Romania as never before

WELCOME to ROMANIA

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WELCOME to ROMANIA...

MAYOR'S HOUSE

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Beautiful lighted in the colours of the flag of Romania and EU - 5 days left until we are official members!!! Let'celebrate!

Christmas Tree and Vasile Milea Square surrounded by silence

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Yellow bench in Pitesti

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Prefecture Building at night

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Marble and rock - centre of Pitesti in Christmas Day

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Wonderful lighted, the half marble, half rock fountain stands still in winter time, covered by light and sparkling solitary, watching over the quiet Vasile Milea Square.

Lighted evergreen firetrees waiting for snow to cover them gently

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City center of PITESI by night, at CHRISTMAS 2006

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The pleasure of wondering around in your native town, in silence and smooth light, by Christmas...

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*~*~* CHRISTMAS in PITESTI - December 2006 *~*~*
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CHRISTMAS BLUE LIGHTS in the centre of Bucharest

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BUCHAREST with blue lightning in Christmas Eve, getting ready to join The European Union!

CHRISTMAS in Bucharest - University Square

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Statue of Nicolae Balcescu

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Nicolae Bălcescu (June 29, 1819—November 29, 1852) was a Romanian Wallachian soldier, historian, journalist, and leader of the 1848 Wallachian Revolution.

Bălcescu's most important work is Românii supt Mihai-Voievod Viteazul ("Romanians under the Rule of Michael the Brave"), which he wrote in exile in 1849 - first published by Alexandru Odobescu in 1860. The volume is history of Michael's campaigns, as the first moment when Wallachia, Transylvania, and Moldavia, came under a single, albeit brief rule. They show Bălcescu's committement to both radicalism and nationalism, his view oscillating between praise of Michael's gestures and criticism of his stance as a supporter of serfdom and privilege.

Centre of PITESTI in summer

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ROMANIA - 2000 years of HISTORY

... If you ever wondered where you next trip would lead your steps to, you should consider ROMANIA: unique and marvelous country with great history & traditions, waiting to be discovered by YOU, LUCKY TOURIST!
... So, what are you waiting for ??? :)

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AMAZING ROMANIA

"Imagine the world without ROMANIA!" Great country, amazing people! Why should you come here? THAT'S WHY... see it here!

Situation of PITESTI in ROMANIA - MAP

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Administrative divisions: Romania is divided into 41 judeţe, or counties, and the municipality of Bucharest (Bucureşti) - the capital.

The counties are (in alphabetical order): * Alba * Arad * Argeş * Bacău * Bihor * Bistriţa-Năsăud * Botoşani * Braşov * Brăila * Buzău * Caraş-Severin * Călăraşi * Cluj * Constanţa * Covasna * Dâmboviţa * Dolj * Galaţi * Giurgiu * Gorj * Harghita * Hunedoara * Ialomiţa * Iaşi * Ilfov * Maramureş * Mehedinţi * Mureş * Neamţ * Olt * Prahova * Satu Mare * Sălaj * Sibiu * Suceava * Teleorman * Timiş * Tulcea * Vaslui * Vâlcea * Vrancea

Location of PITESTI in ARGES county district

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GEOGRAPHY: Argeş (IPA: ['ar.ʤeʃ]) is a county (judeţ) in the center of Romania, in the center-north of the Wallachia region, west of Muntenia Region, with the capital city at Piteşti.

This county has a total area of 6,862 km² and a population of 187,558 inhabitants.

The relief can be split into 3 distinctive parts. In the north side there are the mountains, from the Southern Carpathians group - the Făgăraş Mountains with heights over 2400 m, and in the North-East part the Leaota Mountains. Between them there is a pass towards Braşov the Rucăr-Bran pass. The heights decrease, and in the center there are the sub-carpathian hills, with heights around 800 m, crossed with very deep valleys. In the south there is the northern part of the Romanian Plain.

The main river that croses the county is the Argeş River in which almost all the other rivers coming from the mountains flow. In the south the main rivers are the Vedea River and the Teleorman River.

The CEC building - (The House of Economies)

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RED RED bank - Economy glooms also

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Everything seems to be red in this foto, from the bank's walls to the bank's service car! :)

How beautiful can WATER FALLING be? See for yourself!

2006-05-28T20:06:00.000+03:00

I just passed once again nearby the arthesian and the water made me admire its game in stillness. I cannot believe sometimes how many times I used to pass near this place in a hurry or thinking of all kind of problems. I find myself now, observing and admiring the unseen turned into seen NOW!!! How nice it can be!!!

WATER and TULIP FOUNTAIN - cool breeze in hot spring days

2006-05-28T20:00:00.001+03:00

ETYMOLOGY: I just love the HIDDEN CITY = PITESTI.
Its name comes from an old/particular form of the verb "to hide"="a piti" -> PITESTI, which, after romanian grammar would be translated as "(you) HIDE". It comes from this particular verb, because of its geographical position: "hidden" between hills.

WATER near the CATHEDRAL - May 2006

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HISTORY: Vasile Milea Square, with its red and yellow bricks and a totally new look, was inaugurated in 2000, like a part of the new down town.

1907 PARK with white flowers and view to the HISTORY MUSEUM

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1907 PARK with the staue of a Romanian peasant

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HISTORY: The name of the park is given after the 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt which took place in March 1907 in Moldavia and it quickly spread reaching Wallachia. The main cause was the discontent of the peasants about the inequity of land ownership, which was in the hands of just a few large landowners.

The events continued to resonate in Romanian conscience and were the subject of one of the best novels of the interwar period, Răscoala ("The Revolt"), by Liviu Rebreanu, published in 1932. It also formed the subject of a painting by Octav Băncilă, and of a monumental statue which can still be seen in Bucharest. This statue dedicated to the peasants that died fighting for their right can be found in Pitesti City.

Small TULIP water-source for hot summer in Pitesti

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SHOPPING AREAS in the center of PITESTI - "easy nice way to spend your time and money"

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Dinicu Golescu new LIBRARY in PITESTI

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UPPER view of the center of PITESTI

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GEOGRAPHY: Pitesti is a city in southern Romania, situates on the bank of Arges river. It has about 300.000 people. It's 114 km from Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Also named the TULIP's CITY after its anual famous floral exhibition.

"Mayor's House" or "Primaria" in Romanian - PITESTI

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THOUGHTS: Welcome in Pitesti City

"There are many great and beautiful cities in the world. There are many great and beautiful cities in Romania. And as you will see Pitesti City is one of them.

And we love it more than others. Because this is the place where we exist, we earn our “daily bread”, we rise our children, we play our life's role, from that place we open ourselves to the entire world, we receive and host our guests from the whole world.

Here, we are waiting for you, to take acknowledge about us, to understand us, to join us at our soul events, to celebrate together the past times, planning the future, under the sign of present achievements."

Tudor Pendiuc, Mayor of Pitesti

Little cathedral and artesians in the center of PITESTI - April 2006

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History: The most popular medieval church in Pitesti, that attracts the attention in a special way with its original architecture is Biserica Domneasca “Sfantul Gheorghe”, built in 1656 by Prince Constantin Serban (1654-1658) and his wife, Lady Balasa, based on the foundation of an old dwelling.

Easter night and THE LIGHT in "The city of tulips" - PITESTI, Romania

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WONDERFUL ROMANIA - Pitesti with its tulips, a real pearl in SPRINGTIME! Won't you come up and check it? :)))))

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TRAVEL TIP: Well, if you come to Romania by plane or by something that gets you to Bucharest you'll take from there a bus or a minibus, even the new confortable INTERCITY train. They leave to Pitesti every half an hour. The distance is 114 km.

If you come with your car from a different direction just follow the signs :)

Tulips in to colours - PITESTI -> ROMANIA

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Finally, light pink touch of tulips

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Earth and flowers in PITESTI

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HISTORY: The Tulip Symphony is not only a symbol of Pitesti for 29 years now (2006), it is also a true mass phenomenon. It wouldn’t hurt if sociologists gave up their political polls which naturally bring them a big amount of material benefits and if they asked themselves what makes people inside and outside Romania visit, year after year, the Pitesti Tulip Symphony! Could it be the art of floral arrangements? Could it be the richness of the floral exhibition? The feeling of uniting with beauty?

Shopping and heart-mind-feeding :D

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Shall I say more about PITESTI?

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Would you like to come HERE? ;)

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Living nature - springtime in Pitesti city

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Full view of the city centre - Pitesti

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Green and red - colourful springtime in Pitesti

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Just Myosotis in the heart of PITESTI city - springtime here is wonderful!

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BOTANICS: MYOSOTIS - so blue and beautiful, colouring the city center!
** Latin name: Myosotis sylvatica
** Common name - Forget-me-not
* Legend: Forget-Me-Not essence is a grief remedy, helpful to anyone suffering from the death or dying of a loved one. Awakening properties for the soul, offering a deeper understanding of karmic ties. Helps one connect to the heart's desires involving realationships.

Myosotis + RED tulips - PITESTI

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Red tulips as all over + marble sculpture breaking the colour - PITESTI forever

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How much RED can you take now? :) PITESTI

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Round square :) full of red beautiful tulips

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History: Unique event in Romania, started in 1978 during springtime, Tulips Symphony attracts every year, more and more participants and visitors, from inside and outside the country.

On the 27 th of November 1972, the first 3,000 tulip bulbs and 100 hyacinths, were bought from an amateur florist from Holland and from flowers market in Holland and were planted in our city. The achievements of tulip bulbs continued next year.

Nobody believed then, that Pitesti City had to know, in a short time, phases - always renewed of the flower glory. A glory not at all relative, because even today, after 25 years, the city continues to be surnamed The Little Holland or Holland of Romania.

In a traditional way, the floral event is developing during three days, usually on April, heaving as location the Exhibition Hall of Casa Cartii . Each of the three levels of the Exhibition Hall is decorated with different season flowers, exotic flowers, apartment and dendrologycal plants, cact flowers arrangements, decorative earth pots, gardens and parks endowments, stamp collections, paintings and different plastic art and hand crafts, all inspired from flowers universe.

The organizers of this event are: Pitesti City Hall, Pitesti Local Council and Public Domain Administration. These institutions want to complete each time, the great event with tourist programs – the visit of Arges County Museum – Department of Forever Plants, Dendrology Nursery in Gavana, the Green Houses of Public Domain Administrations, the Museum of Fruit-trees and Wine and the Romanian Village Museum which is located inside Golesti Museum.

Also there are organized open-air performances with young and folk music, picnics and fire works. New and very much appreciated by the citizens are flower bombs from Henry Coanda Air Club Planes and also parachute jumps performed by the sportsmen.

All the participants are rewarded with diplomas and trophies made by our traditional partners china factory Arpo - Curtea de Arges.

Water in springtime PITESTI

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Pidgeons drinking water (Pitesti fountain)

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12-signs fountain - right view - PITESTI

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12-signs FOUNTAIN - Pitesti

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Tree with red-tulips-socks in PITESTI

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Yellow row of tulips in the centre of PITESTI

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PINK and YELLOW tulips

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MAGNOLIE

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Red tulips and green pine - PITESTI

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RED RED tulips in April PITESTI

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How much PINK can you take? LOVELY PITESTI (April 2006)

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PINK in PITESTI city

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The PAPADIE-LALEA fountain from the town-center

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Centre of PITESTI with pink tulips

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Tulips - closer look

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BOTANICS: TULIPS - LATIN NAME "TULIPA GESNERIANA"
Tulip (Tulipa) is a genus of about 100 species of flowering plants in the family Liliaceae. They are native to southern Europe, north Africa, and Asia from Anatolia and Iran (where the flower is suggested on the nation's flag) east to northeast China and Japan. The centre of diversity of the genus is in the Pamir and Hindu Kush mountains and the steppes of Kazakhstan.

They are perennial bulbous plants growing to 10-70 cm tall, with a small number of strap-shaped, waxy-textured, usually glaucous green leaves and large flowers with six tepals. The fruit is a dry capsule containing numerous flat disc-shaped seeds. Tulips require a sustained cold period to flower properly in spring. Usually 50 to 60 days at 40 degrees will allow the bulbs to regenerate.

PITESTI in springtime with its lovely TULIPS

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General Info

Nation: Romania
Capital city: Bucharest
Geographic position: in the south-east of Central Europe
Climate: temperate-continental, four seasons
Features: mountains, hills, plains, and delta
Population: 21,680,976 (March 2003, source: National Statistics Institute)
Ethnic structure: Romanians - 89.5%; Hungarians (including Szecklers)- 6.5%; Roma - 2.5%; other ethnic groups -1.5%
Religious structure: Eastern Orthodox - 86.7%; Roman-Catholic-4.7%; Protestant - 3.2%; Greek-Catholic - 0.9%, Evangelical - 0.1%; Unitarian - 0.3%; other religions - 0.4% (preliminary data, March 2003 )

Form of government: republic, NATO member, EU integration underway
President of Romania: Traian Băsescu

Legislative power: The Parliament of Romania, (485 members in the 2000-2004 legislature), and two houses: the Senate of Romania (140 members) and the Chamber of Deputies (345 members).
Senate Chairman: Nicolae Văcăroiu
Deputy Chamber chairman: Ioan Olteanu

The national flag

The national flag of Romania is a tricolour: red, yellow and blue.
It has not undergone many or major changes in the course of history.
Only the distribution of the colours (in point of proportion and position) changed to a certain extent, being made equal after the Revolution of 1848 when, under the spur of the French revolutionary spirit, many states in Europe adopted as their national flag the dimensionally standardised three-colour banner. Sigillography attests that at certain historical stages, the Romanian flag had the three colours arranged horizontally with the red in the upper part, the yellow in the middle and the blue in the lower part. Also, the proportion of the colours was not the same as it is now (33 per cent for each colour).
Basically, however, the three colours so dear to the Romanians are to be found in banners dating back to the time of Michael the Brave and even Stephen the Great. Moreover, recent research indicates that they existed even on the Dacian standard presented on Trajan's Column in Rome. This standard was of a special form: a bright metal wolf's head hanging from which were long coloured bands of cloth.
As the wind blew, the standard gave a whiz that scared the enemy and encouraged those who carried it in battle. In critical moments, hiding the standard so that it should not be taken by the enemy was a custom common with several peoples, including therefore the Dacians, the Daco-Romans and the Romanians. Such a hidden standard was the one belonging to Tudor Vladimirescu, the leader of the 1821 revolution. When the revolution was stifled, Tudor's chieftains decided to bury the standard in a courtyard. Only 60 years later, in 1882, was the standard found, reconditioned and brought to Bucharest, the capital of the country, being deposited, in the framework of a special ceremony, at the Army House (today the Central Military Museum).
The 1821 revolution Tudor Vladimirescu helped the country get rid of the Phanariot rulers imposed by the Ottoman Empire in Wallachia and Moldavia in the early 18th century (the Phanariot rulers came from the Phanar district of Constantinopole and were aliens imposed on the country by the Sultan as mere administrators).
The flag, the standard, the banner are profound symbols, connected to history, to the resistance of the people and the secret of their survival. The Romanian tricolour (the colours red, yellow and blue are to be found also in Romania's coat of arms) resisted, as a symbol, even after the advent of communism in this country, when the entire heraldry of the USSR's satellites was reduced to a caricature.
In the course of time, poems and hymns were dedicated to the Romanian tricolour; one of these, Three Colours, on music by Ciprian Porumbescu, has been very mobilising and is one of the most liked by the Romanians.
The flag of Romania has the colours placed vertically as follows: blue (hoist), yellow (in the middle) and red (fly). The width of each colour band is one-third of the length. The blue is cobalt, the yellow-chrome and the red-vermillion.

MORE HISTORY: With all peoples the national coat of arms - the supreme heraldic sign - is of special importance. Its images evoke history, through it tradition remains alive, while its bearings awaken the national feeling. In most states’ coats of arms, the bearings are devoted to the specific national past and are commonly recognised by citizens. Such lofty symbols however are not established only by laws and decrees. They are equally the melting pot for the citizens’ ideas and aspirations, for their common thoughts.
In Romania the preoccupation with a representative, synthetic coat of arms dates back to the 19th century. It led to the formation of a fine team of heraldry specialists rallying outstanding Romanian scientific figures. As the State Archives were set up and sigillography studies developed, the heraldry experts identified the coats of arms of districts, provinces, the heraldic bearings of the big landowners, a.o.
After 1859 (when Wallachia and Moldavia united into one state) the question of a representative coat of arms arose. In 1863 the solution was found of joining the ancient, traditional symbols of Wallachia (the golden eagle with cross) and Moldavia (the auroch with a star between its horns). Later (1872), Romania’s heraldry commission proposed a synthetic coat of arms that combined the traditional symbols of all the Romanian provinces: Wallachia, Moldavia, Bukovina, Transylvania, Maramures, Crisana, Banat and Oltenia.
The coat of arms was adopted by the Government of Romania and was in use until 1921 when, following the great Union of December 1, 1918, the new coat of arms of Greater Romania was devised, with the addition of the symbols instituted in 1872: the insignia of the House of Hohenzollern (a European royal house with origins in the early Middle Ages, which gave Romania four kings, the first of whom - Carol I, 1866-1914 - was the one that raised the country to the rank of a kingdom in 1881), the crown of Romania (made from the steel of a cannon captured at Pleven, during the 1877-1878 Independence War through which the country, by the valour of the Romanian soldiers, won its independence from the Ottoman Empire) and two face-to-face dolphins with their tails up, symbolising the Black Sea.
The coat of arms of Greater Romania was replaced in 1947, when the Romanian People’s Republic was proclaimed under pressure from the Soviet occupation troops, with a decorative effigy symbolising the country’s riches guarded by ears of wheat and a rising sun as a background as well as a red star in the chief.
Immediately after the 1989 Revolution, the idea came up of giving Romania a new, representative coat of arms. In fact, the very symbol of the Revolution was the flag with a hole in its middle wherefrom the communist coat of arms had been cut out.
The heraldic commission set up to design a new coat of arms for Romania worked intensely, subjecting to Parliament two final designs which were then combined. What emerged is the current design adopted by the two Chambers of Romania’s Parliament in their joint session of September 10, 1992.
Romania’s coat of arms has as a central element the golden eagle with cross. Traditionally, this eagle appears in the arms of the Arges county, the town of Pitesti and the town of Curtea de Arges. It stands for the “nest of the Basarabs,” the nucleus around which Wallachia, was organised, the province that determined the historical fate of the whole Romania.
The eagle, being the symbol of Latinity and a heraldic bird of the first order, symbolises courage, determination, the soaring toward great heights, power, grandeur. It is to be found also in Transylvania’s coat of arms.
The shield on which it is placed is azure, symbolising the sky. The eagle holds in its talons the insignia of sovereignty: a sceptre and a saber, the latter reminding of Moldavia’s ruler, Stephen the Great (1456-1504), also called “Christ’s athlete” whereas the sceptre reminds of Michael the Brave (1593-1601), the first unifier of the Romanian Countries. On the bird’s chest there is a quartered escutcheon with the symbols of the historical Romanian provinces (Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, Banat and Crisana) as well as two dolphins reminding of the country’s Black Sea Coast.
In the first quarter there is again Wallachia’s coat of arms on azure: an eagle or holding in its beak a golden Orthodox cross, accompanied by a golden sun on the right and a golden new moon on the left.
In the second quarter there is Moldavia’s traditional coat of arms, gules: an auroch head sable with a mullet of or between its horns, a cinquefoil rose on the dexter and a waning crescent on the sinister, both argent.
The third quarter features the traditional coat of arms of Banat and Oltenia, gules: over waves, a golden bridge with two arched openings (symbolising Roman emperor Trajan’s bridge over the Danube), wherefrom comes a golden lion holding a broadsword in its right forepaw.
The fourth quarter shows the coat of arms of Transylvania with Maramures and Crisana: a shield parted by a narrow fesse, gules; in the chief, on azure, there is an eagle sable with golden beak coming out of the fesse, accompanied by a golden sun on the dexter and a crescent argent on the sinister; on the base, on or, there are seven crenellated towers, placed four and three.
Also represented are the lands adjacent to the Black Sea, on azure: two dolphins affronts, head down.

Economy—overview: Romania one of the ex-poorer but most beautiful countries in the region is continuing its transition to a market-based economy. After the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989-91 Romania was left with an obsolete industrial base and a pattern of industrial capacity wholly unsuited to its needs. For the next few years the country lagged behind most of its neighbors in the pace of restructuring.

Then in February 1997 Romania embarked on a comprehensive macroeconomic stabilization and structural reform program. The domestic foreign exchange market was freed and controls on current-account convertibility were removed in October. Restructuring programs include liquidating large energy-intensive industries and agricultural and financial sector reform. The private sector share of GDP rose to an estimated 58% in 1997 however this total includes firms with government-held minority stakes. Although progress has been made in privatizing small- and medium-sized firms delays in structural reforms—including the postponement of sales of large state-owned enterprises - threaten plans to revive GDP growth. In 1998 GDP will likely be unchanged; and inflation is projected to fall to 45% from 151% in 1997.

In 2003 the EURO was made the official foreign currency reference, though the US dollar is still widely mentioned. :)

Currency: 1 leu (RON) = 100 bani

Exchange rates: lei (L) per EUR$1 - 35,000 (2006)
The currency was re-valued by 2005 by removing the last 4 zeros from the Lei, changing the 1,000,000 Lei bill to 100 Hard Lei (ROL to new RON).