W elcome to Bucharest, the 2,100,000 inhabitants capital of Romania! Founded in 1459, on the banks of the Dambovita River, by ruler Vlad Tepes, Bucharest become later the capital city of the Princely Court. The tradition connects the founding of Bucharest with the name of Bucur who was either a princely person, an outlaw, a fisher or a shepherd according to different legends. But a fact doubtless: the name of Bucur is of a Thracian-Geto-Dacian origin. The name of Bucharest (Bucuresti) remembers the Romanian word "bucurie" (gladness), and this town had, like many European metropoles, decades of gladness, greatness, and sorrow.