Fundulea is an agricultural town in

Călărași County Călărași () is a county (județ) of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in Muntenia, with the county seat at Călărași. Demographics In 2011, it had a population of 285,050 and a population density of 56.02/km2. * Romanians – 95% ...

, Muntenia,

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 ...

. It is on the Bărăgan Plain, approximately 30 km east of the capital

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 of ...

, in the historical region of

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 ...

. It has a population of 7.851. The A2 freeway and Mostiștea River pass through its vicinity. Two villages are administered by the town: Alexandru Ioan Cuza and Gostilele. It officially became a town in 1989, as a result of the

Romanian rural systematization program The Romanian rural systematization program was a social engineering program undertaken by Nicolae Ceaușescu's Romania primarily at the end of the 1980s. The legal framework for this program was established as early as 1974, but it only began in ...

. Historically, Fundulea's outskirts housed a military base maintained by the

Romanian Army The Romanian Land Forces ( ro, Forțele Terestre Române) is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. In recent years, full professionalisation and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the Lan ...

. The town is home to an agricultural institute, the National Agricultural Research and Development Institute ( ro, Institutul Național de Cercetare-Dezvoltare Agricolă, INCDA). A

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

known as Lake Fundulea, fed by water from the Mostiștea, is a popular spot for

sport fishing Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing or game fishing, is fishing for leisure, exercise or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is professional fishing for profit (economics), profit; or subsistence fishing ...

History

During the 19th century, the village of Fundulea housed the ''Sionu'' estate of writer Gheorghe Sion, which, through the 1923 marriage of his daughter Marica, became the property of eccentric novelist, poet, and

heraldist Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch ...

Mateiu Caragiale. Perpessicius, "Tabel cronologic", in Mateiu Caragiale, '' Craii de Curtea-Veche'', Editura pentru Literatură, Bucharest, 1965, p.XIX, XXI. Caragiale intended to turn it into a private domain, and reportedly flew an ensign he had created for himself. The INCDA was created in 1962, during the Communist period, through the merger between the Research Institute for

Maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

Cultivation (''Institutul de Cercetări pentru Cultura Porumbului'') and the Field Cultivation Department (''Departamentul Culturilor de Câmp'') of the Romanian Agronomic Institute.

Natives

Fundulea is the birthplace of the following notable people: * Augustin Călin (b. 1980), football manager * Mircea Nedelciu (1950–1999), a novelist in whose honor a local primary school was named in 2002 Ion Bogdan Lefter
"Școala 'Mircea Nedelciu' "
in ''

Observator Cultural ''Observator Cultural'' (meaning "The Cultural Observer" in English) is a weekly literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe ...

'', Nr. 143, November 2002 * Gabriel Oprea (b. 1961), general and politician, who was acting Prime Minister in 2015

References

Populated places in Călărași County Localities in Muntenia Towns in Romania {{Călăraşi-geo-stub