Boldești-Scăeni (), often spelled ''Boldești-Scăieni'', is a town in

Prahova County Prahova County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in the historical region Muntenia, with the capital city at Ploiești. Demographics In 2011, it had a population of 762,886 and the population density was 161/km². It is Romania's third mos ...

, southern

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 ...

. Located about 15 km north of

Ploiești Ploiești ( , , ), formerly spelled Ploești, is a city and county seat in Prahova County, Romania. Part of the historical region of Muntenia, it is located north of Bucharest. The area of Ploiești is around , and it borders the Blejoi commu ...

, it is an important oil-extraction center. It is situated in the historical region of

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 ...

History

The town was created in 1968 by the unification of two neighbouring communes, Boldești and Scăeni. One village, Seciu, is administered by the town.

The phalanstère

Scăeni was the location of the only attempt to create a

Charles Fourier François Marie Charles Fourier (;; 7 April 1772 – 10 October 1837) was a French philosopher, an influential early socialist thinker and one of the founders of utopian socialism. Some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical in ...

-type

phalanstère A ''phalanstère'' (or phalanstery) was a type of building designed for a self-contained utopian community, ideally consisting of 500–2000 people working together for mutual benefit, and developed in the early 19th century by Charles Fourier. ...

in Romania. In 1835, Theodor Diamant, a utopian socialist who had met Fourier in Paris, created the phalanstère, named ''The Agronomy and Manufacturing Society'', on a patch of land provided by Emanoil Bălăceanu, a local land-owner. The

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and so ...

n authorities saw this enterprise as a threat and took a stand against it. Therefore, the phalanstère was disbanded in 1836, a year and a half after it came into existence, with Diamant and Bălăceanu sent into exile.Scrisori către Vasile Alecsandri

World War II

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the area was extensively bombed, as part of

Operation Tidal Wave Operation Tidal Wave was an air attack by bombers of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) based in Libya on nine oil refineries around Ploiești, Romania on 1 August 1943, during World War II. It was a strategic bombing mission and part of ...

. Air-raid shelters can still be found on the wooded hills around Boldești.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of Boldești-Scăeni depicts a

thistle Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles can also occur all over the planton the stem and on the flat parts of the leaves. ...

(in Romanian, ''scai'' or ''scaiete'') which refers to the name of the old Scăeni commune, as well as a grape, which represents the vineyards on the Seciu hills.H.G. 1697/2004 The shaking hands is a reminder of the 19th century Scăieni phalanstère experiment, but could also refer to the 1968 union of the Boldești and Scăieni communes.

Climate

Boldești-Scăeni has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

(''Cfb'' in the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

Economy

The town's economy revolves around

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

-extraction as well as

winemaking Winemaking or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. The science of wine and ...

. Almost half of the town's surface is cultivated with

vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...

. The Seciu winecellars are located in the direct vicinity of Boldești. Industry developed in the town after 1968, with a glass factory open in Scăeni. Many people who live in Boldești-Scăeni also work in the neighbouring city of Ploiești.

Trivia and Historical monuments

The utopian experiment by Theodor Diamant was featured in the movie "Falansterul" ("The Phalanstere"), directed by Savel Stiopul in 1979. Historical monuments in the city Boldești-Scăeni includes 6 historic monuments (3 in Seciu and 3 in the city itself), plus 3 new modern statues sculpted by Cristian Petru Balan from the United States. They are "Glass Breaker", a stainless steel statue, 6 m high, built in 2010, a single replica of the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a List of colossal sculpture in situ, colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the U ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, worked in fiberglass reinforced concrete (5 m from ground) and statuary group "Mihai Eminescu and Veronica Micle" in front of the Culture House "Mihai Eminescu", two busts on a common base (2.5 m), all molded fiberglass and reinforced concrete. Last two monuments were erected in July 2014. Since ancient monuments only one is classified as a monument of national importance, that being "Casa Rusescu" in Seciu, built in 1826.

Natives

Cristian Vlad Cristian Nicolae Vlad (born 18 February 1977 in Boldești-Scăeni, Prahova County) is a retired Romanian football player. He played as a midfielder. Club career He made his debut in the Divizia A at 20 years old for Petrolul Ploiești wher ...

Notes

References

*
Scrisori către Vasile Alecsandri: Teodor Diamant
(''Letters to Vasile Alecsandri: Teodor Diamant''), from wikisource. *
Boldeşti-Scăieni: Monograph of Boldeşti-Scăieni
(''by Cristian Petru Bălan, Ed. Premier, 2007''), from wikisource. * Romanian Government Decision no. 1697/2004, retrieved fro
legislatie.just.ro
on 27 August 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Boldesti-Scaieni Towns in Romania Populated places in Prahova County Localities in Muntenia