Grivița

Grivița () is a district 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 o ...

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 ...

, centered on the Grivița Railway Yards (''Atelierele CFR Grivița''), which were and still are an important landmark within the manufacturing landscape of the city. Located near

Gara de Nord Bucharest North railway station ( ro, Gara București Nord; officially Bucharest North Group A) is the main railway station in Bucharest and the largest railway station in Romania. The vast majority of mainline trains to and from Bucharest origi ...

, their history dates back to the late decades of the 19th century, when they were developed in order to perform maintenance and overhaul of railway equipment serving

Căile Ferate Române Căile Ferate Române (; abbreviated as the CFR) is the state railway carrier of Romania. As of 2014, the railway network of Romania consists of , of which (37.4%) are Railway electrification system, electrified. The total track length is , ...

. The name reflects the Romanian spelling for '' Grivitsa'', a village near

Pleven Pleven ( bg, Плèвен ) is the seventh most populous city in Bulgaria. Located in the northern part of the country, it is the administrative centre of Pleven Province, as well as of the subordinate Pleven municipality. It is the biggest ...

, where one of the Ottoman redoubts in the Plevna's defenses was stormed and captured with heavy casualties 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 ...

during the

Romanian War of Independence The Romanian War of Independence is the name used in Romanian historiography to refer to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), following which Romania, fighting on the Russian side, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. On , Romania and the R ...

(''see

Siege of Plevna The siege of Pleven, was a major battle of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, fought by the joint army of Russia and Romania against the Ottoman Empire. After the Russian army crossed the Danube at Svishtov, it began advancing towards ...

''). In honor of this victory, Calea Târgoviștei, a street in Bucharest that led to the road that connected the capital with the city of

Târgoviște Târgoviște (, alternatively spelled ''Tîrgoviște''; german: Tergowisch) is a city and county seat in Dâmbovița County, Romania. It is situated north-west of Bucharest, on the right bank of the Ialomița River. Târgoviște was one of ...

, is renamed Calea Griviței. What initially started only to serve the city of Bucharest and the surrounding areas, grew over time into a cornerstone of the entire railway industry of Romania. In the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relative ...

, after the start of the Great Depression in Romania, Grivița Railway Yards also become a focal point of the

labor movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

. The Grivița Strike of 1933 and its violent repression by the authorities are still remembered in Romania. During the

communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

, their name was changed to ''Grivița Roșie'' (" Red Grivița"), in memory of the 1933 events. The area surrounding the Yards, one of the oldest of the city of Bucharest, became known as ''Cartierul Grivița'' ("Grivița Borough"), populated by the workers of Grivița Railway Yards. To this day it remains a blue collar neighborhood. Districts of Bucharest Rail transport in Romania {{Romania-geo-stub