Moineşti

Moineşti
—  Municipality  —
Moineşti City Hall
Moineşti Location of Moineşti
Coordinates: 46°26′0″N 26°29′0″E
Country	Romania
County	Bacău County
Status	Municipality
Government
• Mayor	Viorel Ilie (Conservative Party)
Area
• Total	46.04 km2 (17.78 sq mi)
Population (1999)
• Total	25,532
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Website	http://www.moinesti.ro/

Moineşti (Romanian pronunciation: [mojˈneʃtʲ]) is a city in Bacău County, Romania, with a population of 24,210 as of 2002. Its name is derived from the Romanian-language word moină, which means "fallow" or "light rain". Moineşti once had a large Jewish community; in Jewish contexts the name is often given as Mojnescht. The city administers one village, Găzărie.

History

First mentioned in 1467, the locality was listed among the Moldavian villages on the Bawer map of 1783. A târg was first attested in this location in 1832; it had 188 houses and 588 inhabitants.

In 1921, Moineşti was designated a comună urbană ("urban commune"), with its own coat of arms and local administration, but a step short of being considered a city. It became a municipality in 2002.

Economy

The area around Moineşti is rich in natural resources such as petroleum, natural gas, salt and timber. Between the years 1950s and 1980s Moineşti experienced a steady economic growth thanks to the large petroleum extracting industry. After 1990, however, following the nation-wide industry privatization Moineşti's economy changed dramatically, at some points reaching level of unemployment of over 200%

The DADA Monument

In 1996, honoring Tristan Tzara, the founder of Dadaism who was born in Moineşti, a monument was built on the side of the road that enters the town. It was created from concrete and steel by the German-Romanian sculptor Ingo Glass in the true Dada spirit and it is 25 meters long, 2,6 meters wide, 10 meters high and it weights 120 tons.

People

• Tristan Tzara, writer and founder of Dada
• Moses Rosen, Chief Rabbi of Romania from 1948 to 1994
• Hedi Enghelberg, writer
• Nestor Ratesh, Journalist, Head of Romanian Desk of Radio Free Europe 1989, 1994-2002