The
\nBaneasa Hippodrome 21.11.2020<\/p>\n
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Welcome.
\nI am Eugen Nasta <\/p>\n
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France
\nwas Romania’s model regarding modernization. It is from that country the
\nRomanian elites borrowed almost everything. The concept of loisir was one of
\nthe ideas favoring the development of Romanian towns and Romanian economy, as
\nwell as the reshaping of the collective mindset. One of the great attractions
\nof Bucharest aristocracy before 1945 was the hippodrome in northern Bucharest,
\nknown as the Baneasa hippodrome. A very familiar landmark of Bucharest’s daily
\nlife, the hippodrome in Baneasa, almost forgotten today, for more than four
\ndecades used to be the most important venue for equine events.<\/p>\n
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The
\nRomanian Jockey Club was established in Bucharest in 1875, in a bid to improve
\nthe English purebred horse. It was the world’s third such club, after those in
\nEngland and France. A Jockey Club had been established in Iasi in 1862, and it
\njoined the Jockey Club in Bucharest in 1875. Its stated aim was the improvement
\nof horse breeds, but also the staging of horserace competitions, in order to
\ntest the quality of the horses. The first horse race was held in 1875, the year
\nwhen the Club was established. The club’s honorary president was Romania’s
\nfuture sovereign, Carol I, he was the one who inaugurated the club, and after
\nhim, all Kings of Romania would be holders of the title. But the one whose
\ncontribution was the most significant was conservative politician Alexandru
\nMarghiloman, dubbed as the father of Romanian horse racing. The breeding and
\nimprovement of the quality of the horses as well as the staging of races,
\nfavored the emergence of a new sports discipline, horse racing, which needed a
\nvenue so that it could be properly practiced. The first hippodrome in the
\nnorthern part of Bucharest was built in 1881. Two decades later, on the same
\npremises, the old hippodrome was demolished, and the new one began to take
\nshape. It was one of Bucharest’s most beautiful buildings, proudly standing on
\na par with other such hippodromes in Europe. <\/p>\n
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The historian
\nCezar Buiumaci specializes in the history of Bucharest. Hie expertise is
\nremarkable as regards the history of successive transformations of Romania’s
\ncapital city in the last two hundred years. <\/p>\n
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Cezar Buiumaci:<\/p>\n
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The hippodrome in Baneasa was built by the Jockey Club, works took
\noff in 1902 and lasted 7 years all told. The one who signed the building
\ncontract for this edifice was the vice president of the club, politician Alexandru
\nMarghiloman, while Leopold Schindl was the entrepreneur. Joining Alexandru
\nMarghiloman as initiators were George Moruzi and the then mayor of the capital city,
\nNicolae Fleva, the one who would donate his own plot of land for the
\nconstruction of the hippodrome. The architect of the Baneasa hippodrome was Ion
\nD. Berindei and the edifice was designed in the style of the ones in Longchamp and
\nChantilly. About this hippodrome, Mircea Berindei, architect Berindei’s nephew,
\nsaid the overhanging of the stands was actually an overhanging platform,
\ntherefore there were no supporting pillars, including a second stand
\noverlapping the first one lying at ground level. <\/p>\n
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The
\ntesting of the resistance of the overhanging platform was made, according to
\naccounts, by loading a regiment of soldiers onto it, headed by the designing
\nengineer himself, architect I. D. Berindei.<\/p>\n
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Horse
\nraces were very popular, just as the media of that time reflects it. However,
\nthe hippodrome was the place were lay persons met not only for the sports
\nreasons. <\/p>\n
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Cezar Buiumaci:<\/p>\n
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The hippodrome had a seating capacity of 5,000 people, yet more
\noften than not three or four times as many people would be on the premises. The
\nhippodrome was inaugurated with great pomp, with the Royal family and special
\nguests attending the event. Here flat and harness races were organized, the
\nflat races being staged on Thursdays and Sundays, while the harness races were
\nheld on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The hippodrome was frequented by the
\nBucharest aristocracy, being located in the city’s promenade area. It was built
\nat the farther end of the Kiseleff Avenue, an area that will subsequently
\ndevelop along the loisir component, since the National Park, today’s Herastrau,
\nwill be set up here in the 4th decade of the 20th
\ncentury. The park was built by Carol II, on the occasion of the second edition
\nof the Month of Bucharest. The celebration will have beneficial consequences on
\nthe area, since the Triumphant Arch would be refurbished, while the
\nrearrangement of the market at the entrance in the new park thus created a
\npleasant atmosphere. The entire area became a favorite one for leisure. Yet the
\nfame the hippodrome acquired was one that attracted people from all walks of life,
\nas here the curios ones came from outside Bucharest, with all horse and
\nhorserace lovers. Here bookmakers were held. Events were also held, which do not
\nfall into the category of horse racing, such as the 1909 flight demonstration of
\nFrench pilot Louis Bl\u00e9riot. The demonstration was held by the grass court of the
\nhippodrome.<\/p>\n
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Rated
\nas bourgeois activities, incompatible with the proletarian way of life promoted
\nby the communist regime beginning 1945, the horseraces were disbanded and the hippodrome
\ndemolished.<\/p>\n
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Cezar
\nBuiumaci:<\/p>\n
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During the communist regime, the hippodrome in Baneasa was demolished, the
\nCasa Scanteii Polygraphic Compound, today’s House of the Free Press, being first built on the premises, initially
\nit was designed somewhere on Chitila Road, while subsequently the Exhibition Park was
\nbuilt here, dedicated to the achievements of national economy. The edifice of Casa
\nSc\u00e2nteii is a representative edifice for the Soviet-inspired realist-socialist
\narchitecture, which embodied the momentum of the submissiveness of the regime
\nin Bucharest. As for the exhibition compound, it was meant to display the
\nachievements of a new type of centralized and planned economy, also taking up
\non the Soviet model.<\/p>\n
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Re-established
\nafter the December 1989 evolution, the Romanian Jockey Club stages horseraces
\neven to this day. But the hippodrome playinh host to the races is in Ploiesti, 60
\nkilometers from Bucharest. <\/p>\n
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(Translation by Eugen Nasta)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Horse-racing in northern Bucharest in the early 20th century<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":169771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[45609,45607,45608],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-169770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-english-purebred","tag-hippodrome","tag-overhanging-platform"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n