Obor is the name of a square and the surrounding district of

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, the capital of

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. There is also a

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station (on the M1 line) named

Obor Obor is the name of a square and the surrounding district of Bucharest, the capital of Romania. There is also a Bucharest Metro station (on the Bucharest Metro Line M1, M1 line) named Obor metro station, Obor, which lies in this area. The dis ...

, which lies in this area. The district is near the Colentina and Moșilor neighborhoods. Obor stands in the place of "Târgul Moșilor", a

fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Fairs showcase a wide range of go ...

famous throughout

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, which was held twice a week. In Old Romanian, "''obor''" meant ''enclosure, corral''. Located outside the city, in the 18th century, it was also the place for public hangings. About 20 Turks captured from wars were hanged here by the Romanians. The Obor Market (Piața Obor), the direct successor of the original fair, was, until 2007, Bucharest's largest public market. It covered about 16 city blocks and included a variety of indoor and outdoor market spaces, with goods ranging from

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s to live chickens. During his official visit to Romania in August 1969,

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Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

paid visit to the Obor Market, where he tasted the grapes. Informally, the market spilled into the surrounding neighborhood, both in terms of street vendors and in terms of the nearby ''Magazin Universal'' ("Universal Store") named ''Bucur Obor'', a large commercial building and housing estate (officially named the ALMO housing estate, built in 1975 and renovated in 2013 and 2017) that has been parcelled up into hundreds of small, independent retail stores. The market was demolished, not without public outcry, in order to pave the way for a modern market and a small park, thus ending a 300-year tradition. The Veranda Mall, which lies close to the Obor metro station, was inaugurated in October 2016. With a surface, it includes 18 fashion and footwear shops, restaurants, children's playgrounds, a cinema, and a gym, as well as a

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hypermarket. In Romanian popular culture, the neighborhood is referenced by Gică Petrescu in his song ''Uite-așa aș vrea să mor'', in which the artist playfully expresses his desire to be buried in a tavern in the area with a glass of red wine in his hand. Among Bucharest dwellers, it has attained a reputation of a market of relatively cheap products, sometimes even of low quality. The was inaugurated in 1903.

References

Districts of Bucharest {{Romania-geo-stub