Târgovişte City Hall

Royal and capital residence between 1396 and 1714, Târgoviste had for more than three centuries, the statute of the most important economic, political-military and cultural-artistic center of the Wallachia.

The archaeological digging made on the territory and around the city proved that this region was inhabited since Neolithic period. In the Museum of Archeology there are culture’s vestiges of these times, as well as from the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Well illustrated in the museum are jewels, tools and Geto-Dacian coins, from the time of the kings Burebista and Decebal, as well as from the Byzantine era.

The first mention of the city dates from 1396 and the first official act from 1406 belonging to Mircea the Older, voivode of the Romanian Country, which opposed resistance for three decades to the Ottoman Empire, with resounding victories. From 1424 the first commercial regulation made by the ruler Dan was kept, which establishes the customs relations of the local fairs with other merchants.

Vlad the Impaler ascended the throne in 1456 and entered history with the victory of 1462 against Sultan Mehmet II, the conqueror of Constantinople. Radu the Great voivode rebuilds, starting with 1499 the church "St. Nicholas of the Hill", known today as the Dealu Monastery.

Michael the Brave succeeded in 1600, for the first time, to unite the three Romanian principalities and was recognized throughout Europe as a defender of Christianity.

Matei Basarab (1632-1654) was a great supporter of the culture. He strengthened the city's fortifications, repaired old churches and built many new ones. The Tower of Chindia after Constantin Brancoveanu, who ensured for a quarter of a century the stability of the country, than followed a century of phanariots gentlemen. The old fortress was truly abandoned.

The uprising of Tudor Vladimirescu, from 1821, after glorifying in Bucharest, restores the earthly reigns on the country thrones ends sadly in Târgoviste. Tudor and many of his soldiers are massacred by etherists in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral, where a stone cross was built, in their memory.
The Târgoviste citizen actively participated in the Romanian revolution of 1848 and supported all the political acts of the Unionists.

The modernization of the Romanian society at the end of the 19th century meant a great economic advance, illustrated by the illumination of the city in 1863, the inauguration of the diligence and then the Bucharest-Târgoviste railway, the establishment of the first industrial enterprise - the Arsenal of the army and the construction of the oil refineries.

Târgoviste city paid its blood tribute in all the great battles of the nation: the War of Independence from 1877-1878, The First and Second World wars.

Half a century of communist dictatorship has caused political, social and cultural constraints. After December 22, 1989, a new constitution of the country resets the political life on a democratic course.