Târgu Jiu

The town takes its name from the river Jiu, which runs through it. A Dacian village stood among forests here in antiquity, and after the Roman conquest of Oltenia in 101–102 soldiers guarded the roads that met at this point on the route from the Danube into Transylvania. Mosaics, coins, ceramics and Roman bricks found when the railway to Rovinari was dug suggest that it was a small commercial settlement, a vicus, under Roman rule. In the 13th century the area belonged to the domain of the voivode Litovoi, who was killed fighting the Hungarians around 1277.

The town itself is first recorded in an order of Mircea the Elder dated 23 November 1406, addressed to Tismana Monastery, and it has been the seat of Gorj County since 1497. In 1916 its defenders held off the Central Powers on the Jiu for a time, and the National League of Gorj Women later commissioned Constantin Brâncuși, born in nearby Hobița, to make a memorial. He accepted in 1935, refused payment, and the ensemble along Calea Eroilor was inaugurated on 27 October 1938.

During the Second World War the town's prison became an internment camp where political prisoners were held, among them the future communist leaders Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and Nicolae Ceaușescu. Under communism the authorities planned to demolish Brâncuși's "bourgeois" art, but did not; from the 1960s opencast coal mining around the town made it grow rapidly. A university named after Brâncuși opened in 1992, the ensemble was restored in 1998–2000, and in 2024 it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Târgu Jiu's identity is bound up with Brâncuși. The Endless Column stands at the centre of the city's coat of arms, flanked by the golden lions of Oltenia, and the ensemble is regarded as one of the great works of 20th-century outdoor sculpture. It is not set apart in a museum: the Table of Silence and Gate of the Kiss stand in the town park, the column in a lawn at the end of an ordinary street, and residents pass them every day. The architect Mihai Radu has praised how the sculptures shape the town's plan, giving a jumbled communist-era centre an axis in the manner of the Great Axis of Paris.

The town also honours Ecaterina Teodoroiu, born in Vădeni, now one of its districts, who fought as a soldier in the First World War and died at Mărășești in 1917; a leading school and a boulevard carry her name, and her family house is a memorial museum.

Sport is followed closely. Pandurii, the city's best-known football club, spent twelve seasons in Romania's top league, finished second in 2012–13 and reached the group stage of the Europa League the following season; CSM Târgu Jiu fields teams in basketball and women's handball.

At the 2021 census about 73,500 people lived in the municipality, down from the previous census in 2011, and almost all are Romanians, with a small Roma community. Eight surrounding villages are administered by the city. Most people live in the blocks of flats and houses of districts such as 9 Mai, Grivița, Victoriei and Ecaterina Teodoroiu, and the centre around Calea Victoriei, the main street, and the park is where the town comes together.

The town grew with opencast lignite mining from the 1960s, and its industries have included wood, machine building, textiles, glassware and building materials such as cement, bricks and tiles. With the decline of mining, Gorj County has one of the highest unemployment levels in Romania.

Daily life follows the pace of a county town. Trolleybuses and buses link the districts, shopping happens at supermarkets and shopping centres, and evenings and weekends bring families to the park along the Jiu. The population fell by about 5,000 between the 2011 and 2021 censuses.

Târgu Jiu eats in the Oltenian and wider Romanian tradition. Ciorbă, the sour soup that begins many meals, is made in many versions — tripe with sour cream and garlic, meatballs, beans with smoked meat — and soured with borș, vinegar or sauerkraut juice. Sarmale, cabbage leaves rolled round minced meat, rice, onions and herbs, are often called the national dish and are served with mămăligă, the cornmeal mush that accompanies much of the cooking.

Pork is the main meat. Tochitură is a stew of pork and smoked and fresh sausage served with mămăligă, and jumări are crisp pieces of pork left after rendering fat. Mititei, or mici, grilled rolls of spiced minced meat with garlic and thyme, are most associated with outdoor grilling, and telemea, a white brined cheese a little like feta, appears on most tables.

Desserts include papanași, cheese dumplings boiled or fried and served with jam and sour cream, and cozonac, the sweet bread of Christmas and Easter. Meals are often opened with țuică, a spirit made only from plums.