Balș () is a town in

Olt County Olt County () is a county (județ) of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in the historical regions of Oltenia and Muntenia (the regions are separated by the Olt river). The capital city is Slatina. History On 24 August 2017, the Olt County ...

Oltenia Oltenia (, also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions, with the alternative Latin names ''Wallachia Minor'', ''Wallachia Alutana'', ''Wallachia Caesarea'' between 1718 and 1739) is a historical province and geographical region of Romania ...

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, and ...

. The town administers three villages: Corbeni, Româna, and Teiș.

Geography

The town is situated on the

Wallachian Plain The Romanian Plain ( ro, Câmpia Română) is located in southern Romania and the easternmost tip of Serbia, where it is known as the Wallachian Plain ( sr, Vlaška nizija/Влашка низија). Part of the historical region of Wallachia, it ...

and lies on the banks of the river

Olteț The Olteț is a right tributary of the river Olt in Romania. It discharges into the Olt in Fălcoiu. Its total length is , and its drainage basin area is .Dolj County Dolj County (; originally meant ''Dol(no)- Jiu'', "lower Jiu", as opposed to '' Gorj'' (''upper Jiu'')) is a county ( județ) of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in Oltenia, with the capital city at Craiova. Demographics In 2011, the c ...

, west of the county seat, Slatina.

Etymology

There are three hypotheses about the town's name: # The locality was named after the Balșița brook. # The name comes from the Turkish word "Baliş" (honey), as there is a large apiculture area there. # A boyar named Balș settled here in the 5th or 6th century.

Population

* 1864 - 1,700 inhabitants. * 1884 - 2,500 inhabitants. * 1921 - 5,000 inhabitants. * 1938 - 5,300 inhabitants. * 1948 - 6,128 inhabitants. * 1973 - 11,578 inhabitants. * 1992 - 24,560 inhabitants. * 2002 - 21,195 inhabitants. The composition from the last census, sorted by nationality: : * 20,552 Romanians : * 619 Romani : * 27 others The composition from the last census, sorted by religion: : * 21,043

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonical ...

: * 47

Seventh-Day Adventists The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and i ...

: * 36 Baptists : * 19 Pentecostalists : * 8 Roman-Catholics : * 5

Atheists Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...

: * 32 other religion

History

* 1450 - The estimated date when Balș was established. * 1564 - First mention of Balș in a document

Natives

Nicușor Bănică Nicușor Răzvan Bănică (born 7 January 1984) is a Romanian former footballer who played as a goalkeeper for teams such as FC U Craiova, Poiana Câmpina, FC Drobeta Turnu-Severin or Metalurgistul Cugir, among others. In 2010, for a short per ...

Eugen Căpățână Eugen is a masculine given name which may refer to: * Archduke Eugen of Austria (1863–1954), last Habsburg Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order from 1894 to 1923 * Prince Eugen, Duke of Närke (1865–1947), Swedish painter, art collector, and pat ...

* Claudia Constantinescu * Ion Dumitra * Cerasela Pătrașcu * Daniel Stana

References

Towns in Romania Populated places in Olt County Localities in Oltenia Monotowns in Romania {{Olt-geo-stub