Târgovişte

Târgovişte
	Târgovişte
	; Coat of arms
	; Coat of arms
	Location of Târgovişte
Coordinates: 44°55′27″N 25°27′24″E / 44.92417, 25.45667
	Government
- Mayor	Iulian Furcoiu (Social Democratic Party)
	Population (2002)
- Total	89,429
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
- Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
	Website: http://www.pmtgv.ro/

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For the Bulgarian city, see Targovishte.

Târgovişte (old spelling: Tîrgovişte; IPA: [tɨr.ˈgo.viʃ.te]) is a city in the Dâmboviţa county of Romania. It is situated on the right bank of the Ialomiţa River. As of 2003, it has an estimated population of 89,000.

[edit] History

First attested in 1396, in the Travel Accounts of Johannes Schiltberger, it became the capital of the Wallachian voivodship, probably during the reign of Mircea cel Bătrân, when the Royal Court ("Curtea Domnească") was built. Vlad III Dracula later added the Chindia Tower, now a symbol of the city.

In 1597 Mihai Viteazul fought and won a decisive battle against the Ottoman Empire in Târgovişte.

After Constantin Brâncoveanu moved the capital to Bucharest, Târgovişte lost its importance, decaying economically as its population decreased.

Târgovişte was the site of the trial and execution of Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife Elena in December 1989. Interestingly, there are towns with the same name (albeit with different spellings as they are written in our days in the Cyrillic alphabet) in both Bulgaria and Serbia. The Romanian and Bulgarian towns are twinned. The name is of Slavic origin, from the root -trg- or -tǎrg- ("trade") and the placename suffix -ište, and means "marketplace".