The park’s history is intertwined with that of the Bibescu-Stirbey
\nboyar family, which gave two rulers to Wallachia. In the 19th
\nCentury, the plot the park lies on today belonged to great chancellor Iancu
\nIoan Bibescu. He built a garden there, with banks and gazebos, allowing people
\nto take a stroll through the park in their leisure time. So this public garden
\nis dating back from mid-19th Century. In the following minutes
\nresearcher Toma Radulescu is telling us how this private garden, originally
\nIancu Bibescu’s promenade, turned into a public park. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Toma Radulescu: The garden was very carefully looked after for from its early days. The
\nlake it has dates back to that time and swans were living there. Later, back in
\nthe time of Barbu Stirbey, this plot was bought by the local authorities, which
\nturned it into a public garden. Unfortunately, the administration’s sloppy
\nmanagement turned it into a squalid place. Waste from an army barracks nearby
\nwas dumped there and a group of nomad gypsies set up camp on the premises. This
\nissue was first mentioned at the time of the independence war of 1877, when the
\nBibescu family was hosting a hospital for wounded soldiers. When the city got a
\nstronger administration, under the lead of Nicolae Romanescu, a significant
\namount of money was allotted for clean-up and one of Europe’s best garden experts,
\nEduard Redont, was hired. He drew up the project of a Romantic park after a
\ncommon French pattern.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Eduard Redont, the French designer who worked
\non the Carol Park in Bucharest and drew the plans for the National Exhibition
\nit hosted back in 1906, was granted the golden medal for the project of the
\nfuture Romanescu Park at the International Exhibition in Paris. The project
\nincluded a lake, a horse race track and even a fairy-tale castle up on a nearby
\nhill. Suspension bridges and a bandstand were also built, and the premises also
\nincluded a mini Zoo. Initiated towards the end of the 19th Century,
\nconstruction works were completed in 1903, and on September the 29th
\nof that year King Carol I and Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by crown princes
\nFerdinand and Marie, officially opened the park. Toma Radulescu tells us what
\nit looked like back then, and how people used to spend their time here:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Toma Radulescu: The park
\nwas very modern. It had a horse race track and it was the place where all sorts
\nof competitions were held. The royal family would participate in the horseback
\nriding contests organized there, and also in other important events, such as
\nthe National Day, on May 10th. The parade, which used to be held
\nevery May 10th until the communists came to power, would take place
\nin front of the park and of the Independence Monument, one of the most majestic
\nsuch monuments in Europe. When it was built, in front of the Romanescu Park, it
\nwas the second tallest. Also, during the winter, people would come and skate there,
\na tradition preserved for a long time. I still remember admiring, as a child,
\nthe elegance of the ladies who were skating. The park used to be host to
\nathletics events, as well as re-enactments of major historical events.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Along the years, the
\npark has had several names. In the beginning it was called the ‘Bibescu
\nGarden’, after the name of its original owner, then it became the ‘People’s
\nPark’, during the short ruling of Marshal Averescu, at the end of the first
\nworld war. In the 1930s, after the death of the mayor of Craiova, Nicolae
\nRomanescu, the park was named after him, but then the communists called it The
\nPeople’s Park again. After 1990 it was given back the name of the most
\nimportant mayor of Craiova, Nicolae Romanescu. These days the park is undergoing
\na large-scale rearrangement and modernization process. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Stretching over 100 hectares, the Romanescu Park in Craiova is certainly one of the largest in Romania and also one of the largest in Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":167973,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[45257,45258,45256],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-167972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-radulescu","tag-redont","tag-romanescu-park"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n