Bellu

This week it´s been so hot we hardly managed to leave the house. However, as weekend approached, temperature started slowly descending. We know Summer is definitely not over yet, so we decided to take this opportunity window and make the best of it. On Saturday afternoon we headed to Bellu Park, a nineteenth century cemetery famous due to its upstanding mourning art.

 

  

 

Bellu Park was opened in 1858 and since then it has been the last home for distinguised artists such as the poet Mihai Eminescu, writer Hortensia Papadat Bencescu or aviation pioneer Aurel Vlaicu among many others. There are so many interesting people buried here, it literally takes hours to locate their resting place (and not to get lost on the impressive monumental avenues of the necropolis).

Cemetery walking has been a favourite Summer outdoors activity of ours since forever. As a matter of fact, we always book at least half a day during our holiday trips to visit most interesting funerary gardens and monuments if possible, but for some reason we´ve been struggling to do so here in Bucharest. The weather is frequently too extreme both in Winter and Summer, and Autumn (my favourite season) is always full of interesting events around town which usually monopolise my scarce spare time, putting this sadly aside.

Nevertheless, it was really good to enjoy the chance to have a long relaxing walk together (a few places are as quiet as a graveyard, am I right?), admire all the pretty sculptures and mausoleums, and have some nice small talk to the cemetery guards, who are always enthusiastic to chat with visitors about famous residents and main artistic treasures. Also, we spotted some friendly cemetery cat pets whose duty is to keep the place clean of rats. They make an awesome work!

There are so many beautiful stone angels, and marble ladies on vaporous gowns around it is completely impossible to take photos of every single one. We definitely need to go back for at least another photo session, as it is a truly pity not to get to see it all at once. This is for sure a very recommendable excursion for any art lover who pays Romania a visit!

 So tell me, darlings, have you made any outdoors plans lately?