# The parks of Bucharest

You stroll through Cișmigiu without knowing the lake was a pond — a Dâmbovița backwater, drained and drawn by a German. You cross Carol without knowing it was marshy field, or pass Titan without knowing the “founded in 1860” story is internet legend: the park is from 1968. Five parks were born from the city's waters; the map below shows them all, plus the ghosts.

In short: the city's eight great parks came in two waves — the 19th-century gardens (Kiseleff 1847, Cișmigiu 1854, the Botanical Garden moved to Cotroceni 1884, Carol 1906) and the 20th-century parks (Herăstrău 1936, Circului 1960, Titan 1968, Tineretului 1974). Five were born from water; three tell other stories: the forest, science, the circus. Search your street below and see which is yours.

## The park map, then and now

Green are the 8 parks of today, with OpenStreetMap perimeters. Amber are the ghosts: the Cișmigiu Pond, the Herăstrău Marshes, the Uranus Gardens. Drag the slider or press play and see what was green in the chosen year — in 1900, say, only three existed: Kiseleff, Cișmigiu and the Botanical Garden.

### The parks were born from water

Five parks were born from water: Cișmigiu from the Dâmbovița pond (1847–1854), Carol from the marshy Filaret plain (1906), Herăstrău from the Colentina marshes (1930–1936), Titan around the pond (1966–1968), Tineretului from the Cocioc swamp (1965–1974). On the map, the amber ghosts show the waters of before.

### The century of gardens: 1847–1906

Kiseleff (1847) and Cișmigiu (1854), drawn by the German Carl Meyer; the Botanical Garden (1860), moved to Cotroceni by Brândză in 1884; Carol (1906), Redont's French garden for the General Exhibition. In 1900 the map held only three green patches.

### The century of parks: 1936–1974

Herăstrău (1936), from the Colentina drainage; Circului (1960); Titan (1968); Tineretului (1974), the city's last great park. All four belong to the 20th century — the city put its parks at the edges, together with the tower-block districts.

### Today: eight parks

Kiseleff, Cișmigiu, Botanical, Carol, Herăstrău, Circului, Titan, Tineretului — with today's perimeters, from OpenStreetMap. Type your street below and see which is yours.

Green perimeters are OpenStreetMap (display only, not cadastre). The ghost rectangle is an indicative sketch, not a measured boundary. Ghost points show the waters of before: the pond (today's Cișmigiu lake), the marshes (today's northern Herăstrău), the gardens (today's People's House).

## The waters that became parks

Bucharest was a city of ponds; its great parks are the tamed ponds — each with its year.

Cișmigiu came first: the idea dates from Kiseleff's time, but the garden began in 1847, when Gheorghe Bibescu called the landscaper Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Meyer — the same who had drawn Kiseleff Garden. The Dâmbovița pond became a park lake, the muddy banks became alleys, and the garden opened in 1854. Angerer's 1856 photograph catches it at two years old: lake, pavilion, slums all around.

Carol came second: on the “marshy plain of Filaret” — as the Exhibition file calls it — where Metropolitan Filaret kept two fish ponds and a brook in 1792, and where the 1848 generation had said Liberty Field. The Frenchman Édouard Redont drew the garden, and on 6 June 1906 King Carol I opened the General Exhibition: a triple jubilee — 40 years of reign, 25 years of Kingdom, 1,800 years since Trajan. The mosque with the minaret, on the lakeshore, dates from then too.

The 20th century brought the great waters: the Colentina marshes, drained by the municipal works between 1930 and 1935, became Herăstrău Park, opened in 1936 (finished 1939, as the National Park); Titan lake, in the former Balta Albă, received Titan-IOR Park between 1966 and 1968; the Cocioc swamp and the Valley of Weeping, with the brickmakers' slum, became Tineretului Park, created in 1965 and finished in 1974, to the plans of architect Valentin Donose.

Three parks do not come from water, and that is exactly why they deserve mention: Kiseleff, from the forest at the city's edge (garden from 1844, opened 1847); the Botanical Garden, from science — founded 1860 at the Medical School, moved to Cotroceni in 1884; Circului, the State Circus's park (1960–1961). And the reverse of the medal is the ghost on the map: the Uranus gardens, razed in 1984 for the People's House — the only great green the city lost instead of gaining.

## The people: four people, eight parks

A general, a landscaper, an architect and a botanist — four people you owe your Sunday shade to.

### Meyer: the German who drew two gardens

Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Meyer (1817–1852): Kiseleff Garden from 1844, Cișmigiu from 1847 — and death at 35, before the opening.

Almost nothing is known of his youth, except that he worked as a landscaper in Vienna in 1843, when Bucharest called him. First he drew Kiseleff Garden, at what was then the city's edge, with the gardener Franz Hörer; then, from 1847, Bibescu's Cișmigiu — the pond, the alleys, the lake.

He never saw the opening: he died in 1852, aged 35, two years before the garden received its public. The Cișmigiu Angerer photographed in 1856 is, by and large, the drawing of a man who never saw it finished.

- 1844: Kiseleff Garden, with Hörer
- 1847: Cișmigiu begins
- 1852: dies at 35, before the opening

### Kiseleff: the general who wanted a green city

Pavel Kiseleff (1788–1872): governor 1829–1834, the avenue from 1832, the gardens' initiative.

The Russian general stayed only five years — 1829–1834 — but left the city the Organic Regulations, the avenue that bears his name (1832) and the idea of public gardens: his time brought the order to drain the pond and to draw, on the edge forest, a garden.

Kiseleff Garden, opened in 1847, is Bucharest's oldest park on the academic timeline — seven years older than the celebrated Cișmigiu. The general died in Paris in 1872; the avenue and the park keep his name.

- 1829–1834: governor of the Principalities
- 1832: Kiseleff avenue
- 1847: garden opened, oldest park

### Redont: the Exhibition's Frenchman

Édouard Redont (1862–1942): Carol Park, drawn for the 1906 General Exhibition on the Filaret marsh.

The idea was older — a park on the marshy plain had been discussed since 1894 — but only Take Ionescu, in 1905, tied it to the 1906 jubilee: 40 years of Carol I, 25 years of Kingdom, 1,800 years since Trajan. Redont drew the French garden on Filaret Hill, with lake, bridges and pavilions.

On 6 June 1906 the exhibition opened in splendour; the 36-hectare park stayed with the city. The German photograph of 1916–1918 catches it with the mosque on the lakeshore and boats — ten years after Redont, the park already belonged to the Bucharesters.

- 1906: General Exhibition, 6 June
- 36: hectares left to the city
- 3: jubilees in one

### Brândză: the botanist who moved a garden

Dimitrie Brândză (1846–1895): the Botanical Garden, founded 1860, moved to Cotroceni in 1884.

The first botanical garden had been founded by Carol Davila in 1860, by the Medical School, on some seven hectares, with Ulrich Hoffmann as director. Brândză moved it to Cotroceni in 1884, to the Belgian Louis Fuchs's plans: greenhouses, institute, alleys — works began in 1885.

On 7 May 1895 King Carol I and Queen Elisabeth visited the garden; the king wanted to decorate him, and Brândză refused — he had only done, he said, his duty. He died that same year, not yet 49, and lies at Bellu. Today's garden — some 18 hectares, over 10,000 species — is still his.

- 1860: founding, at the Medical School
- 1884: move to Cotroceni, with Fuchs
- 1895: royal visit, refusal, death

## Which park is your street's?

Type your street and number: the page has measured in advance, for 4,878 streets and 113,584 addresses, which of the 8 parks is nearest — and 3 of today's numbers sit on ghosts: on the Uranus Gardens. Distances are approximate, to the park's centre.

Points are OpenStreetMap (October 2026); park perimeters from the same source (display only). The ghost is an indicative sketch. If your number is missing, write to us.

## Method: how we know

Every year on the page has a source; every sketch is marked as a sketch.

The backbone is historiography: the gardens' timeline (Kiseleff 1847, Cișmigiu 1854) after H. Moldovan; the Bucharest Museum Bulletin (BMIM) for Cișmigiu, the Botanical Garden and Carol; the 1906 Exhibition file (National Museum X, 1998) for Carol and Redont; the Historical Monuments Review (2019) for Circului, Titan and the Rebhuhn nuance — his was not the plan executed at Herăstrău, so we do not credit him as author. The Tineretului years (1965–1974, Donose) and the Cocioc swamp come from encyclopaedia and today's press with named sources — rendered attributed.

Modern geometry is OpenStreetMap (October 2026): 8 park perimeters, display only, not cadastre. The ghost rectangle (Uranus Gardens) is our indicative sketch over today's People's House — not a measured boundary. Ghost points are the waters of before, pinned on today's landmarks: the pond on Cișmigiu lake, the marshes in northern Herăstrău.

The lookup measures, for 4,878 streets and 113,584 addresses, the nearest park (haversine to the park's centre) and one belonging test for the Uranus ghost. The client only reads the build-time answers; it computes nothing. What we do not know we do not invent: Donose's years, the Circului “befores” and the Medical-School Botanical year as era year (we took 1884, today's site) stay said out loud.

## Quiz: six questions from the page

All answers are above, source included. Three of six is human; six of six is Cișmigiu.

- **Which Bucharest park opened first?** Kiseleff
- **In which year was Carol Park inaugurated?** 1906
- **Who moved the Botanical Garden to Cotroceni?** Brândză with Fuchs
- **What is true about Titan Park?** It was laid out in 1966–1968
- **What stood where Tineretului Park is?** The Cocioc swamp and the Valley of Weeping
- **How many of the 8 parks were born from water?** Five

## Old questions, short answers

- **Which is Bucharest's oldest park?** On the academic timeline, Kiseleff: Meyer's garden drawn from 1844, opened in 1847 — seven years before Cișmigiu (1854). Cișmigiu stays the “first park” in the city's memory, for it was the emblematic garden.
- **Is it true Titan Park was founded in 1860 by Cuza?** No — it is internet legend. Titan-IOR Park was laid out between 1966 and 1968, around the lake; the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” name honours the prince, but he founded nothing here. The year 1860 belongs to the Botanical Garden, not to Titan.
- **What stood where Herăstrău is?** The Colentina marshes and slums: the ponds were drained by the municipal works between 1930 and 1935, the poor houses expropriated, and the park opened in 1936 — finished in 1939, as the National Park.
- **Who drew Cișmigiu?** The German Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Meyer (1817–1852), called in 1847 by Gheorghe Bibescu after drawing Kiseleff Garden. He died at 35, two years before the garden's 1854 opening.
- **When did Carol Park open?** On 6 June 1906, with the Romanian General Exhibition — triple jubilee: 40 years of Carol I, 25 years of Kingdom, 1,800 years since Trajan. The garden had been drawn by the Frenchman Édouard Redont, on the marshy Filaret plain.
- **What happened to the Uranus gardens?** They were razed in 1984, with the Uranus-Izvor district, for the People's House: demolitions began in 1984 (cornerstone on 25 June), and some 40,000 people were evacuated. It is the only great green the city lost.
- **Where is the National Park?** At Herăstrău: that is what the park was called when finished in 1939 — the National Park. Today's name, “King Michael I”, dates from 2017; Bucharesters still call it Herăstrău.

## Sources

- H. Moldovan et al. — cronologia grădinilor: Kiseleff (1847), Cișmigiu (1854) / the gardens' timeline https://sciendo.com/
- Buletinul Muzeului Municipiului București (BMIM) — Cișmigiu, Botanica, Carol / Cișmigiu, Botanical, Carol https://bmim.muzeulbucurestiului.ro/
- Muzeul Național X (1998), dosarul Expoziției Generale — Carol, Redont, 6 iunie 1906 / the 1906 Exhibition file https://www.imagoromaniae.ro/
- Revista Monumentelor Istorice 2–3/2019 — Circului, Titan, nuanța Rebhuhn / Circului, Titan, the Rebhuhn nuance http://www.revistamonumenteloristorice.ro/
- Wikipedia + bucharest.ro — Tineretului 1965–1974 (Donose), balta Cocioc / Cocioc swamp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tineretului_Park
- PMB + presă — Uranus-Izvor demolat din 1984, Casa Poporului / demolished from 1984 https://uranusacum.ro/
- OpenStreetMap (ODbL), octombrie 2026 — 8 perimetre + 113.584 adrese / 8 perimeters + 113,584 addresses https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright

https://mariuscomper.uk/parcurile-bucurestilor/en/