Drumul Taberei Park Greenhouses (Serele Drumul Taberei)

Drumul Taberei Park, the largest in the district of the same name, was laid out in the 1960s together with the first apartment blocks of the area, to serve a population of about 60,000; under the communist regime it bore the name of Alexandru Moghioroș. In 1976 an open-air bathing complex with three pools was dug there, and the excavated earth formed the park's hill. Between May 2013 and 2015 Sector 6 redeveloped the whole 30 hectares, amid controversy over the quality of the works and the destruction of existing vegetation, which the Court of Accounts criticised; the park reopened on 30 May 2015.

The greenhouses, however, were not finished. As the works had missed the deadline of 31 December 2015, the local council entered more than 12.5 million lei in the 2016 budget to complete a glasshouse of several thousand square metres in which millions of euros had already been invested, while the civic group 'Salvați Parcul Drumul Taberei' petitioned for the structure to be dismantled. Work finally ended in October 2019 and the seven pavilions opened to the public shortly afterwards. The sector's mayor, Gabriel Mutu, saw in them a green space open all year round for Bucharest residents and tourists alike, and an educational platform for pupils and students. The greenhouses are run by the Sector 6 public domain administration, which presents them as a draw for plant lovers.

The complex consists of seven exhibition pavilions, each set to its own temperature and humidity to recreate a habitat: tropical forest, Mediterranean basin, cactus and succulent desert, equatorial zone. In the warmest house the temperature approaches 30 °C. Press reports from 2016 described, while construction was under way, a glasshouse of several thousand square metres; on OpenStreetMap the whole is mapped as a single greenhouse building named 'Sere', in the northern part of the park.

The technical particularity lies in the heating: 224 geothermal boreholes draw water from the subsoil, which is then warmed to keep each pavilion at its temperature and humidity, a system meant to cut running and maintenance costs. Articles from 2019 and 2023 present this installation as unique in the capital and, within Romania, as surpassed in power only by the Măgurele laser facility.

Some 4,000 plants of about 300 species, from tropical, Mediterranean, desert and equatorial regions, have been growing here since 2019. The first house, with its tropical climate, sets the tone: palms, a cultivated banana, papaya trees, Vanda orchids and Strelitzia nicolai, the 'white bird' of the growers. The Mediterranean pavilions line up lemon, orange and mandarin trees around an olive tree about 300 years old, brought from Greece, the collection's best-known piece. In the desert, cacti flower, among them Echinocactus grusonii, nicknamed in Romanian 'the mother-in-law's seat'.

The plants are tended by horticultural engineers of Sector 6, who devote two days a week to maintaining the seven pavilions and act as guides the rest of the time.

The greenhouses occupy the northern part of Drumul Taberei Park, 30 hectares bounded by Strada Brașov, Bulevardul Drumul Taberei and Strada Târgu Neamț. Entry is in groups of no more than twelve people, without booking, led by the horticulturists; allow about an hour for the seven pavilions. The indoor climate makes the visit pleasant in any season, and winter is the best time to feel the contrast with the outside. In the park, continue with the 1.18-hectare lake and its pedal boats, the amphitheatre that hosts the Cinema under the Stars and, in May, the West Side Flower Fest, which covered the lawns with more than 100,000 flowers in 2025. The university's glasshouses at the Dimitrie Brândză Botanical Garden are three kilometres away.