Ploiești
Ploieşti | |
---|---|
Country | Romania |
County | Prahova County |
Status | County seat |
Government | |
• Mayor | Andrei Volosevici (Democratic Liberal Party) |
Area | |
• City | 58.2 km2 (22.5 sq mi) |
Population (est. 2009)[1] | |
• City | 228,378 |
• Density | 3,924/km2 (10,160/sq mi) |
• Metro | 327,923 |
• Jan. 1, 2006 | 250,541 |
Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
Website | www.ploiesti.ro |
Ploieşti (Romanian pronunciation: [ploˈjeʃtʲ]; older spelling: Ploeşti) is the county seat of Prahova County and lies in the historical region of Wallachia, Romania. The city is located 56 km (35 mi) north of Bucharest.
According to the last Romanian census, from 2002, there were 232,527 people living within the city of Ploieşti, making it the 9th most populous city in Romania.
History
WWII refineries
(monthly metric tonnes):[2]
- Astra Romania (146,000)
- Colombia Aquila (45,000)
- Concordia Vega (110,000)
- Creditul Minier (45,000)
- Dacia Romana (15,000)
- Phoenix (65,000)
- Romana Americana (92,000)
- Standard Petrol Block[1] (36,000)
- Unirea Sperantza (33,000)
- Xenia (22,000)
The town was established in 1596, during the reign of Mihai Viteazul (Michael the Brave). It rapidly flourished as a center for trade and handicraft manufacturing in the 17th and 18th centuries. The road connecting Ploieşti to Braşov was opened in 1864, and the railway arrived in 1882. Many schools and hospitals were built around this time.
In the mid-19th century, the Ploieşti region was one of the world's leading oil extraction and refinery sites. The city is also remembered as the site of the self-styled Republic of Ploieşti, a short-lived 1870 revolt against the Romanian monarchy.
World War II
Although badly damaged after the November 1940 earthquake, the city was a significant1 source of oil for Nazi Germany. A target of the Oil Campaign of World War II, Ploieşti was attacked repeatedly, such as during the HALPRO raid, and Operation Tidal Wave. Ploieşti was captured by Soviet troops in August 1944.
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 the country and repair the war damage.
The world's first oil refinery opens at Ploiesti, Romania
World's first large refinery [3] opened at Ploieşti, in 1856-1857, with US investment. After being taken over by Nazi Germany, the Ploiesti refineries were bombed in Operation Tidal Wave by the Allies during the Oil Campaign of World War II.
Demographics
Census | Ethnic composition | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Population | Romanians | Hungarians | Germans | Serbs | Jews | Roma | Russians | Greeks | Ukrainians | |
1930 | 79,149 | 69,139 | 1,591 | 1,307 | |||||||
2002 | 232,527 | 225,570 | 237 | 148 | 8 | 65 | 5,873 | 56 | 108 | 15 |
Year | Population |
---|---|
1810 | 2,024 |
1837 | 3,000 |
1859 | 26,468 |
1884 | 32,000 |
1899 population census | 45,107 |
1912 population census | 56,460 |
1930 census | 77,341 |
1948 | 96,229 |
January 7, 1992 census | 252,715 |
March 18, 2002 census | 232,527 |
January 1, 2010 estimate | 228,378 |
The population of Ploieşti went from 56,460, as indicated by the December 1912 census returns, up to 252,715 in January 1992.
Since the fall of Communism, however, the city's population continues to gently fall due both to emigration and to a declining birth rate. At the 2002 census, the population reduced to 232,527.[4]
Ploieşti city 5,844 ha (14,440 acres) has become the nucleus of a metropolitan area which count 14 localities, adding around 100,000 new inhabitants to the administrative area.[citation needed]
For 2009, Ploieşti has an estimated population of 228,378, the 9th most populous city in Romania.[1]
Economy and transport
After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Ploieşti experienced rapid economic growth due to major investments from foreign companies. The city is situated at just 60 km north from Bucharest, with promising infrastructure projects currently underway. Ploieşti is a strong industrial center, focused especially on the oil production and refining industry. Although oil production in the region is declining steadily, there is still a thriving processing industry through four operating oil refineries, linked by pipelines to Bucharest, the Black Sea port of Constanţa and the Danube port of Giurgiu. Ploieşti is also a textile manufacturing center. Ploiesti concentrates many foreign investments: OMV-Petrom, Lukoil, Shell Gas, Timken, Yazaki, Coca Cola, Efes Pilsener, British American Tobacco, Interbrew. Many retailers like Carrefour, Metro, Selgros, Kaufland, Billa, Bricostore, Praktiker, Intermarche, Profi, Mega Image found in Ploieşti a continuously growing market. In Ploieşti can also be found two McDonald's restaurants, and only one KFC restaurant opened in 2006. The German retailer Tengelmann expects to have some 30 stores this year and has set itself a target of 120 stores by 2010, investing €200 million. To facilitate its growth, Tengelmann built a depot in Ploieşti. With its Interex operation, the French independent retailer Intermarché intends to become a distribution leader in the Balkans. In Romania the first Interex store was opened in June 2002 in the city of Ploieşti.
Unilever has a detergent plant in Ploieşti. By transferring their food production to Ploieşti, the company will concentrate their full activity in Romania to the same location. At the beginning of March 2006, Unilever announced they would invest EUR 3 million to build one production center in Romania, and the construction of the new food plant is part of this plan.[5]
At Ploiesti, as a milestone in the development of the petroleum, hydrocarbon processing and petrochemical industries as well as of their related fields, was established in 1950, S.C. IPIP SA, the Engineering and Design Institute for Oil Refineries and Petrochemical Plants, a Romanian company with a large range of capabilities and experience.
The city expands
This article possibly contains unsourced predictions, speculative material, or accounts of events that might not occur. Information must be verifiable and based on reliable published sources. |
The under-developed villages around Ploieşti will go through substantial changes, with derelict dwellings likely to transform into villas and whole agricultural plots nearby becoming new housing districts. With city prices currently reaching hundreds of euros per square meters in all major cities, these plots will be the only alternative in the near future for small investors aiming to be within commuting distance from city centers. Due to the relatively easy process required to obtain planning permission, virtually any plot of land in Romania can be transformed from agricultural to housing. As a result, any land bought in the vicinity of cities is likely to be part of a satellite village in 10–20 years time, with its value likely to increase accordingly. Prices already increased over the past few years and particularly over 2006 for all types of land, but, with current prices still as low as a few Euros per square meter for larger plots, this is yet another guaranteed investment that should be considered.
The city council has also developed a few projects in order to adapt Ploieşti to new economic requests. The projects refer to the housing sector as well as to business sector. Thus, the districts in southern Ploieşti (Mimiu, Bariera Bucureşti) will become available for sale. There is also a planned business district in the Hipodrom-Tatarani area which is expected to detract the infrastructural flow from the city centre.
The developing road infrastructure
Ploieşti is situated on the future highway Bucharest–Braşov, the main path towards the north and west provinces and the Western EU. The Henri Coandă International Airport is just at 45 km distance, and the ski resorts from Prahova Valley can be reached in one hour driving. The lack of motorways and well-built roads in Romania makes transport a challenge, but the situation will change. Rather slowly until now, with only one undergoing motorway and another one ready to start, hopefully faster in the near future, under the scrutiny of the EU, the motorway infrastructure will improve substantially over the next years. Why is this important for housing? Being next to a busy road will have a negative impact on the interest for a property, but being in the middle of nowhere does not make wonders for the price tag of a house, particularly for working couples. The ongoing motorway mentioned above has already had a strong positive impact on the prices nearby the big cities and this is likely to repeat when further motorways will appear on the map. Therefore, buying land in the vicinity of soon-to-start major road developments, either for housing or for industrial projects, is likely to be a very good investment.
Ploieşti is the second railway center in the country after Bucharest, linking Bucharest with Transylvania and Moldavia. The city's public transportation system is run by Regia Autonomă de Transport Ploieşti (RATP) and includes an extensive network ofbuses, trolleybuses and trams/streetcars. Ploieşti's distinct yellow bus fleet is one of the most modern in Southeastern Europe, provides connections to all areas within the city, for a daily average of 150,000 passengers. The municipal roads comprise over 800 streets with a total length of 324 km. East and West ring belts cannot prevent around 5,300 vehicles transiting Ploieşti each day. The municipal vehicle park comprised 216 buses, 32 trams and 25 trolleybuses carrying about 70 millions passengers annually. There are 33 bus lines having a total length of 415,46 km; two trolley-bus lines having a total length of 19,9 km and two tram lines having a total length of 23,8 km.
Culture and education
Ploieşti is home to the Oil & Gas University, Ploieşti Philharmonic Orchestra—one of the top-rated philharmonic orchestras in Romania and two prestigious football clubs in Liga 1, Astra and Petrolul.
There are many cultural and architectural monuments, including the Cultural Palace; the Clock Museum, featuring a collection of clocks and watches gathered by Nicolae Simache; the Oil Museum; the Art Museum of Ploieşti, donated by the Quintus family; and the Hagi Prodan Museum, dating to 1785: the property of a merchant named Ivan Hagi Prodan, it contains elements of old Romanian architecture and for a short time after World War I it hosted the first museum in Ploieşti, "Prahova's Museum".
Geography
The Teleajen River runs through the city.
Climate
The climate is similar to that of the nation's capital, Bucharest. According to the Köppen climate classification, the city falls within the temperate humid continental climate(Dfa) of the hot summer type.
Climate data for Ploieşti | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Source: Weather Channel |
Politics
The Ploieşti Municipal Council, elected in the 2008 local elections, is made up of 27 councillors, with the following party composition:
Twin Towns and Sister Cities
Ploieşti is twinned with:
Natives
- Sports: Octavian Belu, Leonard Doroftei,
- Architecture: Toma N. Socolescu (1848–1897), Ion N. Socolescu (1856–1924), Toma T. Socolescu (1883–1960).
- Politics: Take Ionescu, Ştefan Gheorghiu (trade unionist), Corneliu Mănescu, Remus Opriş
- Academia: Liviu Librescu, Nicolae Simache
- Literature: Ion Luca Caragiale, Nichita Stănescu
- Antreprenori: Bogdan Burghila - proxenet, posesor q7 (4.2 TDI)
- Liber profesionisti: Dinu Radu - deflorator profesionist - since the age of 12
Notes and references
- ^1 Sources provide differing estimates regarding Romanian production:
- 1942: The Axis Oil Position in Europe, November 1942 by the Hartley Committee estimated that "Romanian oil fields" contributed 33% of Axis supplies.[7]
- 1944: "Ploesti, thirty-five miles from Bucharest, supplied one-third of all the oil fuel Germany required for war purposes."[8]
- 1999: The fragile, concentrated Bucharest facilities provided "60% of Germany's crude oil supply"[9]
- ^ a b "Largest cities in Romania" (in Romanian). Agerpres. February 2, 2010. Retrieved June 13, 2010.
- ^ "U.S. Air Force photo" [sic] [diagram] in Gurney, Gene (Major, USAF) (1962). "The War in the Air: a pictorial history of World War II Air Forces in combat" (Document). New York: Bonanza Books. p. 121.
{{cite document}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "WORLD EVENTS: 1844-1856". PBS.org. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
world's first oil refinery
- ^ 2002 Census
- ^ Bucharest Business Week, Unilever builds factory in Ploiesti, March 10, 2006
- ^ "Radom Official Website - Partner Cities". (in English and Polish) © 2007 Urząd Miasta Radom. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
- ^
US Secretary (January 1943). Casablanca Conference: Papers and Minutes of Meetings. Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library; COMBINED CHIEFS OF STAFF: Conference proceedings, 1941–1945; Box 1: Office of the Combined Chiefs of Staff. pp. 40–43, 88, 256.
Brehon Somervell[inside front cover] … DECLASSIFIED … 10/29/73 … U.S. SECRET … BRITISH MOST SECRET … COPY NO. 32[inside back cover]
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ Turner, S.J., F. R. G. S -- maps (1944). Vol. 2 [September 3, 1941—August 15, 1943]. Wm. H. Wise & Co., Inc. p. 986.
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help); More than one of|pages=
and|page=
specified (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Modrovsky, Robert J. 1 August 1943 -- Today's Target is Ploesti: A Departure from Doctrine. p. 4.
{{cite book}}
:|access-date=
requires|url=
(help);|format=
requires|url=
(help); Check date values in:|accessdate=
(help); Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help)
External links
- Website of the town hall of Ploieşti
- Interactive map of Ploiesti
- RepublicaPloiesti.net is a site specializing in architectural history of the City of Ploiesti. It contains numerous photographs of the city taken between the beginning of the twentieth and 1945.
- Tramway in Ploieşti
- Map of Ploiești with route planning, points of interest, public transport