Central Park "Anton Scudier", Timișoara, Park in Timișoara, Romania
Anton Scudier Central Park covers over nine hectares in central Timișoara, with large lawns and alleys that intersect in the middle. Its remaining old trees include planes, oaks, ashes, American black walnut, Japanese pagoda tree and horse chestnut. The park has fountains, benches and chess tables, and was redesigned in Viennese style between 2017 and 2019.
Between 1738 and 1771 the site was a civil and military cemetery holding 8,000–9,000 plague victims. General Anton Scudier had the remains moved to the Calea Lipovei cemetery and the swampy ground drained; the park was founded in 1870, and from 1879 the Park Association planted trees in English style. It was renamed Stalin Park in the early 1950s, then Central Park, and took its current name in 2015.
The Alley of Personalities, set up in 2009, is an open-air museum of 26 bronze busts of local figures, arranged clockwise; Sever Bocu's bust stands near the cathedral entrance. Among them are Cornel Medrea's 1933 bust of Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea and Aurel Popp's 1935 bust of Vincențiu Babeș, a founding member of the Romanian Academy.
The park lies between the Bega canal and the Metropolitan Cathedral, with its main entrance near the cathedral and the Alley of Personalities. The southern edge holds the former Uszoda sports complex, whose basketball court was renovated in 2023. Paths cross lawns and alleys, so allow time to walk the nine hectares.
The park's southern edge holds the former Uszoda sports complex, built in 1926 with pools where Timișoara's water polo team trained before winning 10 national championships. Covering 4,500 square metres, it stayed under the Ministry of Education until 2016, when it passed to the city hall; a demolition plan was dropped after residents protested.
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