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The Tulip Town of Romania!

So many tourists, Romanian and American alike, make the sad mistake of just driving through Piteşti on their ways to Sibiu, Braşov or Bucureşti.

Despite it's past since 1966 as the home of the national car, you'll find gorgeous pedestrianised malls in downtown Piteşti with delightful squares and great shopping, and home to the famous Tulip Festival.  

Nestled a valley on the right bank of the Argeş river, the clubs, restaurants, cafes and hotels of downtown Piteşti make this proud capital of County Argeş a great base for exploring the surrounding area.

Piteşti fulfils it's role as a market town each weekend, as the surrounding townsfolk and villagers flock to the regional centre to bring their wares and foodstuffs to market, with the annual tulip festival the highlight of the holiday calendar.

Piteşti's sister city in America is Springfield, Ohio!

 It's All Downtown!

Almost all of the sights of tourist interest are within a block or two of the central Piaţa Muntenia, just off the main shopping mall of Strada Victoriei (blocked off to traffic for about 3 blocks downtown).

The County Museum, Prince's Church, 1907 Peasant Uprising Monument and many main-line hotels, restaurants, pubs and cafes are around Piaţa Muntenia, as well as the main train ticketing office, banks, and internet and phone services.

Drink Up!

The city is surrounded by hills, being the center of an area rich in wineries and plum orchards. The latter give one of the finest Romanian ţuicas:  Ţuica de Piteşti.

 The Ştefăneşti winery, situated on the opposite bank of the Argeş River, is one of the best known in Romania.

 Road and Rail

If you arrive in Romania in Bucharest as most do, take advantage of Romania's longest stretch of freeway, and hire a rental car for a few days and drive the from Bucharest, about an hour on the all four-lane restricted access freeway.

Your car can also allow you to travel into the mountains beyond the rail lines to Lake Vidraru and north to the Făgăraş mountains, or even do a circuit around the Făgăraş mountains, from Curtea de Argeş to Bran, Braşov, Sibiu, and back!

Train buffs will enjoy the rail yards in nearby Goleşti, with extensive rail yards and the junction of several important rail lines.

The city is surrounded by hills, being the center of an area rich in wineries and plum orchards. The latter give one of the finest Romanian ţuicas: ţuica de Piteşti. The Ştefăneşti winery, situated on the opposite bank of the Argeş River, is one of the best known in Romania.

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Saint George's Church This graceful church is surrounded by a little park area along the main pedestrian street

The Trivale Hermitage A pleasingly grand entry portal to the Church grounds at Trivale

Photo:  Govt of Romania

The County Argeş Museum Artillery Cannon poised outside the building which saw wartime duty as headquarters during WWII

The photo immediately preceding this notice is Copyright (c)2005 - 2008 Rest Romania SRL, All rights reserved. Photo: © REST ROMÂNIA

The Annual Tulip Festival Definitely schedule a visit to Piteşti if you are in Romania in April!

Photo:  Govt of Romania

The 1907 Peasant Uprising Bloody days indeed, here symbolised by the blood-red tulips around the monument to the brave villagers who took part in the revolt.

Photo:  Govt of Romania

The Church of St. Friday Originally constructed in 1827, Saint Friday's church was rebuilt in 1912 as a special project of local architect Ioan N. Socolescu.  Today, the church makes an ethereal visage in any light, worth the walk to get some photos with this great edifice!

Downtown Piteşti

Church of Saint George (1656)

Built by Constantin Şerban and his wife Bălasa in the mid 17th century, this stoic looking little church towards the southern end of the pedestrianised Strada Victoriei looms solidly over passers-by. 

As a tourist, you should probably observe a few basic niceties whilst entering and exiting a church.  România is not exactly a multi-cultural country as found in most English-speaking lands, and whilst you're not really pretending to be Orthodox or particularly devout, there are a few customary church habits which are almost more social than religious, despite the reasons behind the movements.

So, perhaps crossing yourself at the threshold  is a personal choice (the Orthodox go from right to left on the final movement).   And testing your balancing skills on the way out can be a bit of fun too, as you walk backwards out of the church, again crossing yourself as you go down the threshold, and often, tripping backwards down the inevitable steps.

Whether you choose to observe these basic points of common social etiquette or not, most churches are open to the public with or without your compliance to local customs.

The Trivale Hermitage and Park (1674)

The Trivale quarter to the south-west of the main downtown area of Piteşti boasts verdant parkland, a small zoo, and the grand Trivale Hermitage complex with grand portal, church, monastery dormitory, and grounds.

Even during the autumn months, a stroll down the fairly grand parade lined with tall oak trees is a spectacular sight, and in spring, of course the inevitable tulips appear everywhere.

At str. Trivale, nr. 71, Pitesti

Church of Saint Friday (1827)

With a great little garden courtyard, brimming with flowers and well-maintained plantings, the Church of Saint Friday is a delight in the spring and summer months.

This shimmering silver and white example of early 20th century architecture (it was largely re-made in 1912), looks like it would be more at home on a wedding cake than in the middle of a city park!

The Town Hall (1933)

Built during the "Golden Age" of Romanian culture and society, the Piteşti town hall is a testament to it's age.

The County Argeş Museum

The County museum in Argeş is just a block south of the main square at Piaţa Muntenia.  Certainly worth including on your downtown Piteşti tour, this culture and history museum does it's best to highlight all things Argeşean as well as local history.

Like many of the buildings in downtown Piteşti, you may notice there are perhaps fewer "old-old" building than in other Romanian towns.  The County Argeş is fine example of the style of building common in the early 1900s after a series of earthquakes (the Wallachian plains are prone to these) levelled much of the town. 

The series of collections at this museum include a reasonable natural history section, but it's main interest will be to those interested in the regional crafts and methods of production at the local vineyards and orchards.  If you're heading north later, the museum at Curtea de Argeş offers a similar array of local treasures and finds.

Like most of Romania's modern museums, the museologists here rather roundly ignore the Communist era.  You'll find that here, as with most, history ends around WWII for Romanians.

Across the street is a monument to the 1907 Peasant uprising, and if you come around April or May, it's surrounded by blood-red tulips, a rather poignant and fitting tribute to the blood spilt in those terrible years for the local villagers, who's successors still tend the same plots today in the surrounding countryside. 

Str. Călinescu 4, Open Daily Except Mondays, 10am - 6pm.  Admission 1RON

The Art of Piteşti

Sometimes the collections of great masters can be hard to come by for cities like Piteşti.  The solution?  Taking art back to the people with the Naive Art Gallery, one of the finest collections of the exhilaratingly refreshing style of local artisans.

Of course, on the more serious side of the art game, Piteşti does enjoy a certain stature as home to some great works of sculpture by George Călineşti and other notable locals.

The April Symphony of Tulips

Each year during springtime, Piteşti is host to Simfonia lalelelor (the Tulip Festival).

The Tulip Symphony is not only a symbol of Pitesti for 27 years now, it is also a true mass phenomenon. Organized by the Pitesti City Hall, “The Symphony”, as it is called, attracts thousands from all over Romania, and increasingly, the rest of Europe. 

Located in the Exhibition Hall of Casa Cărţii, the three levels of the Exhibition Hall are decorated with different indigenous seasonal and exotic flowers,  garden dioramas, paintings and different handicrafts, all inspired from the world flowers, tulips or otherwise.

Romania's Car:  The Dacia

In 2002 Renault bought out Romania's iconic Dacia car company, both modernising and strengthen the brand exported to over a dozen countries from Europe, Middle East and Asia.

This added a hopeful and western-facing attitude to Piteşti, with factory modernisation and the security of a "big brother" backing the manufacturer's operations. 

The introduction of the new model Dacia Logan in 2004 and subsequent good sales levels have further cemented the future of Piteşti as a home to world-class standards of quality in the automotive field.

In mid 2006, the 250,000th Logan rolled out of the Dacia plant in Pitesti, the main production site for Logan. 

Also produced in Russia, Colombia and Morocco, production of Logan will be launched in Iran this year and in India and Brazil in 2007.

The Logan plant in Piteşti supplies 35 of the 42 countries in which Logan is sold, i.e. all European markets, together with Turkey, Algeria, the Ukraine, Middle East and Central Africa.

The modern, reliable and roomy car has attracted customers the world over and some 267,000 Logans were sold between September 2004 and May 2006.

It is proving highly popular in countries in which it is marketed, in particular Western Europe, where it was launched in eight countries, including France, in the spring of 2005.

Logan sales worldwide break down into 56% in Western Europe, including Romania, 20% elsewhere in Europe (26 countries), 10% in Russia/CIS, 5% in Turkey, 5% in the Maghreb countries and 4% in the rest of the world (mostly Americas, Asia, and Africa).

Western Argeş

Localities in the Western Argeş Foothills Around Piteşti: Bascov -  Băbana -  Budeasa -  Budeasa Mare -  Ciocăneşti -  Ciomăgeşti -  Cocu -  Cotmeana -  Cuca -  Drăganu -  Drăganu-Olteni -  Enculeşti -  Fagetu - Goleşti -  Mărăcineni -  Merişani -  Morăreşti -  Moşoaia -  Poiana Lacului -  Răchiţele de Jos -  Răduţesti -  Ştefăneşti -  Ştefăneşti Noi -  Uda -  Valea Mare-Podgoria -  Văleni-Podgoria -  Vedea -  Vieroşi -  Viişoara

The Monasteries of Piteşti The foothills and plains around Piteşti are dotted with monasteries and major churches

A Roadside Plum Tree The corcoduş plum tree, great for making some good strong ţuică!

The photo immediately preceding this notice is Copyright (c)2005 - 2008 Rest Romania SRL, All rights reserved. Photo: © REST ROMÂNIA

The photo immediately preceding this notice is Copyright (c)2005 - 2008 Rest Romania SRL, All rights reserved. Photo: © REST ROMÂNIA

The Foothills Around Piteşti

Piteşti is surrounded to the north and west by low foothills and sloping river valleys, with the main road to Râmnicu-Vâlcea heading northwest.  

Western Argeş borders County Olt and the landscape immediately south of Piteşti turns into fertile alluvial plains from the multiple rivers and tributaries which flow out of the mountains to the north.

This makes the sloping plains ripe for plums and all manner of stone-fruit trees, which benefit from the solid winters and sunny early summers.

 Mioveni

Mioveni just to the north-east of Piteşti (population 34,000) has the Dacia plant and a Nuclear Research Institute, that builds components and materials for the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant on the Danube, and also a high security prison.    Read More Here

The Cotmeana Monastery

Just 32km northwest of Piteşti on the road to Râmnicu Vâlcea, the Cotmeana commune is comprised of the villages of Zâmfireşti, Negeşti, Buneşti and a handful of others, and features a great old monastery

So much of the region in this largely agrarian zone is spread with small monasteries and gorgeous old churches here and there, making it in some ways like the hill country of Tuscany!

 Stefăneşti and the Goleşti Museum

Founded in 1939 by decree of King Carol the Second, it was initially named the Dinicu Golescu Museum.   In 1966, it became the Goleşti Museum Complex with the inclusion of the Goleşti Feudal Assembly, and the wine and fruit-growing museums.

   The Golescu family were local rulers who strongly supported the various revolutions for independance throughout the 19th century.  The house at Stefaneşti was their summer country residence to escape the heat of the city. 

Similar to the open-air ASTRA museum in Sibiu, there is also an area behind the old house and the adjacent museum where buildings from around the region have been gathered.   You can stroll around traditional fruit-grower residences as well as the odd church or two.

The exhibits in the museum, and the general standard of decor throughout the old house are very good, and well worth an hour or two if you're near Piteşti at any point in your journey.

The Golesti Museum Complex in Stefanesti, open May to September, Daily except Mondays 9am - 5pm.  +40 (248) 266 364, cmgolesti@xnet.ro

The Children's Palace Refurbished in 1984, this early Communist era building marks an important stage in Romanian architecture, blending the traditional mountain style with modernist simplicity

Photo:  Govt of Romania

Str. Trivale nr. 80 in Piteşti.  +40 (248) 630752  E-Mail the Palace Here

The Sf. Mucenic Mina Church

Photo:  Govt of Romania

The Argeş Restaurant Following a neoclassical French School design.

Photo:  Govt of Romania

Early Piteşti History

The earliest traces of human settlements in this area relate to the Paleolithic. Piteşti itself was first mentioned on May 20th in 1386.

Piteşti was one of the temporary residences of Wallachian Princes. Due to its positioning on the junction of major European routes (and its proximity to the Saxon markets in Sibiu, Transylvania), the city had originally developed as an important commercial centre.

 Communist Era Piteşti

In the 1950s, the city gained an ill notoriety, when the communist authorities used the local detention facility to subject political detainees to the infamous "Re-education", in which violence between inmates was encouraged to the point of being mandatory.

The purpose of the experiment was to psychologically destroy the capacity for outside attachment and outside loyalty, thus creating the brainwashed New Man meant to suit a Leninist society.

The experiment was mercifully stopped after five years. Twenty-two inmate-participants were condemned with sixteen being condemned to death for the experiments in a 1953-54 trial.  A new trial in 1957 convicted certain members of the prison staff, who received light sentences. They were later pardoned.

Historical Churches

In the Middle Ages, Old Piteşti saw many churches built with a rather distinct architecture, with Buna Vestire-Greci “Sfantul Mina”, from the 14th century standing out as a fine example.

But the most popular medieval church in Piteşti is Biserica Domneasca “Sfantul Gheorghe”, built in 1656 by Prince Constantin Serban (1654-1658) and his wife, Lady Balasa, based on the foundation of an old dwelling.

The Church “Sfânta Treime”, formerly the hermitage Bestelei, was built between 1679 and 1684 on the place of an old wood church was reportedly built in 1628 by Voivode Alexandru Coconul (1632-1627).

Vaarlam, the bishop of Romania (1672-1679), rebuilt the Hermitage “Trivale” on the foundations of a previously existing monastery. 

The Prince of the first united Romania, Mihai Viteazul, who was passing through Piteşti in his way to the Hills Monastery is supposed to have spent the night here. 

In Gavana District, the Biserica “Meculesti” is worth a look, built by the nobleman Parvu Serban Lerescu, in 1752.

More centrally in the downtown area, the “Sfânta Vineri” church on the street of the same name has great architectural merit.  Designed by Ioan N. Socolescu (1856-1924), he completed his plans during his tenure as president of Romanian Architect Society.

The Architecture of piteşti

Fin de Siecle

With most buildings erected towards the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, they have a curiously uniform look with distinctive porticos and verandas, following the architectural trends of those decades.

On the streets of Crinului, Sfânta Vineri, Targul din Vale, Victoriei, Bulevardul Republicii, etc. there are even today edifices with a remarkable classic architecture (sometimes with notable elements from the French School) like: The Arges Restaurant on Victoria street, House of Aron Baiulescu in Targul din Vale (today - the place of U.A.P.-Arges), the School of Arts at Pitesti (formerly the Fostiropol residence).

In 1886 old town hall was erected, and the Art Museum went up with the support and input of Mihail Kogalniceanu, designed by architect Ioan N. Socolescu, who also did the St. Friday's Church project.

Between 1898 and 1899 the rather grand new Palace of Arges Prefect office was erected, which today serves as the Arges County Museum.  The “I. C. Bratianu” College was also built at the same time.

The Great War

The building started in 1910 for the Poplar Bank, with a French eclecticism architecture by Eracle Lazarescu, a former teacher of Architecture at Bucharest Academy.  The Poplar Bank was considered quite modern for it's time. 

Today on this site you can find the Modern Cinema and the House of Culture and Technology Club.   In 1914 construction finished on The Palace of Justice which between 1955 and 1996 housed the House of Culture.  It shares the neoclassic style, and on the others three sides it has the French eclecticism architectural style.

The Golden Age

Between 1934 and 1936, after the projects of architect Statie Ciortan, teacher at the Superior School of Architecture and president of Romanian Architects Society from 1929 to 1933, it was build in Pitesti, the building of Public Finance Administration, where, now is Pitesti City Hall.

Between 1925 and 1930 there were some private residences designed and built in the Traditional Romanian, designed by architect Dimitrie Ionescu-Berechet (the house of Nae Dumitrescu as well), and from 1930 until 1940, there were built many buildings in the Cubist style, chiefly by architect Eugen Ivanov.

Post-Modern

The Union Cultural House was inaugurated on 18th March 1971, made after architect Radu Mihaila's plans.

The Trivale Store was built in 1972, Arges Prefect's office was built in 1976 and The Design Institute in 1978.

The Exhibition Hall “Casa Cartii” –the main cultural residence- was inaugurated in 1989.

Starting with 2000 year, The State University from Pitesti has a new location in university campus in Targul din Vale.

Vasile Milea Square was inaugurated in 2000, like a part of the new down town.

In the same year, 2002, there were finished the works to the new residence of Arges District Library, after the projects of architects Maria and Alexandru Multescu.