The Town of Bolintin Vale

Bolintin-Vale is a town situated in the southern part of Romania, in the north of Giurgiu County, in the Câmpia Română, approximately 25 km west of Bucharest and roughly 90 km north-west of the city of Giurgiu, the county seat. The town has a distinctive geographical setting, being located on the floodplain between the Argeș and Sabar rivers, and is considered the only urban locality in Romania situated on two parallel rivers at a great distance from their confluence. The locality is documented from 1433, through a charter issued by voivode Alexandru Aldea, son of Mircea cel Bătrân, by which the village of Bolintin was granted, in part, to the Bunavestire Monastery in the "Pădurea cea Mare"; the document indicates that the settlement was already well developed economically for that period, being among the 63 rural settlements recorded in Țara Românească in the mid-fifteenth century. Over time, the area has been associated with important historical events: voivode Mihai Viteazul set up one of his camps here, and in 1821 Tudor Vladimirescu issued a proclamation at Bolintin. The town is widely known as the birthplace of the Forty-Eighter poet and politician Dimitrie Bolintineanu (1819–1872), whose funerary monument and statue, created by sculptor Carol Storck, are listed as historical monuments. Bolintin-Vale was granted town status in 1989, incorporating the villages of Crivina, Malu Spart and Suseni, and has a population of approximately 12,800 inhabitants. The built heritage includes several representative buildings from the late nineteenth century that have been listed as architectural monuments, among them the Town Hall building, the old Post Office building, and the old School building dating from 1899. The town's proximity to the capital and its position on major road routes linking Muntenia, Oltenia and Transilvania have favoured its economic development.