Târgoviște

Târgoviște, formerly called Tirgovishtea in English, is a city of just over 90 thousand residents¹ located along the right bank of the Iaolomița River² in southern România. It was the capital of Tara Românească (Wallachia), an autonomous part of Devlet-i 'Aliyye-yi 'Osmâniyye (the Ottoman Empire) from the 15th to the 17th century. Romanians became a majority in the city during this period. After that it faded into obscurity until reviving in the 20th century.

External references

Chindiei Tower, Târgoviște

Historical Maps

Footnotes

1. 2012 calculation, world-gazetteer.com, accessed 1/21/2013.
2. The Iaolomița is a left bank tributary of the Dunarêa (Dunav, Danube) River.
3. Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987), "Cities of Europe" tables. Târgoviște was the largest city in what is now România in 1400, 1500 and 1600.
4. Some sources would date the aborption of Wallacia into the Ottoman Empire at 1417.
5. Ibid., "Tables of World's Largest Cities."
6. Ibid., "Cities over 20,000 in Europe, below the top 100."
7. Interpolation from 98,000 in 1992 and 89,000 in 2002, both figures from world-gazetteer.com, accessed 3/2/2013.