page_title: Râmnicu Vâlcea
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Râmnicu Vâlcea / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Denkmal in Râmnicu Vâlcea, Rumänien, für die Unabhängigkeit vom Osmanischen Reich nach dem Russisch-osmanischen Krieg. Română: Monumentul din Râmnicu Vâlcea, România, pentru independenţă de sub Imperiul Otoman, după Războiul Ruso-Turc.
context_page_description: Râmnicu Vâlcea is the capital city of Vâlcea County, Romania.
context_section_description: The area has been inhabited since Dacian and Roman times, and was the site of a castrum. A new fortress was built on the location during the Middle Ages. Râmnicu Vâlcea was first attested during the rule of Prince Mircea cel Bătrân, as "the princely town of Râmnic" (4 September 1388), and confirmed as the seat of a Vâlcea County during the same period (8 January 1392).
  The town seal dates to 1505. Cetățuia, the actual fortress, served as the residence of Oltenian Bans and, from 1504, of the Orthodox bishops of the Râmnic Diocese; in 1529, Prince Radu of Afumați was killed in Cetățuia by a boyar conspiracy.
  During the rules of Matei Basarab and Constantin Brâncoveanu, it became an important cultural center. It was here where the first paper mill and printing press in Romania were built (see Anthim the Iberian). The city was heavily damaged during the Habsburg takeover of Oltenia between 1718 and 1739, and its purpose was again reduced to that of a fortress.
  During the Wallachian Revolution, on 29 July 1848, Deșteaptă-te, române! (the current national anthem of Romania), with lyrics written by Andrei Mureșanu and music composed by Anton Pann (whose memorial house lies in the center of the town), was sung for the first time in Râmnicu Vâlcea. Gheorghe Magheru gathered his military force in Râureni, now part of the city, in an attempt to face the anti-revolutionary forces of Imperial Russia and the Ottoman Empire.
  In the 1980s, the city was completely rebuilt in a style combining Socialist realism with local vernacular architecture.
  The city was the center and peak point of the path of total darkness of the Solar eclipse of 11 August 1999. Around 2005 the city gained notoriety as a centre of cyber crime.
caption: Romanian War of Independence monument (erected 1915)
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS CORPORATION", "Image Model": "C750UZ", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "v753u2-88", "Image DateTime": "2010:04:07 09:16:37", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "251", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/160", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Creative", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:04:07 09:16:37", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:04:07 09:16:37", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "17/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "109/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1280", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "960", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}