''Plasă'' (, plural ''plăși'' ) was a territorial division unit of

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

, ranking below

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

('' județ'') and above commune. It was headed by a '' Pretor'', appointed by the county Prefect. The institution headed by the Pretor was called ''Pretură''. The division of counties into ''plăși'' was used starting from the rule of

Carol I Carol I or Charles I of Romania (born Karl Eitel Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen; 20 April 1839 – ), was the monarch of Romania from 1866 to his death in 1914, ruling as Prince (''Domnitor'') from 1866 to 1881, and as ...

as '' Domnitor'', throughout the existence of a Romanian Kingdom, and during the first two years of the Romanian People's Republic, until they were replaced in 1950 by

raion A raion (also spelt rayon) is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet states. The term is used for both a type of subnational entity and a division of a city. The word is from the French (meaning 'honeycomb, department'), and is c ...

s, following the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

system. In 1938, the country's 71 ''județe'' were divided into 429 ''plăși''. Petre Mihai Băcanu
"Cum ar trebui să arate harta redesenată a României?"
March 11, 2010; accessed February 17, 2013

References

Former subdivisions of Romania Types of administrative division {{romania-stub