Cișmigiu Gardens

[1] The Rondul Român ("Romanian Round") or Rotonda Scriitorilor ("Writers' Rotunda") is a circular alley which has stone busts of twelve important Romanian writers: Mihai Eminescu, Alexandru Odobescu, Titu Maiorescu, Ion Luca Caragiale, George Coșbuc, Ștefan Octavian Iosif, Ion Creangă, Alexandru Vlahuță, Duiliu Zamfirescu, Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, Nicolae Bălcescu and Vasile Alecsandri.

The sculptural work Izvorul Sissi Stefanidi, was created by Ioan C. Dimitriu Bârlad (1890–1964), and it depicts a mother, aggrieved by the death of her daughter, pouring water from a pitcher.

[2] A part of the present-day gardens was occupied by a vineyard, which was planted around a water source: the latter had been tapped during the bubonic plague epidemic of 1795, when the two sons of Prince Alexander Mourousis took refuge in the largely uninhabited zone.

As a result, two citizens of the German Confederation, the horticulturist Wilhelm Friedrich Carl Meyer and his assistant, the gardener Franz Hörer, arrived in Bucharest, where their first work involved the floral arrangements on each side of Șoseaua Kiseleff.

[5] The name replaced older references to Dura, and was coined by the public because, at the time, the administrator of Bucharest fountains was living on park grounds, in a house located between the central lake and Sărindar quarter.

[5] Cișmigiu continued to be developed by Meyer long after its official inauguration: in 1870, the horticulturist laid out a plan to redesign the lanes, to introduce an artesian aquifer, and to create a kiosk for an orchestra.

[18] In 1990, the park served as the location for Elder Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to pronounce a dedicatory blessing over the country of Romania.

These notably include several sketch stories by Ion Luca Caragiale, two of them involving the collective character Mitică, who has survived in common reference as a stereotype of Bucharesters.

In the eponymous 1900 sketch, the voluble Mitică notably refers to a friend of his having been laid off from his job, an event which he sarcastically disguises as a promotion to "chasing flies out of Cișmigiu".

1856, photo taken by Ludwig Angerer