Comănești (; hu, Kománfalva) is a town in

Bacău County Bacău County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in Western Moldavia, with its capital city at Bacău. It has one commune, Ghimeș-Făget, in Transylvania. Geography This county has a total area of . In the western part of the county the ...

Western Moldavia Moldavia ( ro, Moldova), also called Western Moldavia or Romanian Moldavia, is the historic and geographical part of the former Principality of Moldavia situated in eastern and north-eastern Romania. Until its union with Wallachia in 1859, the Pr ...

, Romania, with a population of 19,996 as of 2021. It is situated on the river

Trotuș The Trotuș ( hu, Tatros) is a river in eastern Romania, a right tributary of the river Siret (river), Siret. It emerges from the Ciuc Mountains in the Eastern Carpathians and joins the Siret in Domnești-Sat near Adjud after passing through Comă ...

, which flows between the Ciuc and the

Tarcău Tarcău is a commune in Neamț County, Western Moldavia, Romania. It is composed of six villages: Ardeluța, Brateș, Cazaci, Schitu Tarcău, Straja, and Tarcău. The commune is located in the southwestern part of the county, on the border with B ...

mountains; of the course of the river pass through Comănești. The town administers two villages, Podei and Vermești.

History

The area of the town of Comănești has been inhabited since the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

period - Neolithic remains were found in the Vermești area of the town. The name is derived from the

Cumans The Cumans (or Kumans), also known as Polovtsians or Polovtsy (plural only, from the Russian language, Russian Exonym and endonym, exonym ), were a Turkic people, Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confede ...

who once ruled the region. Its first written record dates from 1657, and its first presence on a map from the 1696 '' Sanson Map''. From the late 18th century onwards, the town was in the domain of the Ghica family of

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 ...

s, who remained an important presence in the area until the middle of the 20th century. The Ghica Palace (now housing the local museum), the park in front of the museum, and the railway stations are testimonies to their presence in the town. During the summers of 2004, 2005, and 2006, Comănești suffered severe flooding of the Trotuș. Some specialists have associated those floods with the deforestation in the area. In 2006 and 2008, Comănești was the site of large explosion-like sounds that were not identified.

Demographics

At the 2021 census, the town had 19,996 inhabitants; of those, 84.7% were

Romanians The Romanians ( ro, români, ; dated exonym ''Vlachs'') are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking ethnic group. Sharing a common Culture of Romania, Romanian culture and Cultural heritage, ancestry, and speaking the Romanian language, they l ...

and 5%

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

Natives

Alexandru Corban Alexandru Corban (born 29 January 1998) is a Romanian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for CSM Bacău. Honours Aerostar Bacău *Liga III The Liga 3, most often spelled as Liga III, is the third level of the Romanian footb ...

(born 1998), footballer * Andrei Florean (born 1992), footballer *

Anca Grigoraș Anca Gabriela Grigoraș (later Mihăilescu, born 8 November 1957) is a retired Romanian artistic gymnast Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is gover ...

(born 1957), artistic gymnast *

Ionuț Iftimoaie Ionuţ Iftimoaie (born August 26, 1978) is a retired Romanian kickboxer. Besides the K-1, Iftimoaie has fought for a number of other promotions including the Local Kombat and SUPERKOMBAT. He defeated names such as Freddy Kemayo, Petar Majstorov ...

(born 1978), kickboxer *

Ionela Loaieș Ionela Loaieș (born February 2, 1979 in Comănești) is a Romanian artistic gymnast Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Fédérati ...

(born 1979), artistic gymnast * Iulian Petrache (born 1991), footballer * Ilie Verdeț (1925 – 2001), communist politician, Prime Minister from 1979 to 1982

Industry

As of 2003, Comănești had an unemployment rate of 18.1%, much higher than the country's average, and the town was declared an underdeveloped region. The town is in the center of a large

coal field Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

and there are also smaller amounts of oil in the area. The

Comănești Coal Mine Comănești Coal Mine is an underground mine exploitation, one of the largest in Romania located in Comănești, Bacău County Bacău County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in Western Moldavia, with its capital city at Bacău. It has o ...

, which in 1989 employed 5,000 people, was finally closed down in 2005, leaving the last group of miners (260 in all) unemployed. The other major industry of the town is

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. Th ...

, but the large lumberyard and factory were also closed; this area of enterprise is now dominated by small local businesses, but in the last few years some international investors started to appear in the city, especially in retail and commerce. There have been new initiatives in recent years to attract investment into the area in both the industrial and tourism sectors.

Train station

The Comănești train station was built in 1899, modeled on the

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

and

Curtea de Argeș Curtea de Argeș () is a municipality in Romania on the left bank of the river Argeș, where it flows through a valley of the Southern Carpathians (the Făgăraș Mountains), on the railway from Pitești to the Turnu Roșu Pass. It is part of ...

railway stations. The design was done by the Italian architect , while the construction was done by the engineer

Elie Radu Elie and Earlsferry is a coastal town and former royal burgh in Fife, and parish, Scotland, situated within the East Neuk beside Chapel Ness on the north coast of the Firth of Forth, eight miles east of Leven. The burgh comprised the linked ...

References

External links

*
Official website
*
City Hall Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Comanesti Populated places in Bacău County Localities in Western Moldavia Towns in Romania Monotowns in Romania Mining communities in Romania Ghica family