Târgoviște

The oldest part of Târgoviște grew up where the Stelea and St Nicholas churches now stand, and Saxon colonists from Transylvania founded a second quarter around the Catholic church of St Mary, which local tradition dates to 1300. Its name comes from the Slavonic word for a marketplace. Under Mircea the Elder it became a princely seat, and in 1431 Alexandru Aldea moved the court here for good from Curtea de Argeș; it remained the capital, with interruptions, until the court moved to Bucharest under Constantin Brâncoveanu.

As capital it traded with Poland, Brașov and Sibiu and suffered repeated attacks: Bayezid I burned it in 1395, and in 1462 Vlad III held off the Ottoman army with his night attack outside the city. Vlad also punished the town's elite for the murder of his brother, killing many and sending the young to build his fortress at Poenari, and he added the Chindia Tower to the court. Stephen Báthory took the city in 1476, and in 1597 Michael the Brave's forces won a decisive battle here against the Ottomans. Matei Basarab strengthened the walls with ten bastions, and Brâncoveanu rebuilt the palace in 1695.

Once the capital had gone, the town declined. In 1821 Tudor Vladimirescu was tortured and executed here during the Wallachian uprising. A railway arrived in 1884, industry followed in the 20th century, and on 25 December 1989 Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were tried and shot in a military barracks in the city; in 2025 the unit opened to the public as the Museum of Military Tradition.

Târgoviște's sense of itself is bound up with its centuries as a capital. The Chindia Tower is the symbol of the city, the princely court is run as a national museum, and the city has a cluster of museums for a place its size: history, art, the police, printing and old books, local writers, and the houses of the painters Gheorghe Petrașcu and Vasile Blendea.

Vlad the Impaler is the dominant historical figure. The city's churches span five centuries, from the Little Princely Church of St Vineri to the Brâncovenesc St George of 1699, and the Dealu Monastery outside the city is the burial place of several princes, including Vlad II Dracul and Radu the Great. The city's Saxon and Greek merchants have long since gone, but the Catholic church of St Mary and the monasteries where Greek monks once settled recall them.

Sport and youth culture have a local edge. The football club FC Chindia Târgoviște shares its name with the tower, the city has a professional basketball team, and a skateboarding, blading and graffiti scene gathers on Tricolorului Square, known locally as "Sindicate", where its crew organises the Târgoviște Underground Manifest festival.

The 2021 census counted about 67,000 people, making Târgoviște the 27th-largest city in Romania and the seat of Dâmbovița County; the city also administers the village of Priseaca. The city sits at 260–300 metres between the Dâmbovița and Ialomița rivers, at the edge of the Subcarpathian hills that rise towards the Bucegi.

Industry is the backbone of the economy: large operators such as the steelmakers Mechel and Oțelinox have plants served by the city's own railway halts, and the five stations and halts around the town also carry passengers. Valahia University of Târgoviște brings students to the city, and Bucharest is 80 km away by road and rail. According to the 2002 census, about 97 per cent of the inhabitants were Romanians and about 3 per cent Roma.

Daily life is quiet and provincial. Buses and maxi-taxis link the apartment districts with the centre, after a public-private partnership modernised the network in 2005, and the old court, the churches and the shops of the centre remain the focus of town life.

Târgoviște eats the Muntenian staples. Ciorbă, sour soup, begins many meals; sarmale are minced meat and rice rolled in cabbage leaves; mămăligă, firm cornmeal polenta, comes with cheese, sour cream or a fried egg; and mici, grilled sausages of mixed minced beef, lamb and pork seasoned with garlic and thyme, are served with mustard. Ciorbă de burtă, tripe soup thickened with sour cream and egg yolks and sharpened with vinegar and garlic, is a Romanian classic.

Bakeries sell covrigi, salted bread rings sprinkled with poppy seeds, sesame or coarse salt, and plăcintă pastries filled with cheese or apple. For dessert, papanași are fresh-cheese doughnuts topped with sour cream and fruit preserve, and cozonac, a rich sweet bread rolled with walnuts or poppy seeds, is traditionally baked for Easter.

Țuică, a brandy made from plums, is usually drunk in a small glass before a meal. Wine comes from the Dealu Mare area of neighbouring Prahova and Buzău counties.