Welcome to County Buzău in the Muntenia region of Romania! Discover historic Buzău and surrounding villages, and understand the rich Muntenia culture unfolding in beautiful Buzau. Rest Romania will help you find the perfect hotel or B&B in our Buzău Accommodation section, or a guest house or pensiune in a village nestled in the mountains. Explore all of Buzău from Buzău to Râmnicu Sărat and smaller towns of Nehoiu, Pogoanele and Pătârlagele. Communes include Bisoca Berca Căneşti Chiojdu Gherăseni Mărăcineni Mânzăleşti, wild Pietroasele and Unguriu, and sleeply little Verneşti!
Travel by rental car or tour bus and train through the Buzău region of Muntenia in Romania. Hotels in Buzău are well-priced, and great travel and tourism activities from shopping, to exploring the villages, folk art, castles, mountains and forests. See all of County Buzău, from Buzău to Râmnicu Sărat and smaller towns of Nehoiu, Pogoanele and
Pătârlagele. Communes include Bisoca Berca Căneşti Chiojdu Gherăseni Mărăcineni Mânzăleşti, wild Pietroasele and Unguriu, and sleeply little Verneşti!
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The Communal Palace The city's most important
landmark is the Communal Palace, built between 1899 and 1903, now serving
as the City Hall. It is built in a mixed architectural style, rectangular
in shape and having a tower in the southern corner. Along with the
Courthouse, the Communal Palace was designed by architects commissioned by
mayor Nicu Constantinescu, at the end of the 19th century.
The Cuza Voda street, in the old commercial centre
of the city From the Communal Palace, the Cuza Vodă street, with buildings
from the late 19th century leads to the Bazaar.
In the western part of the city, lies the Crâng
park, a beautiful park carved in the corner of a larger forest. The
forest, located on the outskirts of Buzău, is a remainder of the old
Codrii Vlăsiei. The Crâng was designed in the early twentieth century
after the model of the Wiener Prater park. It has an obelisk in the
centre, erected in 1976 to celebrate 1600 years since the first
documentary evidence of Buzău's existence.
The oldest house in Buzău is the Vergu-Mănăilă
house, built in the 17th or 18th century as a boyar's mansion. The house
was rebuilt in 1971-1974 and now hosts the Museum of ethnography and folk
art.
The Banului church, built in the 16th century as a
monastery church, was rebuilt several times. In 1884, it was repainted by
a team of painters including Gheorghe Tattarescu and his uncle Nicolae
Teodorescu.
Buzău is the main city in the Buzău County, near
the right bank of the Buzău River, between the Carpathian Mountains and
the fertile lowlands of east Muntenia.
Buzău is important as a market for petroleum,
timber and grain. It is the meeting-place of railroads from Râmnicu Sărat,
Brăila, Nehoiu and Ploieşti.
Demographics
Population of the City:
1832: 2,567
1900: 21,000
1992: 148,087
2002: 134,227
Ethnic composition:
At the 2002 census, the Buzău population had the
following ethnic composition:
Romanians: 128,423 - 95.67%
Roma: 5,502 - 4.09%
Other nationalities account for the rest of the
population
Education and culture
The first school open in Buzău was the school for
church and icon painters open by Chesarie, the bishop of Buzău. The
school functioned at the bishopric of Buzău, and was managed by Nicolae
Teodorescu. Gheorghe Tattarescu started learning painting here.
The city's most important educational landmark is
the Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu high school, attended by Nobel prize winner
George Emil Palade in his youth. The Hasdeu was inaugurated in 1867.
The city public library was open in 1893, under the
name Carol I public library. Later it took the name of Buzău's most
prominent writer and poet, Vasile Voiculescu.
The George Ciprian theatre was created in 1996. It
does not have a team of actors of its own, but relies on contracts per
play per season, therefore bringing to Buzău several distinguished actors
in Romania. Its first manager was playwright Paul Ioachim.
The first superior college in the city is the
Economic University College, inaugurated in 1992, as a member of the
Academy of Economic Studies from Bucharest.
Buzău natives
Vasile Voiculescu, poet, writer, playwright
Vasile Cârlova, poet
Alexandru Marghiloman, statesman, Prime Minister of
Romania
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County Buzău is bordered by Brăila
County to the east, Prahova County and Braşov County to the west, Covasna
County and Vrancea County to the north, and Ialomiţa County to the south.
The county has a total area of 6,103 km˛.
To the north there are the mountains from the
southern end of the Eastern Carpathians group - the Vrancea Mountains and
the Buzău Mountains with heights over 1700 m. The heights decrease in the
South and East passing through the subcarpathian hills to the Bărăgan
Plain at about 80 m.
The main river crossing the county is the Buzău
River which collects many small rivers from the mountains and flows to the
East into the Siret River. The area is prone to floods, the one in the
summer of 2005 destroying the main road and railway bridges at Mărăcineni
north of Buzău.
Economy
The predominant industries in the county are
mechanical components, railway and automotive components, metallurgical
parts, glass, various agriculture, textiles and wood. The hilly area
is well-suited for wines and fruit orchards. Salt and oil are the main
resources extracted from the land of the county.
Population and Demography
In 2002, the county had a population of 496,214 and
the population density was 81/km˛ with Romanians at 97%, Rromas - under 3%
declared, and others.
The city of Buzău had a 2002 population of 134,227, with an ethnic
composition of 95.7% Romanians, and 4.1% Rromas, with the other 0.2% being
anything else.
County Buzău has the two main municipalities of Buzău and Râmnicu Sărat, the 3
towns of Nehoiu, Pogoanele, and Pătârlagele, along with 82 communes.
A Commune is a larger village which usually acts as a regional centre, with a
mayor, postal and police services, and sometimes larger stores. Other
villages may belong to the commune, and the over 2500 communes in Romania vary
widely in size.
This website is a
general tourist guide, designed to help English-speaking tourists
understand Romania, and as such, provides historical
information for the interest of our traveller readers. History
can be a contentious issue, and we welcome input where readers think
clarification or correction is advisable. Please
e-mail us here
if you have questions or comments about anything in this history
section.
The Roman Empire
The earliest mention on the river Buzău and the
polis on its bank is a letter from Ioannis Soranus, governor of Scytia
Minor to the archbishop of Caesarea Mazaca. The document, kept in copies
at the Vatican Library and the "San Marco" library in Venice, talks about
the martyrdom of the Christian missionary by the name of Sava, drowned by
the goths in the river Buzău. He is the spiritual patron of the city of
Buzău as well as several villages in the area.
The Middle ages
Buzău evolved during the middle ages as both a
market town and a spiritual centre.
The earliest mention of Buzău as a market town (târg)
and customs point comes from a document issued January 31 1431 by Dan II,
voivod of Wallachia, in which it is stated that the salesmen from Braşov
are free to trade in several cities of Wallachia (among them, Buzău), just
as they were during the reign of Mircea cel Bătrân. The document suggests
therefore, that the city held the market town status before his reign.
Radu The Great
In the year 1500, Radu cel Mare creates The
Bishopric of Buzău, making it a spiritual centre of the area. In 1507,
the city appears (under the name Boza) for the first time on a map made by
Nicolaus Germanus.
The Banului churchIn 1571, the Banului monastery is
built. The monastery is called "Banului", by the title of its builder,
ban Andronic Cantacuzino. The monastery church is rebuilt by Andreiana,
wife of Şerban Cantacuzino, in 1722. After the monastic assets
secularizing act of 1863, the monastery was disbanded, however its church,
with its beautiful architecture, still stands.
Continuing Buzău's market town tradition, a
document from 1575 speaks about the Bazaar (permanent market with shops,
stores, cellars, storage rooms). The Buzău bazaar was the second oldest
in Wallachia.
Modern history
In a document issued by Alexandru Ipsilanti on
August 26 1778, we can find the oldest known mention of the Drăgaica
fair. The initial purpose of Drăgaica was the trading of wool, and
therefore it was held in the months that came after the sheep shearing.
The Drăgaica fair is still being held in Buzău nowadays, twice every year,
once in June and once in October.
A Continual Rebirth
The first known seal of Buzău, dating from the late
18th century bears the Phoenix bird, symbol of rebirth, process which the
city had to go through several times throughout its history, after being
burnt, destroyed or depopulated by wars, plagues, or earthquakes.
Between 1850 and 1880, the buildings on the Cuza
Vodă Street were built. They replaced some older houses, whose cellars
and foundations they kept. The buildings were built in the style of the
19th century South-Eastern European commercial houses, two-story buildings
with shops at the ground floor, and residential rooms at the top floor.
The Communal Palace
In 1899, mayor Nicu Constantinescu begins the
construction of the Communal Palace, project completed in 1903. The
Communal Palace is now the city's most prominent landmark and most famous
building. The same mayor constructed the new courthouse, as well as the
Crâng park.
The Obelix in the Crâng park
Constantin Brâncuşi lived in the city in the summer
of 1914, where he created two of his sculptures: "Prayer" and Petre
Stănescu's statue.
The First World War
During World War I, the city was occupied, from
1916 to 1918, by German forces. Buzău returned to Romanian administration
at the end of the war.
During World War II, the Soviet troops occupied
Buzău in August 1944, and, as German soldiers were barricaded inside the
Communal Palace, its tower was knocked down by cannons. The tower was
rebuilt after the war.
Heavy fighting took place in the area after August
23,1944, when Marshall Ion Antonescu was arrested in Bucharest and his
pro-Nazi government overthrown. The Heroes' Cemetery, which lies in the
west of the city, is the burial ground of the Soviet, German and Romanian
soldiers who died at that time. The cemetery also contains monuments
honouring the dead soldiers from both sides.
Communist Buzău
After the war, when Romania was taken over by
communists, Buzău temporarily lost county capital status, being included
in the Ploieşti region. In 1968, the Buzău county was reinstated with
Buzău as its capital. The authorities ran a strong policy of demolition
and building communist-type blocks of flats. As a consequence, the face
of the city changed, as some old neighbourhoods were razed to make way for
the new buildings.
The Obelisk in the Crâng Park
In 1976, the city has celebrated 1,600 years since
its oldest documentary mention. An obelisk was built in the Crâng park to
mark the event.
In 1990, after the fall of Communism, the
demolition process stopped and some neighbourhoods were saved from
destruction, and building started for the St. Sava Cathedral in 1991.
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