Pângărați is a commune in

Neamț County Neamț County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in the historic region of Moldavia, with the county seat at Piatra Neamț. The county takes its name from the Neamț River. Demographics Population In 2011, it had a population of 470,766 ...

Western Moldavia Western Moldavia (, ''Moldova de Apus'', or , also known as Moldavia, is the core historic and geographical part of the former Principality of Moldavia situated in eastern and north-eastern Romania. Until its union with Wallachia in 1878, the P ...

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 ...

. It is composed of six villages: Oanțu, Pângărați, Pângărăcior, Poiana, Preluca, and Stejaru. The commune is located in the central-western part of the county, in an area delimited by the southern slopes of the and the northern slopes of the

Tarcău Mountains The Tarcău Mountains (, ) are a mountain range, part of the Moldavian-Muntenian Carpathians of the Outer Eastern Carpathians. The range is located between the latitudes 46°25′ and 46°57′ N and between the longitudes 25°52′ and 26°28 ...

. The mountains are separated by the river

Bistrița (; , archaic , Transylvanian Saxon: , ) is the capital city of Bistrița-Năsăud County, in northern Transylvania, Romania. It is situated on the Bistrița River. The city has a population of 78,877 inhabitants as of 2021 and administers s ...

, to which converge on the left the tributaries Stejaru, Pângărați, and Pângărăcior and on the right the river Oanțu. Along the Bistrița valley there are two

anthropic Anthropic PBC is an American artificial intelligence (AI) startup company founded in 2021. Anthropic has developed a family of large language models (LLMs) named Claude as a competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. According to the ...

lakes: the and, partially, the . In Stejaru village there is the Dimitrie Leonida hydroelectric power plant, which is fed from

Lake Izvorul Muntelui The Lake Izvorul Muntelui, also known as Lake Bicaz, is the largest yew Yew is a common name given to various species of trees. It is most prominently given to any of various coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus '' Taxus'': * European yew or common yew (''Taxus baccata'') * Pacific yew or western yew ('' Taxus ...

that grow there are protected. The commune is crossed by the

national National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

road , which connects it to the town of

Bicaz Bicaz () is a town in Neamț County, Western Moldavia, Romania situated in the eastern Carpathian Mountains near the confluence of the Bicaz and Bistrița Rivers and near Lake Bicaz, an artificial lake formed by the Bicaz Dam on the Bistri� ...

, to the west, and to the county seat,

Piatra Neamț Piatra Neamț (; ; ) is the capital city of Neamț County, in the historical region of Western Moldavia, in northeastern Romania. Because of its very privileged location in the Divisions of the Carpathians, Eastern Carpathian mountains, it is con ...

, to the east. The

Bacău Bacău ( ; , ; ; ) is the main city in Bacău County, Romania. With a population of 136,087 (as of 2021 census), Bacău is the 14th largest city in Romania. The city is situated in the historical region of Moldavia, at the foothills of the ...

–Bicaz CFR railway also passes through the commune, which is served by the Pângărați station and the Stejaru passenger stop. The , which currently houses 36 monks, was built in 1560 by

ktitor ''Ktetor'' () or ''ktitor'' (; ka, ქტიტორი ; ), meaning 'founder', is a title given in the Middle Ages to the provider of funds for construction or reconstruction of an Eastern Orthodox church or monastery, for the addition of icon ...

Alexandru Lăpușneanu Alexandru IV Lăpușneanu (1499 – 5 May 1568) was ruler of Moldavia Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory ...

, ruler of

Moldavia Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially in ...

Natives

Neculai Onțanu Neculai Onțanu (born September 13, 1949) is a Romanian politician who has served as mayor of Bucharest's Sector 2. Biography Born in Pângărați, Neamț County, Onțanu worked as construction worker between 1968 and 1995, becoming a constr ...

(born 1949), politician *

Nicu Stroia Nicu Florin Stroia (born 20 October 1971) is a Romanian gymnast. He competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics and the 1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and comm ...

(born 1971), gymnast

References

Communes in Neamț County Localities in Western Moldavia {{Neamţ-geo-stub