Otopeni () is a town in

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 ...

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

, some north of

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north ...

along the DN1 road to

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 commun ...

. It has 15,850 inhabitants, of which 99.0% are ethnic Romanians. One village, Odăile, is administered by the city.

Henri Coandă International Airport Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport ( ro, Aeroportul Internațional Henri Coandă București) is Romania's busiest international airport, located in Otopeni, north of Bucharest's city centre. It is currently one of the two airports ...

is located inside Otopeni. The head office of the airline TAROM is located inside the International Departures Terminal in the airport. In addition the head office of Țiriac Air is in Otopeni.

History

The oldest discovered human settlements in the region are very old. On the occasion of excavations in 1966 to expand the nearby

, archaeologist Margaret Constantiniu of the

History Museum of Bucharest History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

identified fragments of ancient

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and po ...

and other objects that belonged to an important human settlements existing since the first period of the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

. In an overlay was discovered another settlement are dated to the 10th century. By charter of 14 February 1587, Mihnea Turcitul –

voivode Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to 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 s ...

– gave Holy Trinity Monastery half to the village of Islazul and half to the village of Hodopeni (today Otopeni) mills and gypsies. On 20 May 1620, Maria, great Băneasa, Holy Trinity monastery was given back (later Radu Vodă) half the village Hodopeni with Rumani, given by Master Villa, commanding Ruman listen. Historian

Constantin Giurescu Constantin Giurescu may refer to: * Constantin Giurescu (historian) (1875–1918), Romanian historian, titular member of the Romanian Academy * Constantin C. Giurescu (1901–1977), Romanian historian, member of the Romanian Academy, and professo ...

argued that the name Hodopeni comes from Hodopa or Hodoba. At the end of the 19th century, Otopeni town was part of

Dâmbovița County Dâmbovița County (also spelt ''Dîmbovița'', ) is a county (județ) of Romania, in Muntenia, with the capital city at Târgoviște, the most important economic, political, administrative and cultural center of the county. It has an area of ...

, Ilfov province, consisting of two villages, Lower Otopeni and Upper Otopeni, with 851 inhabitants in total. The commune operated a school with 29 students and two churches (one in each village). The village chambers were then part of the town Bucoveni, with 125 inhabitants. Otopeni was transformed into a city as part of

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( , ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician and dictator. He was the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and the second and last Communist leader of Romania. He w ...

's Systematization plan. It replaced the semidetached houses with four-story high apartment buildings.Darrick Danta, "Ceaușescu's Bucharest", ''

Geographical Review The ''Geographical Review'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Routledge on behalf of the American Geographical Society. It covers all aspects of geography. The editor-in-chief is David H. Kaplan (Kent State University). H ...

'' 83, no. 2 (1993)

Local government

The mayor of Otopeni is Constantin Silviu Gheorghe, from the National Liberal Party. The Otopeni Local Council has 17 councillors, even though before the 2008 local elections, it only had 15. It is considered to be a safe Liberal district, currently having the following party composition:

Natives

* Lucian Croitoru * Mihai Dobrescu

References

External links

Otopeni
{{Authority control Towns in Romania Populated places in Ilfov County Localities in Muntenia