–1722 by the boyar Iordache Kreţulescu and his wife Safta,
daughter of Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu. Originally, the exterior was painted,
but since the restoration work done in 1935–1936 (under the supervision of
architect Ștefan
Balș), the
facade is made of brick. The frescoes on the porch date from the original
structure, while the interior frescoes were painted by Gheorghe Tattarescu, a very
important 19th century Romanian painter.
In the
early days of the Communist regime, Kreţulescu
Church was saved from
demolition due to efforts of some Romanian architects. More renovations of the
church took place after the Bucharest
earthquake of 1977 and the Revolution of 1989.
We are
now on Victory Avenue
or Calea Victoriei, a major avenue in central Bucharest. The road was built in 1692 by
Constantin Brâncoveanu. Initially, the road was known as “The Large Street”. At
first, it was part of the trade route between Bucharest
and Braşov, an
important city located in the heart of Transilvania. After that, it was known
as “Podul Mogoşoaiei”, and it was the first street in Bucharest to be illuminated with candles
during the night, starting July 1814. At first covered with wood, in 1842 the road
was paved with cobblestone and later upgraded to asphalt. The road was renamed
"Victory Avenue"
on October 12, 1878, following the Romanian victory in the Independence War of
1877-1878.
Calea
Victoriei was Bucharest's
showpiece street in the Interwar years. There are many literary references to
this avenue. In 1939, a German photojournalist who was staying in Bucharest for the time noted:
“Victory Avenue
is the main artery of the city. It has tradition and it is the avenue of the
modern and elegant people. This is the resident’s favorite place for long walks.
It is the right place for showing off, for greeting acquaintances, for finding
out the day’s highlights, for making business deals and especially for meeting
new people”. Another mention of Victory
Avenue comes from a Bucharest resident who didn’t have a car. He
says that “If you go out on the street at noon, between twelve and one o’clock
or at night, between seven and eight o’clock, you will be part of an enormous
crowd. The sidewalks and even the street are full of people. Through the middle
of the street, the automobiles try to advance. The wheels touch the
pedestrians, splash them with mud and sometimes even hurt them. But nobody gets
upset”. Calea Victoriei was also known for its shops and restaurants.
As we
cross Victory Avenue,
we now find ourselves in what was named Palace Square until 1989. It was renamed
after this date and today the square is known as the Revolution Square or Piaţa
Revolutiei. The square houses the building of the former Central Committee of
the Romanian Communist Party (from where Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife fled by
helicopter in 1989). In 1990, the building became the seat of the Senate and
since 2006 it houses the Ministry of Interior. In December 1989 the square
witnessed the fall of Ceauşescu's
regime.
We can
see over there The Memorial of Rebirth or Memorialul Renaşterii a monument that
commemorates the victims of the Romanian Revolution of 1989. It was inaugurated
in August 2005. The memorial's name alludes to Romania's rebirth as a nation after
the collapse of Communism. The monument, designed by Alexandru Ghilduş, a
contemporary object designer and sculptor, caused a lot of controversy mainly due
to its abstract design. It became a meeting place and is reffered to as “a
potato on a stake” or “an olive on a toothpick”. I, personally, think of the
round part from the top as being rather a hazelnut. What do you think?
As we
go forward, on our right side we can see The Central University Library of
Bucharest or Biblioteca Centrală Universitară. On our left side, across the
street is the the National Museum of Art of Romania.
Now,
about the library. It was founded in 1895 as the Carol I Library of the
University Foundation as an answer to the needs of the University of Bucharest,
founded in 1864. It was built on land bought by King Carol I of Romania for the
"Carol I University Foundation" and designed by the French architect
Paul Gottereau. The building was opened in 1895. In 1911, it was extended by
the same architect and the new wing was opened in 1914. It began with an
initial stock of 3,400 volumes of books and periodicals. The collection grew and
(after beeing reorganized in 1948 as the Central Library of Bucharest
University) it contained over 2 million volumes in 1970.
During
the Romanian Revolution of 1989, a fire was started in the building and over
500,000 books, along with 3,700 manuscripts, were burnt. Also, the works of art
that adorned the interiors, such as stained glass, paintings and sculptures, disappeared.
At the beginning of the 1990s, the building was repaired and modernized, being
reopened on 20 November 2001.
In
front of us we can admire the Romanian Athenaeum
or Ateneul Român, a concert hall designed by the French architect Albert Galleron. The building was inaugurated in 1888
and a portion of the construction funds was raised by public subscription. The slogan is still remembered today: "Donate
one leu for the Ateneu!" The overall style
is neoclassical, with some more romantic touches. The exterior architecture combines several styles.
The portico marks the entrance with
six Ionic columns and pediment of Greek temple.
Inside
the concert hall it is a very large fresco from 1937 which depicts the most
important moments of Romanian history starting with the conquest of Dacia by Roman emperor
Trajan and ending with the realization of Greater Romania in 1918. It is
painted with the al fresco technique which is known for keeping the colors vivid.
Romanian Athenaeum has been inscribed in 2007 on the list of the Label of
European Heritage sites. The
Athenaeum activity
manifested mainly through conferences, musical and literary evenings and
art exhibitions. Now, it hosts the "George
Enescu" Philharmonic and the “George Enescu” annual international music festival.
Over
there it is Athénée Palace Hotel, today better known as Hilton, the first
building in Bucharest
which was built using reinforced concrete. It is designed by Théophile Bradeu,
a French architect and was opened in 1914. The hotel was modernized after
Duiliu Marcu’s plans between 1935 and 1937. It was affected by the 1989 events
and entirely renovated afterwards.
We are
now in front of The National Museum of Art of Romania. The
façade has two entrances. The one from the left was intended for the King’s
usage and the one from the right was reserved for the officials. The palace
features notable collections of medieval and modern Romanian art, as well as an
international collection. It is built in neoclassical style, and it has one
main body and two parts that together form the “U” shape that we see. Built at
the beginning of the 19th century, it was initially the home of a Romanian
boyar. In 1859 it became the home of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the first ruler of the
Romanian Principalities, and then the home of Carol I (King Carol I of Romania
since 1881). During the Communist Era, the palace was known as “The Palace of
the Socialist Republic of Romania”.
Through
the decades, the building suffered changes, additions and it was severely
damaged twice. In 2000, part of the museum reopened to the public, housing the
modern Romanian collection and the international collection. The Romanian
collection features sculptures by Constantin Brâncuși and Dimitrie Paciurea, as
well as paintings by Theodor Aman, Nicolae Grigorescu, Theodor Pallady,
Gheorghe Tattarescu, Nicolae Tonitza,
Herman Maxy and Victor Brauner. The international collection includes works by
El Greco, Tintoretto, Jan van Eyck, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Paul Rubens, Rembrandt,
Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley.
We are
now heading to The Cişmigiu Gardens or Parcul Cişmigiu which is a public park with
an artificial lake. I suggest we sit down on the benches for a few minutes
while I present you its history. The gardens form the oldest and, at 17
hectares, the largest park in city's central area. The main entrance is from Regina Elisabeta Boulevard,
in front of the City Hall. In 1843, prince
Gheorghe Bibescu called on experts in horticulture and planning to join in the
effort to restructure the city gardens. Carl Meyer was involved in redesigning
this area. He was responsible for setting up the new lanes, for planting new
floral species, as well as for setting up a Romantic landscape. The gardens
were ultimately inaugurated on September 23, 1847.
The
gardens were built on a site formerly known as the "Lake of Dura
the merchant", or simply as Dura. The pool it replaced was a popular site
for fishing from as early as the 17th century, and was inhabited by mallard
colonies. A part of the present-day gardens was occupied by a vineyard, which
was planted around a water source. The word cişmigiu comes from Turkish: a Çeșme is a public fountain and a cişmigiu
used to be the person responsible for building and maintaining public
fountains.
Cişmigiu Gardens continued to be
developed by Meyer long after its official inauguration. In 1870, he laid out a
plan to redesign the lanes, to introduce an artesian aquifer, and to create a
kiosk for an orchestra. He also proposed to have gondolas carrying visitors
over the lake. In 1882, the gardens were fitted with electrical lighting.
During the late 19th and early 20th century, the Gardens were frequented by the
residents who enjoyed promenades, military music, folk music bands and representations by strollers.
Cişmigiu
is referred to in several literary works. These include several sketch stories
by Ion Luca Caragiale and a novel by Grigore Băjenaru, titled Cişmigiu et
comp., that traces events in the life of high school students who spend much of
their time in the park. Tudor Arghezi, a significant Romanian writer romanticizes
Cismigiu, saying that it is made of “a roses alley, a lake, weeping willows,
the sentimental halt of the officials, editors and students from the
neighborhood. The teachers that skipped school dream with a Latin writer in
their hands and they hide when their students who also skipped school, pass by.
Nature makes it easier to dream. Boats and swans on the lake, doves in the trees.
It is a children’s park. It also has a monumental alley for the bees and butterflies
convoy”.
Now
let’s take a walk through this historical park in which we can find not also beautiful
landscape and a touch of fresh air but also some important monuments.
Here we
have Sissi’s Spring or Izvorul Sissi, created by Ioan Dimitriu Bârlad. It depicts
a mother, aggrieved by the death of her daughter, pouring water from a pitcher.
It is made of stone.
This circular
alley inaugurated in 1943 is called the "Writers' Rotunda". Here we
can admire the carved marble[1]
busts of twelve important Romanian writers.
This
monument is called "The Monument of French Heroes" and it commemorates
French soldiers who died fighting during the World War I Romanian Campaign. The
monument is made of Carrara
marble and it depicts a French soldier wounded on the battlefield and a charity
sister. The monument is the work of the Romanian sculptor Ion Jalea and was
made in 1920.
I hope
you enjoyed the time spent together this morning! For lunch, if you want to
indulge in Romanian cuisine, I recommend to you Vatra, a restaurant located
nearby your hotel. I wish to you all the best and a very nice vacation! Prettige dag!
Suport
bibliografic
Arghezi, T. (1972). Cu
bastonul prin Bucureşti. Bucureşti, Minerva.
Bilcea,
V., Bilcea, A. (2009). Dicţionarul
monumentelor şi locurilor celebre din Bucureşti. Bucureşti, Meronia.
Colfescu,
S. (2001). Bucureşti. Ghid turistic,
istoric, artistic. Bucureşti, Vremea.
Georgescu,
F., Cernovodeanu, P., Cebuc A. (1966). Monumente din Bucureşti. Bucureşti, Meridiane.
Pârvulescu, I. (2003). Întoarcere în Bucureştiul Interbelic. Bucureşti, Humanitas.
Suport
virtual
Cercel, E. (2012). Marea
frescă de la Ateneul Român – Creaţia pictorului Costin
Petrescu. [Online] Disponibil la http://www.noema.crifst.ro/doc/2012_6_02.pdf [Accesat la data de 09.08.2013].
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