A garden locals use
Chess, backgammon, families, students — Bucharest as it is, not as presented.
Mastermindsro — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Joe Mabel — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Joe Mabel — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Joe Mabel — CC BY-SA 4.0
Herăstrău lies north of the city, is far larger, wraps a wide lake and contains the open-air village museum — a half-day destination. Cișmigiu is central, smaller, denser and closer to daily city life. If you are in central Bucharest this is the one you pass through; Herăstrău needs a trip.
You are in the heart of Bucharest: the enormous Palace of the Parliament to the southwest, the old town with its buildings and churches to the east, and Calea Victoriei running north. The garden is a natural break between all of these rather than a separate destination.
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The oldest public garden in Bucharest and the one with the largest presence in the city's life, sitting in the exact centre a few minutes from everything. It was laid out in the mid-nineteenth century on drained marshland and designed in the English manner: winding paths, a lake at its heart, and large trees brought in from abroad. What distinguishes it is not its design but its use. This is a garden that people in Bucharest actually use rather than a space for visitors: older men playing chess and backgammon in a corner set aside for it, families around the lake, students on the benches. Walking through it, you see the city as it is rather than as it is presented. The lake carries rowing boats in summer and becomes an ice rink in winter. At one end runs the Rotunda of Writers, a row of busts of Romanian authors — a good way into names you will not know but which explain something about the country's culture. Entry is free, the garden is open, and the shade is generous, which matters in Bucharest's hot summer.
Chess, backgammon, families, students — Bucharest as it is, not as presented.
Rowing boats in summer, an ice rink in winter.
Busts of Romanian authors — a way into a culture you won't know from outside.
Central Bucharest, near Bulevardul Elisabeta