Buzău

Vergu-Mănăilă house is the oldest habitable building in Buzău, dating from the 1780s. Except for a few churches, it is the only building from the time of successive destructions of Buzău (17th and 18th centuries). It hosts the ethnography exhibit of the County Museum.

Eight historical monuments classified as having national importance exist in Buzău: the church of the Birth of Christ (1649, also known colloquially as the "Greeks' church" or the "Merchants' church") along with its belfry; the courthouse (20th century); the church of the Annunciation from the former Banu monastery (16th century); the church of the Dormition in Broșteni district, (1709, along with the belfry erected in 1914); the headquarters of the orthodox bishopric with the church of the Dormition (1649), the chapel (1841), the episcopal palace (17th century), the old seminary (1838), the chancellery (19th century), gate belfry and the compound wall (18th century); the Vergu-Mănăilă mansion (18th century, which currently hosts the ethnography exhibit of the County Museum); Vasile Voiculescu County Library (1914); and the Communal Palace (city hall, 1899–1903).[23]

One public forum monument and twelve memorial monuments are included in the list of historical monuments in Buzău County with local importance, including the urban area of Cuza Vodă street (19th century) in the old town, Crâng park, the Albatros Villa (that used to belong to Alexandru Marghiloman) and the park, the Jewish temple, the buildings of B.P. Hasdeu and Mihai Eminescu high-schools, a house where Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu lived for a few years, and some of the tombs in Dumbrava cemetery, such as one that was originally decorated with the statue "Prayer" by Constantin Brâncuși (nowadays replaced by a replica).[23]

Buzău river is the northern limit of the city. This river has created an underground basin that it permanently fuels with water.[25] These underground waters are a main source of drinking water, and their excess overflows to a marshy wetland south of the city, in the neighboring communes Costești, Stâlpu and Țintești, with small but steady springs, that ultimately form the Călmățui river.[26]

Annual rainfall is circa 500 mm[27] and in winter the snow cover can be as high as 30 cm.[27] Buzău river has a fluctuating flow. Especially in spring, when it collects melted snow from the mountain area, its level rises. The city was, however, built away from its deep and wide valley, so the river never floods the city. Even at the major floods of 2005, the waters caused no problem in the city proper, but it seriously damaged both bridges across it located in the city,[28] which is also protected by levees, and by the small Cândești dam, north-west of Buzău.[29] The local authorities consider, however, that their strategy of defense against flood does not adequately cover the city's belt road, part of DN2, which follows the river for a short stretch.[30]

The climate is humid continental, with an average 92 freezing days a year (16 with temperatures below −10 °C), but also with 92 days of hot summer.[27] Local winds include the Crivăț, a cold north-easterly and sometimes easterly wind in winter, and the Austru, a south-westerly wind that brings dry air in summer and leads to warmer days in winter.[31]

Crâng park, the main green area

The flora of Buzău is more diverse in the western forest of Crâng, 189 ha of oak forest, a remainder of the ancient Codrii Vlăsiei. The Crâng park itself takes up 10 hectares of this forest and makes up the main green area of Buzău. It is not designated as a protected area itself, but a few species of plants are protected inside it, such as the fritillaria meleagris and iris brandzae.[35] In the neighboring communes of Țintești and Costești there are other remainders of Codrii Vlăsiei— Frasinu and Spătaru forests, respectively. In the yard of the building at the intersection of Crizantemelor and Tudor Vladimirescu streets, across the street from the park in front of B. P. Hasdeu high school and the Banu church, there is a century-old oak, locally protected as a monument of nature.[36] 6% of the Lunca Buzăului protected area, a Natura 2000 site managed by the Ecological University of Bucharest, lies within city limits, in the north and east.[37]

Most of the streets in Buzău have trees planted alongside, chestnut on Nicolae Bălcescu boulevard and linden on Unirii boulevard. In their gardens, the locals grow roses, hyacinths, tulips, local peonies, and petunia, as well as grapevines and Virginia creepers for shade. The wild fauna in Buzău is made up of city-dwelling species. The house sparrow and the collared dove are ubiquitous, and the most present small mammals are the wild polecat and the brown rat. Lakes are populated with small fish, such as bitterlings and eel, as well as snails and green lizards.[38]

During the migration season, a parliament of short-eared owls has made a habit of spending a few days in some tall fir trees located in the yard of the Forestry Inspector's Office in the city center.[39] Experimental crops from the city's Research and Development Station for Olericulture sometimes attract wild boars from the riverside forests.[40]

The main ethnic minority in the city are the Roma. Throughout history, other communities have existed in Buzău, but nowadays they are nearly extinct. Those that left their mark the most on the city were the Jewish people and the Bulgarians.

Settled after the 16th century by the Orthodox bishopric on its estate located north-west of the market town of Buzău, in Simileasca and Iorguleasca villages, Roma people have lived as slaves who worked on the bishopric's land.[44] After they were freed in the 19th century and, with the union between Wallachia and Moldavia, the new country got a new territorial division, Simileasca became a commune. In 1968, this commune was dissolved and integrated with Buzău. The Roma community is still located mostly in this part of the city, and it preserves its identity, although its leaders believe that Roma people in other parts of the city, who no longer speak their people's language, accept assimilation by the majority Romanians, and declare themselves Romanian at the census.[45] The community is faced with endemic poverty, high illiteracy, lack of professional qualifications and high school dropout rates, which all expose it to permanently being manipulated by politicians for elections.[46] Many Roma people went abroad, especially in the countries of Northern Europe.[47][48] The municipality also runs programs to improve theirs status, and School no. 14, located in Simileasca, is the main focus of these actions.[48] Pupils of this school publish a bilingual school newspaper, in Romani and Romanian, which promotes Roma integration into society.[49]

The Jewish synagogue in Buzău

Although mentioned in documents as early as the 16th century, the Jews of Buzău became an especially important community starting with the cultural and economical development period of the 19th century. A large proportion of them were merchants and craftsmen. The Jewish cemetery appeared in 1853 and a temple dates from 1885. Between the two World Wars, 10% of the population of Buzău was Jewish,[50] a large percentage compared to other cities in Wallachia, but significantly smaller than those in Moldavia, which saved the community from the brunt of the repression by Antonescu's government. Still, during World War II, the Jews had to endure some persecutions: obligated to do compulsory work (authorities abused of the law, and extended the age of the people who had to do this work, as well as the body of the work itself), and to pay 15 million lei (four times the tax) for "The Reunification Loan"; certain types of objects were confiscated from them and special restrictions were imposed. The community had to host orphans whose parents had died in the Holocaust, before they were deported to Transnistria.[51] During these persecutions, the Jewish community was defended by captains Stroie and Ionescu, by the Scânteie and Stahu families,[52] and by Anghel Anuțoiu from Vrancea, a man who informed members of the community of upcoming Nazi raids, saving many lives, including that of Rabbi Simon Bercovich, whom he aided to leave the city and go into hiding.[53][54] After the war, most Jews of the city moved to Israel, and left behind a Jewish community of only a few tens of people. Some of the personalities of the Jewish community in Buzău were painter Margareta Sterian and philosopher Ludwig Grunberg.[52]

In the 18th century, to avoid Ottoman repression against Christians in the Balkans, groups of Bulgarians settled in Wallachia where they enjoyed freedom to practice Christianity; some of these groups came to Buzău. The locals called them "Serbs" as a generic term for South-Slavs. The new immigrants soon started developing vegetable gardens as their houses were in the vicinity of the river that provided them with plenty of water, while local farmers were focusing more on raising livestock and growing cereals. Although the Bulgarian community was in time assimilated by the Romanians, to this day locals use the word "Serb" as a synonym to "one who grows vegetables".[55]

During the Middle Ages, Buzău's economy was based on trade, as the market town began as a customs and exchange point, and developed due to its position at the curvature of the Carpathians, in a place where roads that connected Wallachia to Moldavia and Transylvania met. The old market town tradition is still preserved in the Drăgaica fair, held every June around Midsummer, bringing together small producers and merchants from diverse regions of Romania.

The agricultural reform during Alexandru Ioan Cuza led some of the Bulgarian gardeners to rent in 1897 și 1898 some land acquired by the state from the bishopric. The developed a distribution network for their produce both in Buzău, and in other nearby cities such as Brașov, Ploiești or Râmnicu Sărat. Their activity became even more lucrative after the land reform of 1921.[70]

After the period of repeated invasions and destruction ended in the 19th century, the economy began to industrialize as well. Towards the end of that century, the development of a Romanian railway network made Buzău one of its important hubs and pushed the small craftsmen's shops to evolve into industrial installations. The first such facility was the Garoflid mill, open in 1883, that worked also as a cloth factory.[71] În 1894, an oil refinery of the Saturn society was built; this refinery was to function for 50 years.

After a dramatic nationwide decrease caused by the First World War (the 1919 output was a quarter of the one in 1913[71]), the industrial development picked up steam during the interbellum. One of the main components of the local industry was milling. The first industrial mill in the city, Garoflid, renamed Zangopol after its new owner, had reached a capital of 5 million lei in 1928 and, 30 de million in 1938, while the company that operated it had around 100 employees.[72] Another business started at this time was Metalurgica și Turnătorie – S.A. (Metallurgy and Foundry), founded in 1928 with a capital of over 9 million lei. Although it had an initially difficult period, as it was closed during the Great Depression, it was reopened in 1933, only to be closed again in 1940 and 1944, during World War II.[19]

Buzău window factory in 1970

After World War II, on 11 June 1948 all factories were requisitioned by the Communist government, who also began a program of forced industrialization, even though some of the industries that were being developed were unfit to the region.[73] In 1965, the 318 ha Buzău South industrial platform began to be built around the old location of the Saturn refinery, blown up during the war. It was the location of the city's most important factories that were developed at the time: the Steel Wire and Steel Wire Products Enterprise (after 1990, Ductil), the Railway Machinery Enterprise (after 1990, Apcarom), Metalurgica (the one founded in 1928), the Glass and Windows Factory (after 1991, Gerom S.A.).

The "Contactoare" electrical relays factory in Buzău

Other facilities were located in other parts of the city, such as the Contactors Enterprise, in the North-East, and the Plastic Works (after 1990, Romcarbon S.A.) in the North.

Despite the forced industrialization, Buzău was spared from becoming dependent on a single industry, and there was no single point of failure for the city's economy. According to the new law of commerce of 1990, that came after the fall of Communism, these factories were organised as state-owned companies, and were privatised. Most of them survived the transition to a market economy, as many of them thus became viable.

Currently, the largest Buzău-based company is Romet, a holding company made up of multiple firms that produse isolation materials for water and gas pipes, water filters, fire extinguishers and other related products. It was successful in the 1990s, with the Aquator home water purifier. In 1999, it also acquired Aromet S.A., the company that operated the 1928 Metalurgica factory.[74]

Ductil steel wire factory

Other Buzău-based companies were privatised by programs supervised by the World Bank. Apcarom S.A., the only Romanian producer of railway equipments,[75] was acquired by the Austrian company VAE, and in 2008 had a capital of 7.38 million lei.[76] Ductil S.A., one of the largest companies in the city, was privatised in 1999 and divided subsequently, during 1999–2000 by the new majority shareholder, FRO Spa, who only kept the electrodes and welding equipment facilities, and sold out the others. The steel wire, welded metal net, concrete and iron works became Ductil Steel S.A. and passed to the Italian company Sidersipe.[77] The iron powder works became Ductil Iron Powder. In 2007, FRO Spa sold Ductil S.A. to the Russian company Mechel, for 90 million euro.[78] Zahărul S.A., the town's sugar producer, was acquired by Agrana România, an Austrian-based group that also owned other sugar factories in Roman, a starch factory in Țăndărei and a juice facility in Vaslui.[79]

Milling is still present on the local market: the largest local producer is Boromir Prod, controlled by businessman Constantin Boromiz,[80] owner of the Boromir group, who also owns Boromir Ind Vâlcea, Panmed Mediaș and Comcereal Sibiu.[80][81]

The economy is still more oriented towards industry rather than services, which, according to a 2016 survey of the World Bank, made it more attractive to the labor force of lower qualification (at best with a high school degree). The same survey showed that most of the labor force in the city came from within the county, as Buzău is the center of a highly rural, compact and densely populated area. The city was found to be in competition with larger cities for the labor force from other counties, a feature it shares with Alexandria. The proximity of Bucharest makes Buzău itself a source of internal migration, thus orbiting the capital city. Buzău is the second city (closely after Ploiești, a city with almost double the population), by the number of employees in Bucharest coming from other cities between 1991 and 2011; the survey points out that this has been a disadvantage, but might become an opportunity in the future.[82]

Buzău is one of the country's main important railway hubs, as it connects Bucharest and Ploiești with Focșani, Galați and Constanța. The city railway station was open in 1872, along with the Bucharest-Galați railway.[83]

A branch of this railway, from Buzău to Mărășești was opened a few years later, on 13 June 1881,[84] and it was the first railway designed by Romanian engineers.[85]

The Buzău-Nehoiașu line, open in 1908, connects Buzău to the smaller towns and villages along the Buzău River valley, including Nehoiu and Pătârlagele.[86]

Buzău is crossed by national road DN2 (part of European Road E85), which connects the city to Bucharest to the South and to Râmnicu Sărat and the main cities of Western Moldavia to the North. National road DN1B (European Road E577) branches out of DN2 in Buzău. This road connects the city to Ploiești. In the North of the city, DN10 also branches from DN2. It crosses the Carpathians at their South-Eastern curvature through Buzău Pass towards Brașov. The South of Buzău is also crossed by national road DN2B, which branches from DN2 în the neighboring commune of Costești, leading eastward to Galați and Brăila. In Buzău, county road DJ203D branches from DN2B. It leads South to Țintești and Smeeni, where it ends in DN2C, a road along which it helps connect Buzău to Slobozia.[87]

In the Buzău city area, the only functional road bridge over Buzău River is the one crossing with DN2 to Mărăcineni. There is another road bridge, connecting the city to Vadu Pașii, near the railway bridge. It was however closed after it was destroyed by a flash flood in 2005, and repairs kept being postponed, which had an impact on the economy of the neighboring communes, North-East of the city, as it remains used only by pedestrians and cyclists.[88][89] Works began in the fall of 2017.[90]

Two main bust stations, one in the North and one in the South next to the railway station, as well a few other secondary bus stops, are used by private transportation companies that operate services to other cities or nearby villages.[91]

Buzău has no civil airport. The only air transport infrastructure present in the city is the military airport and heliport South-West of the city, but it is used only by emergency sanitary flights.[92] Civil air traffic for Buzău is performed through Henri Coandă International Airport in Otopeni, 110 km away, the main air hub for Wallachia.[93]

10 bus lines connect residential areas to industrial areas (including Buzău South industrial platform), the city center and the railway station.[94] There are a few taxi companies licensed by the city also operating in the surrounding villages.[95]

• Nicu Constantinescu
• Stan Săraru