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Ploieşti
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In County Prahova
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 More Oil in Ploieşti!
Ploieşti is not the grimy oil town some guides would have you
believe! This pulsing capital city of Prahova County is situated in the historical Wallachian plains backed by the Bucegi and Cuicas mountains.
The city is located 56 km (35 miles) north of Bucharest and has a
population of 232,452 (according to the 2002 census), making it the
ninth-largest city in Romania.
Ploiesti is the capital city of Prahova County, Romania.
Ploieşti is home to the Oil & Gas University, Ploieşti
Philharmonic Orchestra —one of the top rated philharmonic orchestras
in Romania— and two formerly-First Division football (soccer) clubs
(Astra and Petrolul).
 Don't
Be Suspicious!
When you hear that old chestnut of "A City of Contrasts", that
usually means there are some bad spots you need to avoid.
But with Ploieşti, the oil town has simply suffered from some pretty
bad press.
Most Romanians will give you a funny smile like you've been a little
silly to spend your tourist dollars in a place like Ploieşti, but this
is only because of a persistant ignorance about the town.
The Central Markets downtown is great fun, one of the best
put-together functioning market complex in Romania, sure to be home to
some great bargains for the suitcase home. The city has good
parklands downtown with an attractively landscaped main street.
It's not our job to rehabilitate Ploieşti for tourists, but we can't
help but notice the excellent museums, facilities and transport in
Romania's ninth-largest city!
If you have some information for us about Ploieşti or County Prahova,
please
Let us know about it now!
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Much like Houston in Texas, Ploieşti is a town of hidden treasures
which lift the cultural, architectural and natural profile of the town
well beyond that of "just an oil town".
Similar to Houston, Ploieşti benefits from being on major trade
routes, and has developed as a strong cultural, scientific and
educational center.
With several rather unique museums (see below), artistic
isnstitutions and monuments, Ploieşti has a some good restaurants and
hotels, and makes a reasonable base if you are sampling the Prahovan
foothills and mountains. Benefitting from being a bit
closer than Bucureşti, you can spend a day in Sinaia, Buşteni, Cheia or
even Târgovişte and return to Ploieşti ready for the next day's
exploration.
Inscribed with "The Constution and the Electoral Law", and
"Defenders of Public Liberty", the Romanian Statue of Liberty was
inaugurated soon after the 1878 wars with the Ottoman Empire ended and
Romania gained Dobrogea.
Rendered first in sketches by architect Toma Socolescu the statue
was cast in galvanized bronze, with a height of 3.5m on a marble
pedestal. The statue actually represents the Greek Goddess of Wisdom,
Minerva, who holds a spear in her right hand, and the Romanian
constitution in her left hand.
The pedestal of the statue is 4m high and it has four front parts
with bronze placques with various incriptions from it's inauguration day
on June 21st, 1881. The "Romanul" newspaper described that day:
- "On Sunday, June 21st, Ploiesti city displayed an unusual view:
there was joy and movement everywhere, and all kinds of people
dressed in fancy clothes going to Unirii Square. At 9 o'clock
in the morning, the square was full, the windows and the balconies
from the houses were full of women and even the roofs were covered
by men.
- "All these people were eagerly waiting the inauguration of the
statue of Liberty, which was offered to the citizens of Ploiesti by
contributions made all over the country for the courage and
abnegation that knew to deposit once with the elections from 1869
for defending the public liberties. "
Today, Ploieşti's Statue of Liberty is worth a few photos --
certainly an ironic monument for visitors from New York at least!
Ethnography
Museum
Folk Traditions of Prahova
The Ethnography Museum in Ploieşti has some fine displays of the
local peasantry's local wares, costumes, farming implements and mock-ups
of cottages and life on the land.
If you're a fan of some rather interesting textiles and traditional
clothing, this is the place for you to spend a morning, in what is
actually one of the better put-together museums of this time, which can
generally be found in most county seats like Ploieşti.
In 1993, the county of Prahova was gifted the house of it's most
famous musical composers by the Constantinescu family, for the house to
become a museum commemorating his life, and his love, his music.
Opened on the 30th anniversary of the death of this prolific
Romanian composer, the museum works well as a historic and architectural
monument. It displays the an extensive collection of books,
furniture and documents relating to the composer Paul Constantinescu's
life and work.
Born in 1909 to a family of intellectuals, the composer grew up in
Ploieşti and wrote symphonies, vocal-symphony works, music for the
theatre and film, choral music, chamber music, and piano and vocal
music.
15 Nicolae Bălcescu St., 9am - 5pm, Closed
Mondays. +40 (244) 522 914
The citizens of Ploieşti are indeed proud of their poet son Nichita
Stănescu, dedicating a festival, library, high school, and memorial
house to their shining light of local literature.
The international poetry festival and award ceremony is held
annually in Ploieşti, the culmination of other festivals nationwide.
Portions of the festival are also held across other towns in
Romania, from Sighetu Marmeţei up in Maramureş, down to Drobeta
Turnu-Severin in Oltenia, and across to Bârlad in Moldova.
There's a highschool named after him, and in addition to the annual
festival, the library in 16 December Square archives and a great bust
opposite commemorates the work of this home-grown author and poet.
The Nicolae Iorga County Library in Ploieşti has a dedicated section to
the poet.
The Nichita Stănescu Memorial House, where the poet was born, was
first nationalised under the communists, then sold, and the Memorial
Society run by his surviving relatives managed to get it back again in
1998 and transferred to the local county administration's
History and Archaeology Museum
(see below)
Visitors to the house and surroundings will see what was so
eloquently described in Nichita's poetry, starting with the the
childhood and adolescance of the unqualled poet. Worth a look ar
the hosue library, various furniture of the period, some great old
photographs, tableaux, films and other materials preserved and presented
with care. Nichita's old high school friend and fellow poet,
Nelu Popa, mounted a commemorative placque in honour of his old mate.
Interestingly enough, the County Prahova Natural Sciences museum is
split between seven branch locations both in Ploieşti; up the Prahova
River valley at Sinaia; Bucov;
in central and northern Prahova at Slanic, Vălenii de Munte, Plopeni;
and up in the Cuicaş mountains at Cheia near the Transilvanian border.
Dutifully stored and catalogued under the museums auspices are
warehouses full of important articles used for regular displays
throughout the museum branches. It also hosts four laboratories, a
specialty library, in addition to the stalwarts of museology, research
and restoration, the archives, technical office, administration, art
room, and the various building services.
As part of the County Prahova Museum, the Ploieşti aquarium bats
above it's weight, offering far better exhibits than you might assume
for Romania's 9th-largest city.
The aquarium is housed in the Cultural Palace with 70 professionally
mounted displays maintained by the aquarium's passionate staff.
Over 65 species from all corners of the globe are represented with over
a thousand rare fish, tropical displays, with over 30 types of turtles,
tortoises, and 20 types of geckos and skinks. .
The aquarium is pretty well done, and if you've just come in from a
cool spring morning, it's actually a little bizarre to be thrust into
the warm and humid atmosphere in the Ploieşti aquarium. Weekends
can largely avoid the school groups which find the aquarium quite
popular during the school year (September - May).
At the Cultural Palace, 1 Hero Cătălin Calin St.,
9am - 5pm, Closed Mondays. +40 (244) 597 896
The
Art Museum of Ploieşti City
This stately addition to Ploieşti's museum scene comes out of
the old 1931 Picture Gallery by prominent townsfolk in
the "Nicolae Iorga" Cultural Establishment.
Ploieşti's art museum had it's incept in a very patriotic program
between the world wars to nationalise the newly stitched-together
Romania, from Transilvania to Dobrogea, Moldova to Oltenia, as national
pride swelled in the Greater Romania. This was a pretty good
time to start an art gallery, because this nationalistic fervour caused
alot of pretty good impressionist and other art to be done, and
subesquently hung in these new galleries littered across major towns and
cities.
Half of the good stuff was evacuated up to Sinaia during the Second
World War, and the other half disappeared into Nazi archives for a
while. It was patched back together in the early communist years,
and enriched in the late 1960s with additional works and in 1969, was
moved to it's present location. You'll note that the street
itself is full of interbellum delights of architecture, mixed with
facades from the late 19th century.
The building itself is adorned with balconies, a high roof, stucco
friezes around the windows, French-style chimneys, with decorative
motifs in wrought iron on the building and matching the gates.
Inside, the three levels are accessed by two white marble stairways
going from the courtyard to the main lobby and then up to the first floor. The interior decorations are in the
Neobaroque style, with columns and capitals signed by the Italian master
craftsmen who installed them. The stairs are bracketed by bronze sculptures
with lighting fixutres by great French sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse. A
rather splending skylight above floods the upper lobby with it's glow.
From the Rest Romania Website at
The main collection offers a nice sampling of the European genres, styles
and influences on Romanian painting over the previous two centuries. Almost none of the important
painters are missing from this collection, which generally spans the early 19th century to the latest
works of the 20th century.
You will not go away disappointed, with some good represnetations
from 19th Century artists, including Theordor Aman, and Nicolae
Grigorescu's Seascape and Peasant Girl's Head catching the lion's share
of attention. Ion Andreescu's the Geranium Flowerpot is charming
and memorable, as is his Fair in Buzău, all great introductions to
understanding the sophistication and depth of Romanian 19th century
artists.
We have some more
photos coming here soon!
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The Ploieşti Art Museum
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The Clock Museum
It's actually sort of fun just to walk around outside this
museum, sited in the first Cultural Palace
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The Ploieşti Cathedral
Rather splendid depictions of biblical scenes line the main
tower interior in Ploieşti
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The Marriage Hall in Ploieşti
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Brebu landscapes and a Ştefan Luchian self-portrait from Paris close
the 19th Century and lead the avid visitor into the mid 20th Century
"meat and potatoes" of the collection, and you're presented with all the
Theodor Pallady, Nicolae Tonitza (his tracing paper art with
Dobrogean motifs are
fabulous) , and Iofis Iser you could want.
Contemporary artists from the early 1900s include Corneliu Baba, Alexandru Ciucurencu, Ion
Ţuculescu, Ion Pacea, and leading into the late 20th Century, Georgeta Năpăruş, Constantin Piliuţă, Ion Sălişteanu, Vasile
Celmare, Vasile Grigore, Marius Cilievici, and Ion Biţan
amongst many more. The collection runs room after room, so DO plan
on taking a lively pace if you have any hope on seeing all of it before
lunch or dinner time comes!
Contemporary ceramics and glass are nicely represented, including
some lovely glass icons from the 1800s. Fans of modern Romanian tapestries
will not go away unrequited.
If you're heading up to Sinaia and enjoy this collection, do stop in
at the Nicolae Grigorescu Memorial House in
Câmpina on the way. The Ploieşti museum also runs this little gem
in the country town where Grigorescu did some of his work.
1 Independance Blvd., 10am - 6pm, Closed
Mondays. +40 (244) 522 914
We're leaving this one for last on the list, because it's not going
to be a first-stop for many, as clocks may well not sound like the most
interesting thing for you to spend a morning with, but once you're in
the door, this absolute gem of a museum is sure to fascinate.
The Nicolae Simarche Clock Museum opened in 1963, and was rather
grandly placed in the Palace of Culture. is a unique museum
in Romania, it offers the visitors the opportunity to follow the
evolution of the time measuring devices from the first "clocks"-sun
dials, burning clocks, clocks with water or sand to the "ancient"
mechanical clocks and the modern ones.
Industrial and institutional accomplishments were many times the
high points of communist Romania, and Ploieşti’s Clock Museum is one of
the better examples of this.
Opening its doors in 1963, the Clock
Museum (Muzeul Ceasului) lucked out in being placed in one of the
Cultural Palace halls.
It’s now
named after the founder and first manager, Professor Nicolae
Simache. The local conservative politician Luca Lefterescu built
today’s hall in the late 1800s, and it's a wonder of the neo-Gothic
influence popular in the day.
Time, of the Essence
The museum is quite serious about its title, and dutifully starts
out with some of the earliest time-keeping and reckoning methods, from
burning clocks, water clocks and of course, sundials and versions of
today’s egg-timers, using sand to measure time’s fleeting passage.
The elaborate engraved bronze pendulums remind the view how
difficult it was to get accurate timekeeping devices in the early days,
and the earliest proper clock in the museum, from 1562, even sports
astronomy dials.
The
“meat” of the collection, and worth the most photos (you may need to pay
a little extra for photography), extends from the early 1700s to the
late 1800s, with clocks of all sorts of cabinets, veneers, inlay work,
and ornamented in the rococo, gothic and into 20th century styles.
Clocks made rather fantastically of porcelain from Sevres, clocks
with marble columns and some great Empire period clocks make you wonder
how these little marvels were ever collected, let alone managed to stay
in Romania.
"The Clock Paintings" collection features the Biedermeier style
through „Târgoveti la Salzburg" and "Tablou cu scena de bivuac", and
some grand sculpted cases feature flora and fauna motifs. A fair few
of the clocks make a range of noises too, from the cuckoo clocks to
those with quail, flutes, and one with some truly charming little
shepherd’s pipes players.
Whilst you may think all these works are from some other lands, even
sleepy Ploieşti managed to forge a pendulum in 1934, most likely made at
Ploieşti’s Vocational Arts College (Scoala de Arte şi Meserii).
Names in the collection include Zenith, Schaffhausen, Omega, Patek
Philippe across Swiss, French, German, English and American firms in the
19th and the 20th centuries. Distinguished by their beauty, are
jewelled clocks that belonged to the Romanian kings Carol I and Carol
II, and of Czar Alexander II.
The clock of the poet Vasile Alecsandri and the pendant clock of
Mihail Kogalniceanu's daughter, as well as the pieces that came from the
firms Genevieve Sandoz, Oudin and others.
Even more curiously, assembled at this museum are clocks from some
of Romania’s shining literary, artistic, royal and political life.
Clocks once owned by Constantin Brâncoveanu and Prince Alexandru
Ioan Cuza are on display, along with several other notable luminaries.
Music Like Clockwork!
Music boxes round out the almost-like-a-clock collection, along with
other similarly precise mechanical devices, such as a symphonion,
pianola, and mechanical pianos. On display is how the piano keyboards,
organ pipes, and range of other percussion instruments are worked by the
interior gears, levers and pulls.
Str. Nicolae Simache 1, Ploieşti (244) 142861,
Open Daily except Mondays
If you don't stop in, at least remember that Romania had the world's
first oil well, oil refinery and provided oil to light the streets of
Bucharest, the first European capital to have street lighting!
We should also remember that Ploieşti suffered greatly from razing
by the retreating Germans in both world wars, and low-level precision
bombing by the Americans, which although designed to minimise collateral
damage (meaning avoiding the deaths of civilians), it nonetheless
destroyed alot of the refinery areas.
The decision to build this museum happened during the Communist
years, coinciding with the 1957 centenary (centennial if you're
American) of the founding of the Romanian oil industry.
The building itself is listed as a historic monument, with the
collection growing from 800 artefacts in 1961 to over 8,000 by 1994.
The museum preserves documents, photography and items from the early
days of oil discovery and refinery in Romania, including geological
displays on ore deposits, the petrochemical refining process, and how
the oil came to light the streets of Bucharest, the first petrol-lit
city in 1859 on the planet.
The museum's well-written panels underscore the accomplishments of
Romanians such as the development of solvents by Lazăr Edeleanu, as well
as Romania's early contributions to the manufacture of parafin, oils,
and petrol. Geological maps and mineralogical samples round out the
collections, with a artworks, ceramics and a fair few busts of famous
petrochemical denizens of years past.
Catch streetcar 101 or busses 43 or 30 to get to the
Muzeul Naţional al Petrolului,
8 Bagdasar St, 9am-5pm, Closed Mondays +40 (244) 597 585
This museum is housed in a rather unmistakeable building, which
shouts "museum", and houses some important displays about wartime
Ploieşti, which due to it's refineries, was a focus of German attention
in 1916, 1918, and 1940 - 1944.
After a while, some tourists like you may well get curious about
just where the Romanian people came from, and how they developed.
The Ploieşti history museum covers this topic fairly well, starting with
the Gaeto-Dacian people which Romanians like to think of as their
direct ancestors (who inhabited the region of today's Romania before
wave after wave of Goths, Visigoths, Sarmatians, Alans, Vandals, Slavs,
Bulgars, Pechenegs, Cumans, and more swept through the Wallachian plains
time after time). See more below on
the site near Ploieşti.
Recent additions to the museum include a very well done section
(opened in 1997) on Romania's
legendary Michael the Brave (Mihai Viteazul), including documents
associating the town with the famous leader.
Footy boofheads will appreciate the sporting
section focusing on both Romanian and local sports memorabilia and
personalities. The sports section includes Olympic achievements of
Romania, and, rather predictably for any red-blooded Romanian sports
museum, a section on Romania's footballing (soccer) history.
Others will be more interested in the extensive coins collection and
medals collection, with the room dedicated to the writer I.A.
Bassarabescu, and a reasonable collection of rocks in the colourful
Lapidarium.
10 Toma Caragiu St, 9am-5pm, Closed Mondays
Old Târgşor, today a famous archaeological site, was the home to
the Princes of Wallachia. The monuments found there in excavations
have revealed inscriptions by the legendary figure Vlad Ţepeş (whose
devellish acts earned him the name "Dracula").
The Romanian Academy and the museum in Ploieşti have worked together
since the mid 1950s in the excavation, mapping and catalogueing of the
finds, which range between the Upper Palaeolithic to the late Middle
Ages.
The site itself is just 11km south of Ploieşti, and you can get off
at the Ploieşti south train station to catch a maxi-taxi going down that
way towards Strejnic if you need to, although this is probably better
done with a car and driver. The 17ha site really has something
for everyone, with the site offering insights to life in mediaeval
Romania.
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Listed below are some local agents who can help you with bookings and organize local tours in the Ploieşti area. Vanela Tour, Piata Mihai Viteazul, b-dul Republicii bl. 37 F-G parter in Ploieşti
  +40 (244) 517 576 FAX: +40 (244) 517576
+40 (244) 564728 FAX: +40 (244) 599753 +40 (244) 541460 FAX: +40 (244) 522243 +40 723038005 FAX: +40 (244) 167770 +40 (244) 529645 FAX: +40 (244) 529645 +40 (244) 595629 FAX: +40 (244) 595630 +40 (244) 518173 FAX: +40 (244) 518173 Passion, Piata Victoriei nr.3, bl.Unirea, parter in Ploieşti+40 (244) 515118 FAX: +40 (244) 515118 +40 (0) 244 /51.25.07; +40-(0)244/12.20.35 FAX: +40 (0) 244 /510.121,+40-(0)244/51.11.44 +40 (244) 517346 FAX: +40 (244) 513121 +40 (244) 593427 FAX: +40 (244) 592286 +40 (244) 546890 FAX: +40 (244) 522243 +40 (244) 517985 FAX: +40 (244) 517985    +40 (244) 407462 FAX: +40 (244) 407463
+40 (244) 514768 FAX: +40 (244) 407346 +40 (244) 596473 FAX: +40 (244) 596473 +40 (244) 196188 FAX: +40 (244) 514935 +40 (244) 124169 FAX: +40 (244) 124169 +40 (244) 517990 FAX: +40 (244) 517990 +40 (244) 515033 FAX: +40 (244) 516859 Elena Travel, P-ta Victoriei nr.4, bl. CC VEST, sc. C, et. 1, ap. 59 in Ploieşti +40 (244) 515701 FAX: +40 (244) 515701 +40 (244) 513397 FAX: +40 (244) 513397 +40 (244) 537708 FAX: +40 (244) 537708 Acces Tour, Str. C.D.Gherea nr.11, parter - Hotel Prahova in Ploieşti +40 (244) 546626 FAX: +40 (244) 407480 +40 (244) 522470 FAX: +40 (244) 522470 +40 (244) 542080
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See More Maps of Romania and
Ploieşti at
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Transportation
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Localities in the
Foothills of Prahova area:
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A Wintry Afternoon Downtown
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The Central Markets
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Above: Ploieşti's West Train Station
Whether you're just stopping off changing trains, or spending the night,
you'll benefit from Ploieşti's functional nodality, hub for train and road
alike.
Rail lines and roads fan out from Ploieşti in seven directions, making the
town decidedly easy to get to and to depart from.
Trains of Four Stations
Trains coming in from Bucharest arrive at either of the two main stations,
the West Station and the South Station. The North and East stations serve
more local trains in County Prahova.
Leaving Ploieşti, trains run north to
Sinaia,
Buşteni and
Braşov in
Transilvania from the West
train station (Gara de Vest). The West station also serves trains running
laterally west to Târgovişte in
County Dâmboviţa, and
south to Bucharest.
The Southern station (Gara de Sud) is closer into the centre, and handles
Moldova-bound trains
heading for Buzău and also the
line heading south-east to
Urziceni and Dobrogea
beyond. Maxi-taxis run frequently throughout the day between the two
stations if you need a transfer, although most itineraries coming from Bucharest
at least you can aim for the right station for your continuing journey without a
transfer.
If you've been inspired to heard into the north-central of
County Prahova for some
less touristy and more authentic times in the Carpathian foothils, the North
station serves local personal trains going north on two separate lines to the
towns of Slanic and Vălenii de Muntii.
Maxi-Taxis and Busses
In addition to the standard ranks alongside each of the train stations,
there are several informal depots for maxi-taxis downtown in Ploieşti along
Republic Street and Victory Square. The main bus route runs between the
West station and downtown.
If you are "roughing it" in Romania, and are travelling by Maxi-Taxi,
remember that a working knowledge of the language really is needed, although a
bit of map-pointing can be tolerated when you're just needing to know which one
goes to Braşov for example.
Dialling Ploieşti
All of the phone numbers in
Ploieşti start with (244) or (344), depending on whether
the service is through the old state-run operator RomTelecom, or
from one of the newer entrants into the market in Romania.
Dialling from outside Romania to anywhere in County Prahova,
you must
remove any leading zero from the county code portion of the phone
number, so that (0244) becomes (244). Dialling a mobile
number, or to a Zapp company service, you do the same, dropping the zero from the (07XX) part of
the number, to make it (7XX). Both landlines and mobiles
have 6 digits following the initial county code.
Online in the Oil Town
In the somewhat industrial Ploieşti, maybe
it's lucky that even one business is sharing it's bandwidth,
although this medical centre is not the most likely tourist
destination, with most preferring to be casual rather than casualty.
ProSmile
Medical Centre, 81A Bobălna
Street in Ploieşti
Try not to alarm anyone as you sit there with
your laptop and take-away latte.
+40
(722) 720 447
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Hotel Prahova Plazza, Strada Constantin Dobrogeanu Gherea 11 in PloieştiPlaced in Ploiesti, the hotel has a capacity of 250 accommodation seats, on 10 levels. 244 526850 Hotel Central, Strada Republicii 1 in PloieştiThe Central Hotel has a number of 154 rooms wich can host up to 285 persons. 244 526641 FAX: 244 526643 Pensiunea Star, Strada B. P. Hasdeu 1 in PloieştiThe pension is placed close to the centre of Ploiesti, 45 minutes away of The International Airport Henry Coanda. 244 407999 Pensiunea President, Strada Bobâlna 88 in PloieştiThe pension is very comfortable, at a high standard. 244 196375 Pensiunea La Rotaru, Strada Patriei 8 in PloieştiA pensions with quality services and friendly hosts. 244 194255 Pensiunea Hanul Gazarilor, Strada Mihai Bravu 45 in PloieştiA very beautiful pension, at european standards. 244 597577 Motel Petrom, DN1 Km 6 in PloieştiA welcome stopover wich may last even a few days. 244 516261 Complex Europa, Strada Strandului 61 in PloieştiThe complex is new, quality services and quiet area. 244 197336
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See also County Prahova
for accommodation in other nearby towns
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The area code for County Prahova is (244) or (344)
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Early Ploieşti History
The Church in Ploieşti
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Vlad Ţepeş Statue in Ploieşti
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The Petrom Building in Ploieşti
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The Non-Oil Type of Transport
Making a delivery on a Ploieşti back street
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Ploieşti Refineries Burning
Allied bombing runs out of northern Africa dropped low level
ordinance on the Nazi-controlled refineries
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Source: wikipedia
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Today we think of oil, but in the birth years of today's Romanian
republic, the Ploieşti are was known for it's abundant game and great
fishing.
The forests were very thick in the late 1500s when local princes
were united under the banner of Romania's greatest medieval leader,
Michael the Brave.
Michael the Brave (Mihai Viteazul) visited Ploieşti in 1599 with his
troops, having come down from Transilvania. Realising the
strategic location of Ploieşti on the main east-west trade routes and
the Teleajen route to the mountains, Prince Michael built courts here
and stationed troops.
So proud were the citizens of Ploieşti with their connection with
Michael the Brave, that they erected a great statue of the ruler last
century to celebrate 400 years since the town was founded.
It was unveiled on December 1st, 1997, on the occasion of
celebrating 400 years from the urban existence of Ploiesti city.
Mihai proudly rides his mount facing north towards Transilvania (he
was credited for first uniting Romania by joining Transilvania with
Wallachia and Moldova).
oil and the war years
In the mid-19th century, the Ploieşti region became the first
(with Petrolia in Ontario) place oil was refined, and soon after one of the most
important oil extraction and refinery sites in the world.
With the industrial revolution of the 19th century, Romanians, too,
became more interested in the systematic exploitation of oil. The city is also
remembered as the site of the Republic of Ploieşti, a short-lived 1870
revolt against the Romanian Monarchy.
The city was badly damaged by an earthquake in 1940, but managed to
become the main source of oil for Nazi Germany during World War II, when
Romania was allied to Germany.
In all the Nazi Occupation was responsible for Romania being forced
to supply over a third of all oil needed to run the German war machine.
Because of its distance from Allied
airfields, it escaped being attacked until Allied advances put it in range
in 1943: The United States Army Air Forces mounted Operation Tidal Wave on
August 1, attacking the refineries with a force of 177 B-24 Liberator
bombers.
Although this did inflict heavy damage on the ground, it came at
a high cost to the attacking force and much of the damage was soon
repaired. The Allies were finally able to mount sustained attacks from
April 1944 by using captured airbases in Italy, and the city was captured
by Soviet troops in August 1944.
American airmen who were shot down over Ploieşti in the low-level
bombing runs recuperated as guests of Romania's King Mihai at Sinaia.
The gentry and aristocrats from Ploieşti largely escaped up to their
summer homes, although in many cases they occupied the houses of friends
who had successfully fled Romania during the war years.
And many of these Ploieşteni ended up hosting Americans at their
dinner tables throughout the war, until prisoners were exchanged or sent
off to other camps throughout Nazi Romania.
Communist Ploieşti
Following the war, the new Communist regime nationalised the oil
industry, which had largely been privately owned, and made massive
investments in the oil and petroleum industry in a bid to modernise and
repair the war damage.
Ploieşti in the New Romania
After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Ploieşti has experienced rapid
economic growth due to major investments from foreign companies, including
Lukoil, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Interbrew and British American Tobacco.
Ploieşti is also a developed textile manufacturing center. Although oil
production in the region is constantly declining, there is still a
flourishing processing industry that includes four oil refineries linked
by pipelines to Bucharest, the Black Sea port of Constanţa and the Danube
port of Giurgiu.
Ploieşti is an important railway center linking Bucharest with
Transylvania and Moldavia. The public transport system of Ploieşti is run
by Regia Autonomă de Transport Ploieşti (RATP), and includes an extensive
network of buses, trolleybuses and trams. Ploieşti's distinctive yellow
bus fleet is one of the most modern in Southeastern Europe.
Ploieşti is Oil!
In 2007, Romania itself celebrated the 150th birth anniversary
of its oil industry, a long-standing tradition that has been very
profitable for Romanian economy. For a long time, in fact, the oil
industry was the most important industrial branch in Romania.
The first refinery was built in 1857 in Ploiesti, 60 km north of
Bucharest, a town which is the very point of reference in the history of
oil industry in this country. The year 1857 is when this industry was
first developed, Romania being the first country in the world with a
crude oil output officially recorded in international statistics, namely
275 tonnes.
County Prahova is the best-known area in terms of the oil industry,
where oil has been extracted ever since the ancient times. To mark the
100th year anniversary of the Romanian oil industry in 1957, the
authorities set up an Oil Museum in Ploiesti (see
above).
On October 8th 1961 the National Oil Museum, the only one of its
kind in the country and among the few in the world was officially
opened. Gabriela Tanasescu, the director of the National Oil Museum in
Ploiesti knows more about the history of the Romanian oil industry:
“People knew about oil in the Antiquity, as shown by archaeological
evidence, and later also by written records.
Early Oil in Wallachia
The first documents hinting at the existence of fuel oil on today’s
territory of Romania do not tell us just how oil was extracted or
what it was used for. Fuel oil is only mentioned in passing, as a mere
topographic detail.
The first document from the Romanian historical province of Moldavia
is dated October 4th 1440, while the first records mentioning oil from
Wallachia is dated 1517. Archaeologically speaking, I would like to
mention the Roman mugs with pieces of pitch dating back to the turn of
the 3rd century, and the fragments of bitumen dating back to the 5th and
6th centuries.”
The means of exploitation developed during field research and
prospecting. Gabriela Tanasescu explains. “In the beginning, crude oil
exploitation simply meant collection from the shallow pits and ditches
in the outcrops of the Sub-Carpathian area. The technique involved
digging small holes into the ground, where fuel oil was collected, while
the crude oil was channelled through ditches towards a collecting pit.
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Where Oil is King: The LukOil Station on
Ploieşti's Bypass
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An Oil Field Near Ploieşti
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The publication called The Science
of Petroleum confirms that Romania was the first country in the world to
have had its own production officially registered. The US did the same
thing in 1859, followed by Italy in 1860, Canada in 1862 and Russia in 1863.
The first oil processing installations in Romania are those in
Lucăceşti-Bacău, built in the 1840s, which were nothing more than simple
manual workshops where the method for oil refining was the same used by
farmers to refine their home-made brandy. Industrial distillation was a
technology first used by a refinery built by the Mehedinteanu brothers,
on the outskirts of Ploiesti, in southern Romania.
The visiting public can see everything in the
Oil Museum from drilling hoists,
dredges, hydraulic preventers, some of which are 100 years old, geologic
maps and rare photographs.
The oldest exhibit , the only one of its kind
in Romania, is a bailing drum dating back to 1870. “Petroleum”, a book
written by Cucu Starostescu in 1881 is the first specialised book on oil
to have been published in the world. The first mechanical drill dates
back to 1861. In Romania, we can only speak about oil industry using
mechanical equipment starting with 1870.
Romanian Oil Pioneers
Names of leading scientists such as Gregoriu Stefanescu, Grigore
Cobalcescu, Ludovic Mrazek, Valeriu Patriciu, Ion Tanasescu, Virgiliu
Tacit, Ion Bazgan and Andrei Dragulanescu are linked to the history of
the oil industry.
Here is Gabriela Tanasescu again, speaking about the
contribution made by Romanians to the development of the world oil
industry. ”Ludovic Mrazek, for example, carried out an outstanding
geological activity in the field of oil exploitation. It was under his
guidance that the first geological map of Greater Romania was drawn in
1920. In 1912, engineer Virgiliu Tacit patented the blow-out preventer,
a remote-controlled valve with a piston, which can stand pressures of up
to 100 atmospheres.
The invention was then taken over by Germany, the
Austro-Hungarian empire and Mexico. A prominent figure in the domain of
oil processing was engineer Lazăr Edeleanu, who made an important
contribution to improving the quality of the Romanian lamp oil, using
the so-called liquid bio-sulphur selective method. His method was
patented in 1908 and afterwards was applied in all countries with an oil
processing industry.
Lazăr Edeleanu’s successful method as well as his entire scientific
activity brought him world recognition. In 1932, he was awarded the
Redwood medal, thus becoming the first foreigner to have received that
medal, the second one being Ludovic Mrazek.
Another Romanian who stood out in the domain of oil
exploitation is Ion Bazgan, the author of many inventions. He patented a
special method, first in Romania in 1934 and then in the US in 1934. The
method was meant to improve rotative drilling, starting from the
“sonicity” theory by another Romanian scientist, Gogu Constantinescu”.
Many social and professional changes in society are linked to the
oil industry. Between 1900 and 1940, Romania saw the emergence and fast
development of big factory centres following foreign investment. Those
economic transformations are still visible today, the Prahova county
still being one of the most industrially active areas in Romania.
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Read More about Ploieşti at:
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