Ploieşti

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Ploieşti
Coat of arms
Location of Ploieşti
Coordinates: 44°56′24″N 26°1′48″E / 44.94, 26.03
Country	Romania
County	Prahova County
Status	County seat
Government
- Mayor	Emil Calotă (Social Democratic Party)
Area
- City	58.2 km² (22.5 sq mi)
Population (2002)[1]
- City	232,527
- Density	3,990/km² (10,334.1/sq mi)
- Metro	327,923
- Jan. 1, 2006	250,541
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
- Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Website: http://www.ploiesti.ro/

Ploieşti (/plo'jeʃtʲ/, older spelling: Ploeşti) is the county seat of Prahova County and lies in the historical region of Wallachia, Romania. The city is located 56 km (35 miles) north of Bucharest. In 2002, it had a population of 232,527, making it the ninth-largest city in Romania.

Contents 1 History 2 Demographics 3 Economy and transport 3.1 The city expands 3.2 The developing road infrastructure 4 Culture and education 5 Gallery 6 Politics 7 Sister cities 8 Natives 9 External links 10 Notes

[edit] History

The town was established first in 1596, during the reign of Mihai Viteazul (Michael the Brave). In the 17th and 18th centuries rapidly flourished as a center for trade and handicraft manufacturing. The road connecting Ploieşti to Braşov was opened in 1864, and the railway arrived in 1882. Many schools and hospitals were built around this time. In the mid-19th century, the Ploieşti region was one of the world's leading oil extraction and refinery sites. The city is also remembered as the site of the self-styled Republic of Ploieşti, a short-lived 1870 revolt against the Romanian Monarchy. Between the two World Wars, local industry was boosted by petroleum processing in particular. Major oil companies, most of them foreign, started operations in the city. In 1939, for instance, the 12 refineries of Ploieşti provided 80% of the total petroleum processed in Romania.

Although badly damaged after the 1940 earthquake, the city managed to become the main source of oil for Nazi Germany's war effort during World War II, when Romania was Germany's ally. Thanks to its relative remoteness from airfields, Ploieşti was spared Allied attack until 1943, when the United States Army Air Forces mounted Operation Tidal Wave from North Africa on August 1, bombing the refineries in a massive low altitude strike by 178 B-24 Liberator bombers. It was the most-bombed city in Romania in World War II. Although the raid inflicted heavy damage on the ground, much of the damage was soon fixed. In April 1944, the Allies launched decisive attacks from captured airbases in Italy. Finally, the city was captured by Soviet troops in August 1944.

Following the war, the new Communist regime nationalised the oil industry, which had largely been privately owned, and made massive investments in the oil and petroleum industry in a bid to modernise the country and minimise the war damage.

[edit] Demographics

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Historical population of Ploieşti
Year	Population
1810	2,024
1837	3,000
1859	26,468
1884	32,000
1899 population census	45,107
1912 population census	56,460
1930 census	77,341
1948	96,229
Jan. 7, 1992 census	252,715
1998	251,348
1999	250,804
2000	249,054
2001	248,399
march, 18 , 2002 census	232,452
2002	237,420
2003	236,724
2004	234,707
Jan. 1, 2006 estimate	250,541

Populatia ploiestiului in 2006 The population of Ploieşti went from 56,460, as indicated by the December 1912 census returns, up to 252,715 in January 1992. At the end of the year 2001, the population was slightly reduced to 248,399. Since the fall of Communism, however, the city's population continues to gently fall due both to emigration and to a declining birth rate.

Ploieşti city (5,844 ha) is planned to become the nucleus of a metropolitan area which will count some 11 nearby villages, adding around 70,000 new inhabitants to the administrative area.

Census		Ethnic composition
Year	Population	Romanians	Hungarians	Germans	Serbs	Jews	Roma	Russians	Greeks	Ukrainians	Others
1930	79,149	69,139	1,591	1,307	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
18 March 2002	232,452	225,493	234	144	8	64	5,870	40	108	15	476

[edit] Economy and transport

After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Ploieşti has experienced rapid economic growth due to major investments from foreign companies. The city is situated at just 60 km north from Bucharest, with promising infrastructure and many development projects currently underway. Ploieşti is a strong industrial center, focused especially on the oil production and refining industry. Although oil production in the region is declining steadily, there is still a thriving processing industry through four operating oil refineries, linked by pipelines to Bucharest, the Black Sea port of Constanţa and the Danube port of Giurgiu. Ploieşti is also a textile manufacturing center. Ploiesti concentrates many foreign investments: OMV-Petrom, Lukoil, Shell Gas, Timken, Yazaky, Coca Cola, Efes Pilsener, British American Tobacco,Interbrew, . Many retailers like Carrefour, Metro, Selgros, Kaufland, Billa, Bricostore,Praktiker, Intermarche, Profi, Mega Image found in Ploieşti a continuously growing market. In Ploieşti can also be found two McDonald's restaurants, and only one KFC restaurant opened in 2006. The German retailer Tengelmann expects to have some 30 stores this year and has set itself a target of 120 stores by 2010, investing €200 million. To facilitate its growth, Tengelmann built a depot in Ploieşti. With its Interex operation, the French independent retailer Intermarché intends to become a distribution leader in the Balkans. In Romania the first Interex store was opened in June 2002 in the city of Ploieşti.

Unilever has a detergent plant in Ploieşti. By transferring their food production to Ploieşti, the company will concentrate their full activity in Romania to the same location. At the beginning of March this year(2007), Unilever announced they would invest EUR 3 million to build one production center in Romania, and the construction of the new food plant is part of this plan.

[edit] The city expands

The under-developed villages around Ploieşti will go through substantial changes, with derelict dwellings likely to transform into villas and whole agricultural plots nearby becoming new housing districts. With city prices currently reaching hundreds of euros per square meters in all major cities, these plots will be the only alternative in the near future for small investors aiming to be within commuting distance from city centers. Due to the relatively easy process required to obtain planning permission, virtually any plot of land in Romania can be transformed from agricultural to housing. As a result, any land bought in the vicinity of cities is likely to be part of a satellite village in 10-20 years time, with its value likely to increase accordingly. Prices already increased over the past few years and particularly over 2006 for all types of land, but, with current prices still as low as a few Euros per square meter for larger plots, this is yet another guaranteed investment that should be considered.

The city council has also developed a few projects in order to adapt Ploieşti to new economic requests. The projects refer to the housing sector as well as to bussiness sector. Thus, the districts in southern Ploieşti (Mimiu, Bariera Bucureşti) will become available for sale. There is also a planned business district in the Hipodrom-Tatarani area which is expected to detract the infrastructural flow from the city centre.

[edit] The developing road infrastructure

Ploieşti is situated on the future highway Bucharest - Braşov, the main path towards the north and west provinces and the Western EU. The Henri Coandă International Airport is just at 45 km distance, and the ski resorts from Prahova Valley can be reached in one hour driving. The lack of motorways and well-built roads in Romania makes transport a challenge, but the situation will change. Rather slowly until now, with only one undergoing motorway and another one ready to start, hopefully faster in the near future, under the scrutiny of the EU, the motorway infrastructure will improve substantially over the next years. Why is this important for housing? Being next to a busy road will have a negative impact on the interest for a property, but being in the middle of nowhere does not make wonders for the price tag of a house, particularly for working couples. The ongoing motorway mentioned above has already had a strong positive impact on the prices nearby the big cities and this is likely to repeat when further motorways will appear on the map. Therefore, buying land in the vicinity of soon-to-start major road developments, either for housing or for industrial projects, is likely to be a very good investment.

Ploieşti is the second railway center in the country after Bucharest, linking Bucharest with Transylvania and Moldavia. The city's public transportation system is run by Regia Autonomă de Transport Ploieşti (RATP) and includes an extensive network ofbuses, trolleybuses and trams/streetcars. Ploieşti's distinct yellow bus fleet is one of the most modern in Southeastern Europe, provides connections to all areas within the city, for a daily average of 150,000 passengers. The municipal roads comprise over 800 streets with a total length of 324 km. East and West ring belts cannot prevent around 5300 vehicles transiting Ploieşti each day. The municipal vehicle park comprised 216 buses, 32 trams and 10 trolleybuses carrying about 70 millions passengers annually. There are 33 bus lines having a total length of 415,46 km; 2 trolley-bus lines having a total length of 19,9 km and 2 tram lines having a total length of 23,8 km.

[edit] Culture and education

Ploieşti is home to the Oil & Gas University, Ploieşti Philharmonic Orchestra —one of the top rated philharmonic orchestras in Romania— and two formerly-First Division football (soccer) clubs (Astra and Petrolul).

There are many cultural and architectural monuments as :

Culture Palace - The most impressive monument of Classical Architecture in South-Eastern Romania.

The Clock Museum - which is unique in Europe- an impressive collection of clock and watches gathered by Nicolae Simache Hagi Prodan Museum - which dates since 1785 and it was property of a merchant named Ivan Hagi Prodan. It contains elements of old Romanian architecture. It is considered the istoric house of Ploieşti, a short time after World War I hosted the first museum in Ploieşti named "Prahova's Museum" . Art Museum of Ploieşti -The building was donated by Quintus Family and it hosts many national and international works of art. There is also a museum dedicated to the oil industry called the 'Oil Museum'.

Architecture in Ploiesti

The rehabilitation of historical monuments in the city of Ploiesti has been an intricate process, that consisted at first, for a long period, of isolated actions brought about by extreme circumstances (earthquakes, air raids), and that has reached at present a stage of normality. This latter stage implies the existence of a complex social framework: appropriate legislation, detailed inventory and record, setting – up of the qualified operational system, namely research, design, execution, inspection and supervision. It also implies, first of all, the political and social will to rehabilitate and protect the patrimony. Unfortunately political conditions, adverse to the protection of patrimony, prevented for a long time the formation of the adequate social framework whose components took shape in an aleatory succession. Compared to the other counties, Prahova county and implicitly the city of Ploiesti has gradually - and often in a semi-illegal manner – made up its operational and administrative structure due to which at present it stands out among the other counties, as it actively promotes the decentralizing of the activity concerning the rehabilitation of patrimony. A few data related to the history and town - planning evolution of the city of Ploiesti are necessary in order to illustrate the present state and the perspectives on the rehabilitation of all constructions with patrimonial value from this town. The locality is first mentioned in documents in 1503, but archaeological researches have identified piles of dwellings from 14th century that belonged to a rural settlement. The documents certify that it reached the status of a borough at the end of 16 th century, when the voyvode Michael the Brave became the owner of 1/6 of the estate of Ploiesti (owned so far by the local people in the system of collective rural ownership). Here he set up a royal borough and in its vicinity he also built the Royal Court from where he issued documents and sent letters to imperial commissaries "excuria nostra Ploiesti" on 6th and 7 July 1598. However archaeological excavations revealed (by means of a rich material dated back in the end of 15th century and early 16th century: coins, fragments of sumptuous garments, rings, various ornaments) the inhabitants' status of townspeople - the fact that the settlement was a borough from the very beginning of 16 th century. The date when it was raised at the rank of royal borough confirms the previously acquired status of its citizens as inhabitants of a town. Trade and handicrafts represented the main economic resources of local people, besides agricultural activities. The city of Ploiesti was situated on the crossing point of important trading routes whose role increased especially after moving the principality's capital from Targoviste to Bucharest. After 1854 and following the disappearance of Saac county, it became the capital of Prahova county and the most important urban center in this highly - urbanized county, if we consider the towns of Targsoru Vechi and Gherghita old royal boroughs, Filipestii de Targ, Campina, Urlati, Mizil and Valenii de Munte localities with an important urban development.

There are no thorough studies on urban evolution of the city of Ploiesti. The oldest maps date from around 1850 (Plesoianu map). There are no earlier maps, if we don't take into consideration the locality's lay-out included on the late 18 th century Austrian map, but we can imagine the settlement's configuration, which was typical of the towns with strong trade activities and that lacked for a long time aristocratic residences. It must have been a "loose – disposed" locality, with crowded zones concentrated around market places and residential districts with houses placed in the middle of large and luxurious gardens. It is true that descriptions of travellers who visited the town of Ploiesti mention impressive medieval constructions but earthquakes, invasions, and, more recently, the implementation of the town - planning strategy destroyed these vestiges. Only two churches resisted the adversity of times, but only partially, namely "Sfintii Apostoli" (St. Apostles') Church built by voyvode Matei Basarab in mid-17th century and "Sf. Nicolae Vechi" (Old St. Nicholas) Church from the same period. Several townsmen's dwellings were also preserved, among which Hagi Prodan" House (end of 18th century) is the best - known. After 1800 the locality underwent an intensive development.

The essential town-planning feature of this type of localities is to occupy large surfaces of land even in the initial stages of building. The major network of streets incorporates in its structure large territories which in the beginning are destined for farming. As population increases farming spaces are replaced by residential areas that preserve and perpetuate the "loose – disposed", "garden-like town" character of the locality. Around market places densely-built zones are formed, more precisely zones with continuous front constructions on both sides of main streets and with a high density of spaces for trade and handicraft activities.

Afterwards, the town's social evolution brought about the appearance of corresponding institutions. Headquarters of administration {the old town hall, the court of law, the garrison, Public Bathrooms) and schools ( the secondary school and "Saints Peter and Paul" Highschool ) are added to the spaces for trade and handicraft activities. There is a growing number of buildings erected in the architectural styles specific to the Western space: Romantic, Neo – Gothic, Neoclassical, Baroque. The Regionalist trend determined the appearance of Neo-Romanian style that starts to become more and more present in Ploiesti as well. With the economic boom created by the oil industry, the sofar trade - generated welfare turns to opulence, and the houses of some "slummers" are transformed into genuine urban residences, thanks to the owner's wealth and with the contribution of famous architects and contractors. Many of late - 19th century buildings' façades are re- modelled in Neoclassical or Baroque style. In this period the townsmen's dwellings with traditional architecture are replaced by edifices erected in accordance to international architectural styles.

At the same time, the existing churches, with their small sizes and their architecture of rural influences, are replaced by monumental buildings erected following the plans of the great architects of that period, Ioan N. Socolescu and Toma Socolescu. At the beginning of 20th century the headquarters of some important institutions are built: the court of law, Commercial School, Central Markets, Financial Administration etc. In 1930's first Cubist buildings start to appear, while Eclectism continues to create representative edifices.

Unfortunately, the earthquake, air raids and afterwards the and distorted the positive direction that the urban evolution had had so far. Extensive demolitions have damaged the city's central zone from 1960's and until recently, and have destroyed both 80% of the centre of the town and the identity of settlement. The front buildings on both sides of main arteries have been demolished and replaced by dull, inexpressive edifices. This is the political and social background on which the movement for the protection and conservation of buildings with patrimonial value came into being and manifested itself more and more strongly.

If restoration works on such buildings were executed since 1916 (when under the supervision of architect T.T. Socolescu "Hagi Prodan" House was restored in order to set up there the town's first museum of history), keeping the records of monuments and their protection were scarce until quite recently. The only legislative act that listed a few edifices which had value as monuments was the Decision of Ministers. Council no. 1160/1955. It granted protection to a very small number of buildings, and some of them had disappeared in the 1970s. Until 1982 nothing coherent was done to include the edifices with an important historical value on the List of Historical Monuments.

In 1983 I started to elaborate, at the Planning and designing institute from Ploiesti, a 3-4 year study by which I identified and included on the List of Historical Monuments from Prahova county over 600 edifices, architectural complexes and reservations of architecture and over 150 archaeological sites. Those objectives were mapped, photographed, measured, described and dated. The documentation was subject of approval by Prahova county authorities, that became law for the structures of local administration and for owners. This is the turning point when the process of elaborating the record and registration of edifices with patrimonial value was actually implemented. In 1991 the National Commission of Historical Monuments, Complexes and Sites approved the List of Monuments from Prahova county, that has been recently published with minor changes in the Official Monitor. Since 1983 all listed objectives were obligatorily marked on the town planning documentation of the city of Ploiesti. On the same occasion the perimeter of first reservation of architecture in the city was approved, namely the zone including the Independence Boulevard and its surrounding streets, for which in 2002 it was elaborated a Zonal Town Planning documentation that has been recently approved.

The analysis of the town's territory from the point of view of its urban evolution was made quite late, when the Historical Study of Justification,was drawn up. On this occasion there were identified and registered the specific features of the street network, of parcelling, of the way in which buildings group together to form lots, and proposals were made on establishing the reservations of architecture and archaeology, as well as the areas to be protected in the context of town - planning strategy. A thorough analysis was carried out when the Historical Study of Justification for the Zonal Town Planning Documentation of the Central Zone was elaborated.

The study pointed out both the range of elements with historical value preserved so far in the area, and the huge extent of destructions as a consequence of demolitions that preceded the implementation of town planning strategy in this territory during 1960 - 1980. The study emphasized the historical value of town planning elements with a defining role (street network, parcelling, alignments, existing edifices, architectural styles, distribution of volumes, positioning), that include the reference points of local cultural landscape. After this Zonal Town Planning documentation will be decided upon and approved, the municipality of Ploiesti will have at last the prerequisits for ensuring the protection of buildings and zones with patrimonial value, taking into consideration the fact that in 2002 Law 422 on the protection of historical monuments was finally promulgated, and in 2004 the framework and content of documentations for areas protected from the point of view of town planning strategies. It took more than a quarter of a century to set up the legal framework and the town planning context necessary to rehabilitate the historical monuments from the city of Ploiesti. We ought to mention the process of educating the administrative and political will in this respect. In the beginning of 20th century the activity of architects Alexandru Zagoritz and T.T. Socolescu from Ploiesti had an essential educational impact on the local administration with regard to the importance of protecting and valorizing the monuments (see the example of "Hagi Prodan" House). Afterwards, since 1940's, an important role was played by The Monograph of the City of Ploiesti edited by N. Sevastos, that described in detail and in an outstanding professional manner aspects concerning the monuments and the town - planning characteristics of the city. In 1960 the exemplary activity of professor Nicolae Simache resulted in setting up the present day Museum of History and Archaeology, Museum of Art, Clock Museum, "I. L. Caragiale" Memorial Museum, Hagi Prodan House, and these efforts implied the execution of first repair and modifying works of these buildings: the Secondary School built by Alexandru Orascu in 1873 that became the Museum of History, Ionescu Quintus House where the Museum of Art was located, Luca Elefterescu house that became the Clock Museum, Dobrescu House that was arranged to become the museum of writer I.L. Caragiale and Hagi Prodan house arranged as the Museum of the city of Ploiesti.

The remarkable activity of professor Nicolae Simache was supported by the technical assistance and supervision of architect Violeta Cherulescu who worked in the central and local administration. In 1977 when the Department of Historical Monuments was dissolved by the communist regime, I took over the scientific and technical administration of historical monuments under the supervision of academician professor architect Mr. Grigore Ionescu, a native of Prahova county. The 1977 earthquake caused destructions to many monuments in the county, to headquarters of cultural institutions (museums, libraries, memorial houses) etc. The county administration financed all repair works to eliminate the damages caused by eartquakes: in Ploiesti: the Museum of History, the Museum of Art, Hagi Prodan House, the Clock Museum, in Campina: "Iulia Hasdeu" castle (the house of painter Nicolae Grigorescu), in Valenii de Munte: Nicolae Iorga architectural complex (museum - house, annex buildings, school of missionary girls), the house of painter N. Tonitza. All these buildings had been previously repaired and transformed in museums, but the interventions had been superficial and the eartquake actually destroyed the edifices. The actual restoration works have been carried out during several years, often with interruptions generated by financial causes, but no site has been ever abandoned, as it is frequently the case with the sites financed by the Ministry of Culture and important edifices in Ploiesti that had been seiously damaged by1977 eartquake: Palace of Culture, "I.L.Caragiale" Highschool, Central Markets, Monument of Heroes, St. Friday's Church, interventions financed through county and local funds.

The edifices that underwent substantial restoration and consolidation interventions were not significantly damaged by the eartquakes from 1986 and 1990. However the other buildings which were subject only to local repairs, former damages re-appeared and dangerous deteriorations occurred. Following the 1977 eartquake, extensive consolidation works were executed at the building of Central Markets and as a result it showed a better resistance to subsequent seisms. Complex and detailed interventions became necessary for the buildings at which ordinary repairing works had been executed. The first edifice of this kind was "I. L. Caragiale" Highschool (former Commercial School) erected in 1930's after the plans of architect T.T. Socolescu., with a surface of over 15 000 m2, with big problems at the structural strength, with significant deteriorations of the roof and closing elements and extensive damages of outside coatings that are made of artificial stone. A further difficulty was the fact that the highschool could not be closed and the courses interrupted for the 3-year period of works. This category of works carried on without interrupting the activity are much more complicated than those executed after the building is entirely cleared. Consequently phasing is necessary according to the specificity of works and according to the activity schedule of users, and it is also necessary to execute some partitioning screens and to adapt in each phase the route of water supply and electrical networks, thus ensuring a normal functioning of that institution.

These specific details considerably complicate the process of designing and execution and increase the prices in comparizon with the usual ones, and that is why appropriate regulations are necessary for such cases. A similar ample intervention is being carried on at present at the Palace of Culture from the city, erected in 1920's - 1930's after the plans of architects Al. Donaud and T.T. Socolescu. The building was damaged by the eartquakes from 1940 and 1977. The latter one caused massive destructions and partial cavings. The repair and partial reconstruction works restored this objective back to its initial functional state, whose importance consists in its being the location of cultural institutions of vital importance for the city and county ("Nicolae Iorga" Municipal Library, the Museum of Natural Saciences, the Popular School of Art), as well as the Appeal Court. However, these works could not ensure the necessary resistance to seisms, so that following the earthquakes from 1986 and 1990 deteriorations re-occurred and worsened, the danger of crumbling impending. The roof and stone imitation outside coatings with their expressive decorative elements of neo-classical origin are seriously deteriorated. It has been discussed with the county administration the possibility to start ample works of restoration and consolidation that according to preliminary estimates amount to 3 500 000 EUR. The designer's proposal was taken into consideration, namely that it is necessary to preserve and restore this edifice with a total surface of 19 000 m2 and which, together with the building of Central Markets, is the symbol of the city of Ploiesti.

Engineer Sandor Zoltan, the structure expert of the restoration team from Prahova county, imagined a solution of consolidation to avoid the dividing of this 60 x 80 m – edifice in sections through anti – seismic joints, that would have considerably modified both the way in which space is divided and organized, and the inside decoration, and would have altered the configuration of façades.

This solution of consolidation proposes a series of "spacial tubes" and robust vertical elements placed inside the masonry blocks, so that the geometry of partition is not changed. These vertical elements have been incorporated within the volume of roof framing by means of a rigid girder network, thus resulting a spacial structure that shall ensure the resistance to seisms of the entire edifice. In the zones where it was not possible to place structural parts made of concrete steel due to the presence of moulding and panellings, it was chosen the method of positioning some tension rods placed in drilled orifices. There have been again problems due to the fact these ample restoration works are executed in a building that cannot be cleared, only this time they have been aggravated by the lack of legal provisions or norms that would regulate such cases. The elaboration of preliminary documentation could not anticipate all situations that occurred during the execution of works, and which were complicated by the less adequate interventions performed prior to the earthquakes (from 1940 and 1977), and thus it was even tougher to surpass the difficulties encountered. This state of facts forced the restoration team to continuously adapt the initial documentation to the actual situation.

This situation was anticipated when the expense estimate was drawn up, and the technical assistance was allocated a sum of money sufficient to cover the designing costs necessary to adapt the general solution to actual cases that occurred during execution and could not be anticipated. Afterwards the designer was denied the sum for technical assistance included in the summarized estimate, on the grounds that it does not comply to the system of public purchases and tariffs, but this system cannot apply to documentations for restoration works. As a matter of fact, it should exist regulations and unitary tariffs valid on the international (European) level and designing stages appropriate to restoration works that allow re-assessment of costs during execution. Where documentation is elaborated with the buildings in activity occupied by staff and furniture, when the sample collecting process – often carried on through destructive procedures – is limited, it is natural to elaborate template documentations that during the execution of works will be detailed and adapted to identified particular cases. We hope that this will happen some day, maybe starting with this session that can represent a beginning by assembling an international team of specialists, and thus initiating this process. Channelling financial resources from different directions for the restoration of monuments has been a constant preoccupation for the specialists in Prahova county. The church's funds have been successfully used to restore several churches from Ploiesti: "sf. Apostoli Petru si Pavel" (St. Apostles Peter and Paul) Church built around 1650, "Sf. Nicolae Vechi" (Old St. Nicholas) Church (mid-17th century), the belfry of "Sf. Gheorghe Vechi (Old St. George) Church (end of 17th century). The restoration and consolidation of "Sf. Vineri" (St. Friday) Church built in 1880 underwent the same process as the great majority of big size edifices in the Ploiesti. Erected after the plans of architect Ioan N. Socolescu was seriously damaged as a consequence of 1977 earthquake, when the northern apse and small spires crumbled and the rest of the building was damaged at a great extent. Immediately after the earthquake reconstruction works and local renovations were carried out, but they proved to be insufficient. The earthquakes from 1986 and 1990 caused destructions and dislocations that threatened the stability of the edifice.

A complex documentation was elaborated, which proposed works that could both ensure the building's resistance to seisms and restore its lost expressive characteristics. Mr. Engineer Sandor Zoltan imagined a spacial structure that includes the structural parts for the consolidation of the seriously damaged vaulting. The works were fulfilled gradually, in stages, without closing the church. The consolidation of walls and vaulting was completed, the small spires were re-built using the existing photographic documentation and at present the big spires is being consolidated, as its wood structure was seriously damaged as well. In this case, too the gradual execution without closing the church caused major difficulties for the designing team which had to elaborate solutions depending on the situation encountered on the site and whose costs are hard to negotiate. Lately, after adding valuable edifices on the List of Monuments from Ploiesti there appeared the first cases when private funds sustained restoration works. Until 1989 one single such case is known, of a building restored with private financial resources. It is the case of Dr. Jean Popescu's house from Ploiesti, Decebal street; the owner restored the building's façades and inside decoration. This was possible also due to the fact that this construction was included on the List of Monuments from the city.

There are also recent works of restoration executed with private funds, such as the consolidation, re - modelling of inside decoration and restoration of façades of the building where "Bulevard" restaurant is located and which is placed in the reservation of architecture of Independence Boulevard, as well as of the edifice on no. 1 Bobalna street, within the same zone. After being taken back into possession by their owners, these edifices have been taken on lease by some contractors who restored them and turned them into small pensions. A similar case is that of restoring and setting up of a mini-hotel on no. 9 Maramures street, as well as the process of valorizing a building that has spectacular vaulted cellars, on Sitarului street. In all cases, if the respective objectives had not been included on the List of Historical Monuments, it would have been possible that the works would have altered the volumetry, planimetry, architectural expressivity and decorative elements of these edifices. The use of private funds to restore the monuments would be much more efficient, if facilities for investors were indeed operatively created. At present, consolidation works are planned to start at the building of Clock Museum that is also located in the zone of Independence Boulevard reservation of architecture, and the funds are provided by Prahova County Council through the Museum of History and Archaeology, the building's owner. Recently, it has been initiated the elaboration of a complex program for the restoration of historical monuments from the county coordinated and partially financed by Prahova County Council, that includes important edifices (for example Cantacuzino's mansions from Filipestii de Targ, Filipestii de Padure and Floresti), and other objectives as well, and in this way our substantial activity continues, in order to ensure the protection of buildings with patrimonial value from Prahova and the city of Ploiesti

[edit] Gallery

[edit] Politics

The Ploieşti Municipal Council, elected in the 2004 local government elections, is made up of 27 councillors, with the following party composition:

	Party	Seats	Current Council
	Justice and Truth Alliance	13
	Social Democratic Party	10
	Greater Romania Party	2
	Conservative	1
	Independents	1

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[edit] Sister cities

• Berat
• Dnipropetrovsk
• Harbin
• Hînceşti
• Lefkada
• Maracaibo
• Oral
• Osijek
• Radom
• Tulsa

[edit] Natives

• Octavian Belu, gymnastics coach
• Paul Constantinescu, composer
• Mircea Coşea, politician
• Alexandru Dobrogeanu-Gherea, communist militant
• Leonard Doroftei, boxer
• Ştefan Gheorghiu, socialist militant
• Florina Herea, freestyle swimmer
• Take Ionescu, politician, Prime Minister of Romania
• Liviu Librescu, academic
• Corneliu Mănescu, diplomat
• Nicoleta Onel, gymnast
• Remus Opriş, politician
• Cristian Pârvulescu, political analyst
• Ion N. Petrovici, neurologist
• Valeriu Răchită, soccer player
• Nicolae Simache, academic
• Nichita Stănescu, poet
• Corina Ungureanu, gymnast
• Toma T. Socolescu, architect
• Tamara Costache, swimmer

[edit] External links

• Municipality of Ploieşti, official site
• (Romanian) Interactive map of Ploiesti
• Tramway in Ploieşti

[edit] Notes

v • d • e County seats of Romania (alphabetical order by county) Alba Iulia • Arad • Piteşti • Bacău • Oradea • Bistriţa • Botoşani • Braşov • Brăila • Buzău • Reşiţa • Călăraşi • Cluj-Napoca • Constanţa • Sfântu Gheorghe • Târgovişte • Craiova • Galaţi • Giurgiu • Târgu Jiu • Miercurea Ciuc • Deva • Slobozia • Iaşi • Buftea • Baia Mare • Drobeta-Turnu Severin • Târgu Mureş • Piatra Neamţ • Slatina • Ploieşti • Satu Mare • Zalău • Sibiu • Suceava • Alexandria • Timişoara • Tulcea • Vaslui • Râmnicu Vâlcea • Focşani Bucharest (national capital)