Bucharest, Romania

A swap with Violeta in Romania


I have a card from Bucharest but its one of those from the time before I was born, so i really needed something recent :)

Bucharest is the capital city, industrial, and commercial centre of Romania and also its Romania's largest city. It is located in the southeast of the country and lies on the banks of the Dâmboviţa River (which you can actually see on the card). It was originally known as Dâmboviţa citadel.

Tradition connects the founding of Bucharest with the name of Bucur who was either a prince, an outlaw, a fisherman or a shepherd according to different legends. The name of Bucur (from "bucurie" meaning "joy") is of Thracian-Geto-Dacian origin. In Albanian, a language which has historical connections with the Thracian languages, "bukur' signifies 'beautiful'.

For centuries, Dâmboviţa River (on the picture) was the main source of drinking water for the city of Bucharest. Bucharest folkore mentions the waters of Dâmboviţa as "sweet", and even at the beginning of the 18th century Anton Maria del Chiaro considered it "light and clean". However, toward the end of the century, as the population of Bucharest increased, the river ceased to be as clean.
Early in its history, Bucharest had few bridges over the Dâmboviţa, as the right bank was only sparsely populated. Currently, there are about a dozen bridges over it.