Send Gift Baskets to Râmnicu Vâlcea, Romania

The area was inhabited as far back as Dacian and Roman times, and a castrum stood there (Buridava or Burridava, previously a Dacian town). The Middle Ages saw the construction of a new fortress on the site. In 1388, Râmnicu Vâlcea was designated “the princely town of Râmnic” by Prince Mircea cel Bătrân, and in 1392 was established as the seat of a Vâlcea County (8 January 1392).

1505 is the date of the town seal. In 1529, a boyar conspiracy led to the murder of Prince Radu of Afumați in Cetuia, the actual fortress. The fortress served as the residence of the Oltenian Bans and, since 1504, the Orthodox bishops of the Râmnic Diocese.

It became an important cultural center During Matei Basarab and Constantin Brâncoveanu’s reigns. In this area was built the first paper mill and printing press in Romania (see Anthim the Iberian). During the Habsburg monarchy’s occupation of Oltenia between 1718 and 1739, the town suffered heavy damage, and its purpose was again reduced to that of a fortress.

On 29 July 1848, during the Wallachian Revolution, Romans were greeted with Deşteaptate-te! A song composed by Anton Pann (whose memorial house lies in the center of the town) and written by Andrei Mureșanu (the current national anthem of Romania) was sung for the first time in Râmnicu Vâlcea.

In an attempt to combat anti-revolutionary forces from Imperial Russia and the Ottoman Empire, Gheorghe Magheru gathered his military power in Râureni, now part of the town.

The town was completely rebuilt in the 1980s, combining socialist realism and local vernacular architecture (of Brâncovenesc style).

As the path of total darkness for the Solar eclipse of 11 August 1999 passed through the town, it was the location of the town’s peak point. Cybercrime became a prominent feature of the city around 2005.