Balotești is a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the northwestern part of

Ilfov County Ilfov () is the county that surrounds Bucharest, the capital of Romania. It used to be largely rural, but, after the fall of Communism, many of the county's villages and communes developed into high-income commuter towns, which act like suburbs ...

Muntenia Muntenia (, also known in English as Greater Wallachia) is a historical region of Romania, part of Wallachia (also, sometimes considered Wallachia proper, as ''Muntenia'', ''Țara Românească'', and the seldom used ''Valahia'' are synonyms in R ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. Two small rivers flow through this location:

Cociovaliștea The Cociovaliștea is a right tributary of the river Ialomița in Romania. It discharges into the Ialomița in Fierbinți-Târg.

and

Vlăsia The Vlăsia is a left tributary of the river Cociovaliștea in Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It bo ...

. It is composed of three villages: Balotești, Dumbrăveni and Săftica. The commune is named after an 18th-century

boyar A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the Feudalism, feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Kievan Rus', Bulgarian Empire, Bulgaria, Russian nobility, Russia, Boyars of Moldavia and Wallachia, Wallachia and ...

, Balotă, who owned local lands. On 31 March 1995, a TAROM Romanian

Airbus A310 The Airbus A310 is a wide-body aircraft, designed and manufactured by Airbus Industrie, then a consortium of European aerospace manufacturers. Airbus had identified a demand for an aircraft smaller than the A300, the first twin-jet wide-bod ...

crashed near Balotești, leaving 60 dead (''see

Tarom Flight 371 TAROM Flight 371 was a scheduled international passenger flight, with an Airbus A310 from Otopeni International Airport in Romania's capital Bucharest to Brussels Airport in Brussels, Belgium. The flight was operated by TAROM, the flag carrie ...

'').

Natives

Marian Zidaru Marian Zidaru (born 22 August 1956, Balotești, Ilfov, Romania) is a Romanian artist. Studies * 1991–1995 Assistant to Sculpture Department of Bucharest National University of Arts * 1977–1981 Fine Arts Institute "Nicolae Grigorescu – ta ...

References

Communes in Ilfov County Localities in Muntenia {{Ilfov-geo-stub