The hole in Bucharest that’s become a nature reserve

2014-10-20 involuntary park, park, wilderness, urban wilderness, Romania, Bucharest, feral, failure, dark ecolo

This is the richest and wildest park in Bucharest – but this wasn’t supposed to happen at all. Under communism, the plan was for Vacaresti to be filled with water; in the idiotic capitalist years of the mid-2000s, it was meant to be a concert venue. Both projects collapsed – and the zone became a metaphor for the failures of Romania’s development under both communist and free market principles. Yet its teeming wildlife, lawless beauty and inhabitants of drifters, scraping a living by harvesting the wild, lay the foundations for how this troubled country could prosper.

http://www.citymetric.com/skylines/hole-bucharest-s-become-nature-reserve–398