Văcărești Nature Park (Romanian: ''Parcul Natural Văcărești'') is a

nature park A nature park, or sometimes natural park, is a designation for a protected area by means of long-term land planning, sustainable resource management and limitation of agricultural and real estate developments. These valuable landscapes are pres ...

located in Sector 4 of

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, containing the

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s surrounding Lake Văcărești.

History

Having , the area where the park stands was part of a large

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

y area on the outskirts of Bucharest. To its west was the area known as the "valley of weeping" that was the

rubbish dump A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...

of interbellum Bucharest. Much of the swampy area surrounding the park was drained by

Communist Romania The Socialist Republic of Romania (, RSR) was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist One-party state, one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989 (see Revolutions of 1989). From 1947 to 1965, the state was ...

, building a neighbourhood of apartment blocks, while the "valley of weeping" became

Tineretului Park ''Tineretului'' Park (, "Youth's Park") is a large public park in southern Bucharest ( Sector 4). History The park, which was created in 1965 and finished in 1974, was planned by the architect . It was designed as the main recreational space for ...

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( ; ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician who was the second and last Communism, communist leader of Socialist Romania, Romania, serving as the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 u ...

wanted to build a

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

which was supposed to be filled from the

Argeș River Arges or Argeș may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Romania * Argeș County, a county in Muntenia, with its capital at Pitești * Argeș Region, an administrative division from 1950 to 1952 * Argeș River, which flows through the Southern ...

via the

Mihăilești Lake Mihăilești is a town located in Giurgiu County, Muntenia, Romania. It administers three villages: Drăgănescu, Novaci and Popești. It officially became a town in 1989, as a result of the Romanian rural systematization program. The town stand ...

. As such, a concrete dam was built to surround the lake. The few modest houses located in this area were bought by the state and demolished. The plans for development were abandoned when communism fell and the area was overtaken by nature. In 2003, the Ministry of the Environment concessioned the area for 49 years to the Royal Romanian Corporation for

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

6 million. The company was supposed to invest over a billion dollars in a sports-culture complex; however, it did not honor its part of the contract. Due to the area being unused for such a long period of time, plant-life and wildlife flourished within the confines of the dam. The biodiversity now encountered here is considered by some to be comparable to that of a small river delta. A 2013 study counted hundreds of species of plants and 96 different species of birds. On June 5, 2014, the Lake Văcărești zone was declared a protected nature area and named ''Văcărești Nature Park'' by the Government of Romania. Văcărești Nature Park was the setting for Radu Ciorniciuc's 2020 documentary ''

Acasă, My Home ''Acasă, My Home'' is a 2020 German/Romanian/Finnish documentary film directed by Radu Ciorniciuc. The film is about nine children and their parents who lived in harmony with nature in the wilderness of the Bucharest Delta for 20 years until the ...

'', following a family that lived in the park for 20 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vacaresti Nature Park Nature parks Parks in Bucharest 2016 establishments in Romania