Today, it is rare to witness the opening of a new park inside the dense urban area of a European capital. It is even more unusual when it hosts exceptionally diverse and almost untouched wildlife. This park exists and it is called the Văcăreşti Park.
A bit of history: It was first born as a construction project launched by the former regime to build over swamps administrative buildings and create a lake to connect the city to the Danube river. In 1989 the project was left unfinished and never resumed. Separated from town by a concrete embankment, the area has since witnessed the flourishing of an entire ecosystem with hundreds of animal species, plants, and flowers.
This peaceful haven is now protected as the first urban nature park in Romania, thanks to the activism of citizens who support and carefully take care of the park. Thus, Văcăreşti Park also shows the need for protected and untouched natural areas inside cities to ensure natural diversity. The park creates an important link between the city center and its surrounding neighborhoods while giving access to qualitative green spaces to thousands of city dwellers, from the dense city center to the most marginal and peripheral areas.
