Pictures from Rm. Valcea

Ramnicu Valcea si one of the most beautiful cities in Oltenia. Enjoy the video.

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Posted in: Rm Valcea

Adrian Paunescu

Adrian Păunescu (20 July 1943 – 5 November 2010) was a Romanian poet, journalist, and politician. Though criticised for praising dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu,[1] Păunescu was called "Romania's most famous poet"in a Associated Press story, quoted by the New York Times.


Born in Copăceni, Bălţi County, in what is now the Republic of Moldova, Păunescu spent his childhood in Bârca, Dolj County. He did his secondary studies at Carol I High School in Craiova.
Păunescu studied philology at the University of Bucharest and became a writer and journalist. He was an influential public figure for Romanian youth throughout the 1970s and early 1980s.Though he was criticised for writing flattering poems about dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, Păunescu remained popular in Romania, where he appeared on television several times a week.
As posthumously summarized by newspaper România Liberă, Păunescu "is still viewed as a hero by the man in the street" although "intellectuals continue to question his integrity and the literary value of his work".

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Posted in: Craiova,People

Constantin Brâncuși

Constantin Brâncuși  (February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian-born sculptor who made his career in France. As a child he displayed an aptitude for carving wooden farm tools. Formal studies took him first to Bucharest, then to Munich, then to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His abstract style emphasizes clean geometrical lines that balance forms inherent in his materials with the symbolic allusions of representational art. Famous Brâncuși works include the Sleeping Muse (1908), The Kiss (1908), Prometheus (1911), Mademoiselle Pogany (1913), The Newborn (1915), Bird in Space (1919) and The Column of the Infinite (Coloana infinitului), popularly known as The Endless Column (1938). Considered the pioneer of modernism, Brâncuși is called the patriarch of modern sculpture.

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Posted in: People,Targu Jiu

Sport - CS Oltchim Rm Valcea

CS Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea is a Romanian women's handball club from Râmnicu Vâlcea, that plays in the Romanian National League and in the EHF Women's Champions League. They are considered one of the most valuable teams in Europe.
The club was founded on 27 June 1973 under the name "A.S. Chimistul Râmnicu Vâlcea". It was part of a sports program initiated by the local chemical company (now Oltchim). Its first coach was Constantin Cinca. Under his guidance, the team moves from the 3rd division to 2nd division in 1980. Two seasons later, under its new coach Constantin Popescu, the team advances to the National League.

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Posted in: Rm Valcea,Sport

Sport - FC Universitatea Craiova

Fotbal Club Universitatea Craiova  is a Romanian professional football club from Craiova. They became the first Romanian football team to reach the semi-finals of a European tournament, during the UEFA Cup in 1982–83.

The football history in the city of Craiova began in the year 1921, when the first teams were founded; "Craiovan Craiova" and "Rovine Grivita Craiova".

In the year 1940, the two teams from Craiova merged, resulting in one of the most successful Romanian football teams in the Interwar period; “FC Craiova” , which was also the first team from the city of Craiova winning the Romanian championship in the season 1942–1943. However the title was not officialised by the Romanian Football Federation because of World War II.
Finally in 1948 “Universitatea Craiova” took life at the initiative of a group of students and professors, a team which latter would become one of the most popular and successful teams from Romania.

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Posted in: Craiova,Sport

Industry - Berbesti-Alunu Coal Mine

Berbeşti-Alunu Coal Mine is an open-pit mining exploitation, one of the largest in Romania located in Vâlcea County. The legal entity managing the mine is the National Company of Lignite Oltenia which was set up in 1997.
The mine has around 2,200 workers and is endowed with 13 bucket-wheel excavators, seven spreaders, one mixed machine and five deposits spreader. The total proven recoverable reserves of the mine amount to 67 million tonnes of lignite.
One of the most important partners (customer) of this mine groups is CET Govora(Thermal power plant).
The presence of the mining activities in these 2 locations is very important for the local economy. Additional activities are concentrated around mining.

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Posted in: Economics,Industry

Horezu Monastery

The Monastery of Horezu was founded in 1690 by Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu in the town of Horezu, Wallachia, Romania. It is considered to be a masterpiece of "Brâncovenesc style", known for its architectural purity and balance, the richness of its sculpted detail, its treatment of religious compositions, its votive portraits, and its painted decorative works.  The school of mural and icon painting established at the monastery in the 18th century was famous throughout the Balkan region.

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Posted in: Monasteries,Places

Industry - Oltchim S.A.

Oltchim S.A. (BVB: OLT), is one of the largest chemical companies in Romania and in Southeastern Europe, with a total of 3538 employees in 2009. It was established in 1966 with the name of Râmnicu Vâlcea Chemical Works. It began to be built in July 1966. The first plant, Mercury Cells Electrolysis, was commissioned on 28 July 1968. In 1990, a government decision, turned the Râmnicu Vâlcea Chemical Works into a joint-stock company, called Oltchim S.A.

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Posted in: Economics,Industry,Rm Valcea

Cities and History: TARGU-JIU

The city takes its name from the river "Jiu", which runs through it. In antiquity, there was a Dacian village in around the location of today's city surrounded by forests. After the Roman conquests of Oltenia (101-102), military units were stationed around the roads that connected different important routes at the time. During the digging of the Târgu Jiu - Rovinari railroad, mosaics, coins, ceramics and Roman bricks were found in the south-eastern part of the city. This and ancient testimonies support the idea that Târgu Jiu was a commercial town (a vicus) while under the Roman Empire's rule. A very important route that connects the Danube to Transylvania runs through the city, so historians believe that part of the Roman Army under Trajan's leadership stayed and then passed in the actual location of the city.
After the 271 withdrawal of the Roman army, the city remained in the Latin influence zone, mainly because of Constantine The Great's involvement in Oltenia which he sought to bring under Imperial rule. The importance of keeping this zone under Rome's control was underlined by Constantine's decision to build a second bridge over the Danube between today's Corabia (then Sucidava) and the Bulgarian city of Gigen. It was over 2400 meters long, one of the longest of all time.
This territory was under Litovoi's rule, a Vlach (Romanian) voivode in the 13th century whose territory comprised northern Oltenia. He is mentioned for the first time in a diploma issued by king Béla IV of Hungary (1235–1270) on 2 July 1247. In 1277 (or between 1277 and 1280), Litovoi was at war with the Hungarians over lands king Ladislaus IV of Hungary (1272–1290) claimed for the crown, but for which Litovoi refused to pay tribute. Litovoi was killed in battle.
The first written account of the city appears in a document dating since 23-rd of November 1406 in an order signed by Mircea cel Batran. Since 1497, the city has been the seat of Gorj County.
Constantin Brâncuşi, who had lived here as a boy, was commissioned to contribute to a memorial monument to the fighters of World War I, called Calea Eroilor / The Heroes' Street and was finished in 1938. His large sculptures are now the main tourist attractions in Târgu Jiu: The Table of Silence, The Gate of the Kiss, Chairs' Alley and The Endless Column. The latter is shown in the middle section of the city's coat of arms.
In the 1950s, the Communist mayor planned to demolish Brâncuşi's "bourgeois" art. The plan was not carried out.
Starting in the 1960s, coal surface mining contributed to a rapid population growth. Other local industries include wood, machine building, textiles, glassware and construction materials (cement, bricks and tiles).

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Posted in: History,Targu Jiu

Cities and History: RAMNICU VALCEA

The area has been inhabited since Dacian and Roman times, and was the site of a castrum. A new fortress was built on the location during the Middle Ages. Râmnicu Vâlcea was first attested during the rule of Prince Mircea cel Bătrân, as "the princely town of Râmnic" (September 4, 1388), and confirmed as the seat of a Vâlcea County during the same period (January 8, 1392).
The town seal dates to 1505. Cetăţuia, the actual fortress, served as the residence of Oltenian Bans and, from 1504, of Orthodox bishops; in 1543, Prince Radu de la Afumaţi was killed in Cetăţuia by a boyar conspiracy.
During the rules of Matei Basarab and Constantin Brâncoveanu, it became an important cultural center. It was here where the first paper mill and printing press in Romania were built (see Anthim the Iberian). The city was heavily damaged during the Habsburg takeover of Oltenia between 1718 and 1739, and its purpose was again reduced to that of a fortress.
During the Wallachian Revolution, on July 29, 1848, Deşteaptă-te, române! (the national anthem of Romania), with lyrics written by Andrei Mureşanu and music composed by Anton Pann (whose memorial house lies in the center of the town), was sung for the first time in Râmnicu Vâlcea. Gheorghe Magheru gathered his military force in Râureni, now part of the city, in an attempt to face the anti-revolutionary forces of Imperial Russia and the Ottoman Empire.
In the 1980s, the city was completely rebuilt in a style combining Socialist realism with local vernacular architecture.

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Posted in: History,Rm Valcea

Cities and History: CRAIOVA

Craiova, which occupied the site of the Dacian and Roman city Pelendava, was formerly the capital of Oltenia. One of the most important geto - dacian settlement of the Craiova aeria (Mofleni zone) was Pelendava, dating since the period 400 - 350 BC as the archaeological findings indicate. At the beginning of the second century AD, the Romans have built here a Roman camp, made from hard soil, afterwards made from rock and bricks (during the time of Hadrian, 117 - 138). Due to the favourabile geographical position, the protection of the Roman camp and the military garrison, the Roman Pelendava has known a thriving life. The settlement is mentioned in the Tabula Peutingeriana - a map of the Roman Empire, made at the request of the Roman emperor Caracalla. The year 225 (when this map was finished during Severus Alexander) is considered the first documentation mentioned of the oldest settlement from the nowadays city area.

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Posted in: Craiova,History

At the very beginning of this blog

Oltenia, also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions, with the alternate Latin names Wallachia Minor, Wallachia Alutana, Wallachia Caesarea between 1718 and 1739) is a historical province and geographical region of Romania, in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Danube, the Southern Carpathians and the Olt river (although counties in the east extend beyond the river in Muntenia in some areas).
The traditional heraldic symbol of Oltenia, also understood as representing Banat, is nowadays present in the Coat of Arms of Romania (lower dexter): on gules field, an or lion rampant, facing dexter, holding a sword, and standing over an or bridge (Apolodor of Damascus Bridge at Drobeta Turnu Severin) and stylised waves.

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Posted in: History