The Baneasa Hippodrome
Horse-racing in northern Bucharest in the early 20th century
Steliu Lambru, 21.11.2020, 14:00
The
Baneasa Hippodrome 21.11.2020
Welcome.
I am Eugen Nasta
France
was Romania’s model regarding modernization. It is from that country the
Romanian elites borrowed almost everything. The concept of loisir was one of
the ideas favoring the development of Romanian towns and Romanian economy, as
well as the reshaping of the collective mindset. One of the great attractions
of Bucharest aristocracy before 1945 was the hippodrome in northern Bucharest,
known as the Baneasa hippodrome. A very familiar landmark of Bucharest’s daily
life, the hippodrome in Baneasa, almost forgotten today, for more than four
decades used to be the most important venue for equine events.
The
Romanian Jockey Club was established in Bucharest in 1875, in a bid to improve
the English purebred horse. It was the world’s third such club, after those in
England and France. A Jockey Club had been established in Iasi in 1862, and it
joined the Jockey Club in Bucharest in 1875. Its stated aim was the improvement
of horse breeds, but also the staging of horserace competitions, in order to
test the quality of the horses. The first horse race was held in 1875, the year
when the Club was established. The club’s honorary president was Romania’s
future sovereign, Carol I, he was the one who inaugurated the club, and after
him, all Kings of Romania would be holders of the title. But the one whose
contribution was the most significant was conservative politician Alexandru
Marghiloman, dubbed as the father of Romanian horse racing. The breeding and
improvement of the quality of the horses as well as the staging of races,
favored the emergence of a new sports discipline, horse racing, which needed a
venue so that it could be properly practiced. The first hippodrome in the
northern part of Bucharest was built in 1881. Two decades later, on the same
premises, the old hippodrome was demolished, and the new one began to take
shape. It was one of Bucharest’s most beautiful buildings, proudly standing on
a par with other such hippodromes in Europe.
The historian
Cezar Buiumaci specializes in the history of Bucharest. Hie expertise is
remarkable as regards the history of successive transformations of Romania’s
capital city in the last two hundred years.
Cezar Buiumaci:
The hippodrome in Baneasa was built by the Jockey Club, works took
off in 1902 and lasted 7 years all told. The one who signed the building
contract for this edifice was the vice president of the club, politician Alexandru
Marghiloman, while Leopold Schindl was the entrepreneur. Joining Alexandru
Marghiloman as initiators were George Moruzi and the then mayor of the capital city,
Nicolae Fleva, the one who would donate his own plot of land for the
construction of the hippodrome. The architect of the Baneasa hippodrome was Ion
D. Berindei and the edifice was designed in the style of the ones in Longchamp and
Chantilly. About this hippodrome, Mircea Berindei, architect Berindei’s nephew,
said the overhanging of the stands was actually an overhanging platform,
therefore there were no supporting pillars, including a second stand
overlapping the first one lying at ground level.
The
testing of the resistance of the overhanging platform was made, according to
accounts, by loading a regiment of soldiers onto it, headed by the designing
engineer himself, architect I. D. Berindei.
Horse
races were very popular, just as the media of that time reflects it. However,
the hippodrome was the place were lay persons met not only for the sports
reasons.
Cezar Buiumaci:
The hippodrome had a seating capacity of 5,000 people, yet more
often than not three or four times as many people would be on the premises. The
hippodrome was inaugurated with great pomp, with the Royal family and special
guests attending the event. Here flat and harness races were organized, the
flat races being staged on Thursdays and Sundays, while the harness races were
held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The hippodrome was frequented by the
Bucharest aristocracy, being located in the city’s promenade area. It was built
at the farther end of the Kiseleff Avenue, an area that will subsequently
develop along the loisir component, since the National Park, today’s Herastrau,
will be set up here in the 4th decade of the 20th
century. The park was built by Carol II, on the occasion of the second edition
of the Month of Bucharest. The celebration will have beneficial consequences on
the area, since the Triumphant Arch would be refurbished, while the
rearrangement of the market at the entrance in the new park thus created a
pleasant atmosphere. The entire area became a favorite one for leisure. Yet the
fame the hippodrome acquired was one that attracted people from all walks of life,
as here the curios ones came from outside Bucharest, with all horse and
horserace lovers. Here bookmakers were held. Events were also held, which do not
fall into the category of horse racing, such as the 1909 flight demonstration of
French pilot Louis Blériot. The demonstration was held by the grass court of the
hippodrome.
Rated
as bourgeois activities, incompatible with the proletarian way of life promoted
by the communist regime beginning 1945, the horseraces were disbanded and the hippodrome
demolished.
Cezar
Buiumaci:
During the communist regime, the hippodrome in Baneasa was demolished, the
Casa Scanteii Polygraphic Compound, today’s House of the Free Press, being first built on the premises, initially
it was designed somewhere on Chitila Road, while subsequently the Exhibition Park was
built here, dedicated to the achievements of national economy. The edifice of Casa
Scânteii is a representative edifice for the Soviet-inspired realist-socialist
architecture, which embodied the momentum of the submissiveness of the regime
in Bucharest. As for the exhibition compound, it was meant to display the
achievements of a new type of centralized and planned economy, also taking up
on the Soviet model.
Re-established
after the December 1989 evolution, the Romanian Jockey Club stages horseraces
even to this day. But the hippodrome playinh host to the races is in Ploiesti, 60
kilometers from Bucharest.
(Translation by Eugen Nasta)
