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Craiova in Romania

Tuesday, 9 December 2025 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union
Category/Kategorie: General Reading Time:  4 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Craiova is the largest city in southwestern Romania, the seventh largest city in the country and the capital of Dolj County, situated near the east bank of the river Jiu in central Oltenia.

It is a longstanding political center, and is located at approximately equal distances from the Southern Carpathians (north) and the River Danube (south). Craiova is the chief commercial city west of Bucharest and the most important city of Oltenia. The city prospered as a regional trading centre despite an earthquake in 1790, a plague in 1795, and a Turkish assault in 1802 during which it was burned.

In the first two decades of the 19th century, Craiova was characterized by economic growth and the increased presence of trade, commerce, and public services. Similarly to other large urban areas, Craiova became a commercial, administrative and cultural centre.

Starting in the 1960s the city became a powerful industrial center; it developed industry in machinery, tools, aircraft, chemicals, food, light industry, construction materials, electronics, extraction, and energy. The Romanian Revolution of 1989 led to important changes in the economy, with the introduction of a free market and decentralization of the management of all national economic sectors. In industry, an overall drop in production capacity was noted, caused by an inability to anticipate the impact of change and the economic shocks that followed the change of system. Nevertheless, industry continues to represent the largest sector of the city’s economy (70%).

Among the sights are:

• Madona Dudu Church – built between 1750 and 1756, renovated in 1844, after being destroyed by an 1831 earthquake. Murals were completed by Gheorghe Tattarescu.
• St. Demetrius Cathedral
• The Church of Coșuna Monastery – the oldest building preserved in Craiova, dating from 1483.
• Băniei House – the oldest non-religious building that exists in Craiova, dating from 1699. Today it hosts the Museum of Ethnography and Folk Art.
• Craiova Art Museum – the building that houses the museum was built in 1896, following the plans of the French architect Paul Gotereau. Its main attraction is the art gallery dedicated to Constantin Brâncuși, exhibiting six of his early sculptures (including variants of his best-known works)
• Museum of Oltenia – founded in 1915 and divided into three sections: ethnography, history and natural science. The collection is based on donations made in 1908.
• Nicolae Romanescu Park (formerly Bibescu Park) – the largest and most well-known park in Craiova. Through the initiative of Nicolae P. Romanescu, the mayor of Craiova at that time, the park was designed by French architect Émile Rendont. Plans for the park were awarded the gold medal at the 1900 World Fair; work began in 1901 and was completed in 1903.
• Botanical Garden – The garden was laid out by the botanist Alexandru Buia and was opened in 1952.
• Jiu River meadow

Read more on Wikivoyage Craiova and Wikipedia Craiova (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.

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