Send Gift Baskets to Popești-Leordeni, Romania

Both Popeşti and Leordeni were historically separate villages – Popești (named after popă, “priest,” akin to the word “pope”) and Leordeni (named after leurdă, “ramsons,” or Allium ursinum).

The villages were first recorded in the 16th century: Leordeni was a domain of the Băleanu family of Wallachian boyars, while Popeşti belonged to Radu Popescu’s ancestors. The latter was inherited by the Phanariote nobleman known under the name Alexandru Conduratu, who settled it with Bulgarians from around Nikopol and from the Banat; the newly created locality was called Popești-Conduratu or Pavlicheni, a reference to “Paulicians” (their ancestors’ names traditionally refer to Roman Catholics of the Bulgarian community).

Land reform in 1873 united Popeşti and Leordeni into one commune; successive land reforms divided boyar lands, and the Conduratu manor house passed to the Costa-Foru family (whose member Constantin Costa-Foru was a well-known journalist in the interwar period).

Popeşti-Leordeni is a growing suburb of Bucharest that has seen significant developments since the 2010s. However, this has been accompanied by criticism of its poor urban planning and lack of building permits.