Baneasa The name of Baneasa comes from the notion of ban.

The term is of Persian origin and came into our language through the avars whose leader was called Baian, hence the name ban in Romanian. In the history of Wallachia and Croatia had the purpose of area of protection against invaders. This title was created officially in the time of Mircea the Elder. Gradually he will gain power and become second to the king, being also the single one in the kingdom after the king that could pronounce capital punishment. Also the name of ban comes from the institution of coin minting. Baneasa was the wife of this ban, in our case, the wife of Dimitrie Ghica, Charlotte Duprond. An innovation for these neighborhoods in the 80s were the building in of solar panels in the communist flats. Nevertheless, we do not know how useful they were.

The Village Museum- Dimitrie Gusti It was inaugurated on 10th of may, 1936, in the presence of Charles the 2nd and its godfather, Dimitrie Gusti, a romanian sociologue, at the anniversary of 70 years of existence of the Hohenzollern family in Romania. It was built after the plans of Victor Ion Popa and with the money of the Royal Cultural Foundation. For the building of the museum that Dimitrie Gusti used to call, the sad sound made by the bells of Romanias history, the houses were dissasembled piece by piece and transpoted by train, wagon or boat to Bucharest where they were reassembled. The idea of museum of the village appeared in the 19th century, and was sketched by Alexander Tzigara who brings a house in the Etnographic Museum in the late 1870s. In the 1920s and 30s, the sociology department of the University of Bucharest organised a series of interdiciplinary monographic researches in different areas of the country that ended with a temporary exhibition. As his research went on, he realised that these exhibitions were not sufficient for exposing his ideas and thought of organising a Villagers Museum. He accepted to build it in the Herastrau Park, on a surface of 4500 square meters/ 48000 square feet. It was designed as a social museum and not a etnographical one. In the inaugural speech, Gusti said that his source of inspiration were the outdoor museums of the nordic countries (Skansen, Bigdo, Lillehammer). In 1940, because we lost Bessarabia and Bucovina, the municipality of Bucharest decided that in some pieces of the museum can be housed families of refugees. Of course, although humanitarian, this had a negative impact on the exhibits that were evacuated two years later. From 1948 the final shape of the museum was given after more intense sessions of research were made in the country. Expectedly, the museum resisted in the communist period but was nead dispariton after
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the 1990s because the government of the day thought that the village was a symbol of the dark ages. Fortunately, the campaign made by the culture figures of the time saved the museum. The current number of houses is 100 a humidity that can go up to 80% and variable temperatures. Theoretically, filming and taking photos is forbidden, unless you pay a tax, practically, seeng that is such a big park, things are different.

The Arch of Triumph The monument as we see it was built between 1921-1922 and renovated in 1936-1936. It commemorates the victory of Romania in the First World War and the coronation of Ferdinand and Mary as the first king and queen or Great Romania. It is 27 m/ 88 feet high. It was preceded on the same place by Arches of Triumph built in 1878 after the War of Independence, in 1906 after the jubilee of king of Romania, Charles the 1st and in 1918 after World War II. At first it was built out of wood and did not resist the weather. In 1922, in the context of the coronation of king Ferdinand and queen Mary, the city committee accepted the building of a skeleton made out of concrete but with models made out of plaster. Because of weather problems, the plaster figures were starting to decay becoming an uncomfortable monument for the image of the Petit Paris. In 1932 they decided not to demolish it, but to replace the plasters with marble figures. Part of the money was raised from the populace and the veterans. The final remodeling was done in 1936 after the model of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It can also be visited on the inside. The inauguration was done at the coming of age of the Great Unification. After the communists came, the Arch was mutilated through the removing of the texts of the proclamation of king Ferdinand and also the images of the king and the queen. Two funny facts are related to the Arch. The first is that the Mayors office doesnt have the Property Deed so, the mayor said that anyone could come and claim the property. The second is the fact that a lot of brides stop here to take photos. On the inside there is a set of stairs that lead up to a museum that can be visited on special occasions and also, the tourists can visit the terrace.

The House of the Spark. The House of the Free Press. Before even there was a plan for such a building, in this area named also the 3rd roundabout was built in 1851 our first hippodrome. Nearby were the stables and where the Village Museum is today was a pond with reed where people came to swim. Now, the building was constructed between 1952-1957 and was designed to house the agent of the Central Committee, the Spark of the Romanian Labor Party. It has an U-shape but it was intended to be a square building. Because of great construction expenses, the last side that was to contain a theater and a house of unions. The architecture was inspired after the Lomonosov University, Leningrad Hotel in Moscow and Culture Palace in Warsaw. After 1989 it is renamed the House of the Free Press.

The Herastrau Park It was built in 1936 on the banks of Herastrau Lake (74 hectares). Its overall surface is 187 hectares, and the lake in the middle is part of the chains of lakes of the river Colentina. Before the 1930s, the area was a marshy one. It was inaugurated in 1951. Throughout history, it was named The National Park, Charles the 2nd Park, Stalin Park, in front of the park being installed a statue of the leader and demolished in 1956 and replaced with the occasion of the Francophone Summit with that of general Charles de Gaulle (leader of the Free French Forces in WW2 and founder of the French 5th republic). The name of Herastrau was given in 1948. Currently it has fitness devices, library, cinema, Japanese garden, painting exhibition, bicycle renting, mini golf, the city of children, graffiti panel, pool, rink, karting and cycling track, restaurants, theaters, gazebos, skate park, and even Wi-Fi. We could say that this is the Central Park of Bucharest.