Târgu Ocna (; ) is a town in
Bacău County
Bacău County () is a county (județ) of Romania, in Western Moldavia, with its capital city at Bacău. It has one commune, Ghimeș-Făget, in Transylvania.
Geography
This county has a total area of .
In the western part of the county there a ...
,
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 administers two villages, Poieni and Vâlcele.
The town is situated on the left bank of the
Trotuș River, an affluent of the
Siret, and on a branch railway which crosses the
Ghimeș Pass from
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 ...
into
Transylvania
Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...
. Târgu Ocna is built among the
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinav ...
on bare hills formed of
rock salt.
In fact, the English translation of Ocna is
salt mine.
Târgu Ocna's main industry is salt production, as it is the largest provider in Moldavia. Other industries include
wood processing
Wood processing is an engineering discipline in the wood industry comprising the production of forest products, such as pulp and paper, construction materials, and tall oil. Paper engineering is a subfield of wood processing.
The major wo ...
,
coal mining
Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...
, steel producing, and
petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...
-based industries.
People
*
Gabriela Adameșteanu (born 1942), writer
*
Sorin Antohi (born 1957), political scientist
*
Miron Grindea (1909–1995), journalist
*
Dan Iuga (born 1945), pistol shooter
*
Costache Negri (1812–1876), writer
*
Mihăiță Nițulescu ( 1969–2022), boxer
*
Ion Talianu (1898–1956), actor
*
Traian Vasai (born 1929), painter
See also
*
Târgu Ocna Prison
References
Populated places in Bacău County
Localities in Western Moldavia
Towns in Romania
Mining communities in Romania
Market towns in Moldavia
Spa towns in Romania
{{Bacău-geo-stub