Crâng Park () is the largest and most important park in the city of Buzău, Romania. Location The park is located on the western outskirts of the city. It has an area of about . It represents only a part of a 1.89 square kilometre forest, named the Crâng forest, which is a remainder of the Codrii Vlăsiei. The forest is made up mostly of local broadleaf trees, with rather few gymnosperms, and it is known for its oaks, ash trees, lime trees, birches and maple. The park area is also populated with some foreign species of trees and other plants. Features The park features an artificial lake, named the Heleşteu lake (in Romanian, heleşteu=pond). The lake was created when the park was built, in order to provide boat rides. Its water is brought in from the Buzău river via a small channel that circles the city. It features three equally-sized islands, one of which is reachable via a bridge, while the other two are reachable only by boat. In 1976, an obelisk was raised in the center of the park, marking 1,600 years since the earliest documentary attestation of Buzău. Crâng's attractions also include discothèques, children's playgrounds, a chess and tables players corner (used even during winter days by some enthusiastic players), and boat rides on the lake. Etymology The park took the name of the forest in which it was built. In turn, the forest's name, crâng is a Romanian word which can be translated as young forest, which may suggest that at some point in time, the forest was a portion of the Codrii Vlăsiei particularly populated by young trees. Ironically, nowadays, the forest, and the park in particular, contain many century-old oaks. History The first reference to this forest by the name "Crâng" dates back to 23 October 1568, when Alexandru II Mircea, domn of Wallachia gave the market's crâng to the bishopric of Buzău. At the time, the area was merely a forest located near Buzău. The first time when the city's inhabitants used the forest for leisure and party purposes was in 1828 In 1850, a part of the Crâng forest was ceded by the Bishopric to the city, for use as public garden. In 1863, the Secularization of monastic estates act was proposed by Alexander John Cuza and adopted by the Romanian Parliament. Thus, the Crâng forest was handed over by the Bishopric