Dudeşti, Bucharest

A row of houses on Calea Dudeşti

The courtyard of some older houses in Dudeşti

Dudeşti is a neighbourhood in south-eastern Bucharest, along the Calea Dudeşti. Nearby neighbourhoods include Vitan, Văcăreşti and Dristor.

The neolithic Dudeşti culture (5th-4th millennium BC), which encompassed most of the Romanian Plain and Dobruja, gets its name from this region of Bucharest, as this was the first place where its archeological remains were found.

Originally a village, it was included in Bucharest as it expanded. Its name is related to the Wallachian aristocratic family of the "Dudeşti", with an etymology leading back to the Romanian dud, "mulberry tree" and the suffix -eşti. During the first rule of Alexander Mourousis as Prince of Wallachia, in the context of a bubonic plague outbreak, it became the site of a quarantined hospital for the afflicted.

Unlike other nearby areas, most of the neighbourhood escaped Nicolae Ceauşescu's plans of demolition, but large parts of it were demolished in the 2000s, to make room for some construction projects. A tram depot and the Bucharest Mall are located nearby.