The Dolj County is one of the founding members of the Network of the Three Seas Regions.
Dolj County Council is an authority of the Romanian regional administration, ensuring the general administration of the county in terms of economic and social development, management of the county’s patrimony, management of subordinated public services, and inter-institutional cooperation.
Dolj County Council adopts strategies, forecasts, and programs for economic-social and environmental development of the county or on its initiative, based on the proposals received from the local councils; orders, approves and monitors, in cooperation with the local communal, city, and municipal public administration authorities concerned, the necessary measures, including those of a financial nature, for their realization.
In the exercise of the attributions the county council ensures, according to its competencies and in accordance with the law, the necessary framework for the provision of public services of county interest regarding: education; social services for the protection of the child, of the disabled, of the elderly, of the family and of other persons or groups in social need; health; culture; youth; sports; public order; emergency situations; protection and restoration of the environment; conservation, restoration of historical and architectural monuments, parks, public gardens, and nature reserves; records of persons; bridges and public roads; community services of public utility of county interest; tourism; rural development; economic development; other public services established by law.
Dolj County has a southern-south-western position, centered on the lower course of the Jiu river – from which it has taken the name: Lower Jiu or DOLJIU. Dolj County stretches across 7,414 km2, representing 3.1 % of the total surface of the country, and is rated the 7th largest county in Romania. The Danube River, an important nautical access route, forms the southern natural border with Bulgaria on a length of 150 km. The relief consists of fertile areas in the Danube Valley as well as hills ranging from 30 to 350 meters in height.
A special feature is the simultaneous existence in the south of the county of the largest areas covered by sandy soils in the country (arranged for prosperous agriculture) and of a large number of lakes that were formed either by the overflowing Danube or by rain accumulations. The favourable geographic conditions, the fertile soil, the mild climate, the existence of some specific crafting and economic traditions as well as the skills, ambition, and tenacity of the inhabitants made it possible for Dolj to develop by itself from ancient times.
From an economic point of view, Dolj is one of the most important counties in the country. Having the largest number of communes as compared to other counties and being the 7th most populated county in the country, our county continues to be mainly agricultural.
Dolj County attracted a large number of national and foreign investors, the Ford Company being a good example in this context. As a matter of fact, at the country level, Dolj is currently situated in top positions in the production of beer, hosiery, wool and wool-like threads, textiles, prefabs of reinforced concrete and timber, furniture, meat products etc. At the same time, Dolj County ranks 13th in the length of roads with light asphaltic lining and 18th in the length of modernized roads – approx. 36% of the total of 2,438 km of public roads. Dolj County Council, which owns the county network of public roads of over 1,100 km, started, a few years ago, an ample programme of rehabilitation and modernization of the road infrastructure, particularly in the rural areas, by allocating significant financial resources from its budget, but also by attracting European or governmental funds.
The Investments of Dolj County Council
Dolj County Council has been the main factor involved in the modernization and development of key sectors, from transport and health to culture, economy, and environmental protection. These systematic efforts have been supported particularly by the non-reimbursable funds attracted by the institution – over 500 million euros were obtained only through EU programs, which places it among the top counties at the national level. As reported to the financial resources of the institution, these investments can be translated into an acceleration of the development of the county over three decades.
With respect to the transport infrastructure, recent years have brought the rehabilitation or modernization of over 240 kilometers of county roads, accounting for over a fifth of the total network. The investment process has intensified in the period between 2017 and 2019 so that, in this period alone, Dolj County Council received funding from grants for new road infrastructure projects with an aggregate value of over 140 million euros, targeting roads with a total length of about 210 km.
The main achievement of the County Council in this sector remains the revitalization of the Craiova International Airport, a complex strategic project, initiated in 2009 and funded with over 40 million euros from its own budget and EU grants. The project materialized in the creation of infrastructure at European standards, including upgraded and expanded terminals, a new control tower, a completely rehabilitated runway, a new system of beacons, a renovated boarding platform whose capacity increased 4 times, and in the purchase of modern equipment – internationally standardized security equipment, but also for servicing the aircraft. The efforts have delivered the expected results, allowing the opening of regular flights to the great cities of Europe and beyond and the increased activity is also an indicator validating the endeavors of Dolj County Council.
Culture was also a priority chapter in the strategy of the County Council and, due to the investments financed mainly from European funds, it led to the restoration of the buildings and the arrangement of the museum exhibitions of all the museums in the subordination of the institution – the Art Museum in Craiova and the three sections of the Oltenia Museum. Thus, emblematic buildings of historical and architectural value regained their brilliance, edifices like the sumptuous “Jean Mihail” Palace, the House of Bănie (the oldest civil building in Craiova), or the former Central School for Girls. In parallel, with resources from its own budget, the County Council constructed – a post-revolution premiere in this field – a new building for the Oltenia Museum which houses the Laboratory for Restoration and Conservation, one of the best in the country. Significant initiatives in this area were still being carried on while the monograph was being elaborated, namely two projects aiming at the creation of two institutions, unique at the national level – the Museum of Books and Romanian Exile and the “Constantin Brâncuși” International Centre.
A bit of history
The first known human communities on these lands are archaeologically attested by important discoveries that belong to the Old Stone Age. Much richer are the traces of habitation that exist from the Neolithic era. The first documentary mention of the county dates back to 1444, under the name “Balta County”, located in the vast plain of the Danube. In an archive document – dated June 1, 1475 – the city of Craiova, the current municipality, seat of Dolj County, is mentioned. Going deeper into the past, all historians confirm the location of Craiova on the Tabula Peutingeriana (a map of the Roman Empire) with the name Pelendova (correctly Pelendava). More recent research has revealed that for the first time, the medieval settlement appears under the Latin name Ponsiona – bridge over Jiu -, in a map made on the eve of the battle of Nicopole (1396), included in a manuscript that is in the National Library in Paris. It was also during this period that the foundations of the Great Bania of Oltenia were laid, based in Craiova, the most representative feudal institution after the Dominia. In the 18th century, Dolj County, together with most of Oltenia, became an area of extensive military operations during the wars fought by the great empires: Ottoman, Habsburg, and Tsarist. The succession of political and social events that took place in the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century – the Union of the Principalities, the conquest of Romania’s independence, agrarian reforms, etc. – they created favourable conditions for the development of the economy and capitalist relations. The formation of the Romanian unitary national state, in 1918, was welcomed in Dolj, as in the whole country, with the enthusiasm of all those who had heroically resisted on the battlefields or had acted boldly against the foreign occupation. The archival documents attest, beyond doubt, to the fact that in the period between the two world wars – terrible conflicts in which many inhabitants of these lands gave their blood tribute for the liberation of the country and the freedom of the Romanian people – Dolj experienced a significant development, especially in terms of economy and construction. In the national economy as a whole, in 1940 our county looked like an important agricultural county, with commercial and banking activity in full swing, but with a less developed, one-sided, fragmented industry, lacking a proper material basis. As was natural, Romania’s entry into the Second World War inevitably led to a marked economic and social regression. The predominantly agricultural character of the county was preserved and accentuated in the years that followed; essential changes in the economic structure appeared much later, with the industrialization policy, which led to a massive migration of the rural population to the urban environment. The Revolution of December 1989 – a crucial event that unleashed energies and determined the transition to a new Romania – created the possibility of the rapid emergence of the first seeds of the market economy and, subsequently, the establishment of new companies and companies for production, services, and utilities, simultaneously with the disappearance of others – especially the big “industrial giants” – through the new legislation in the field of the private economy, competition and the general business climate, which began to take shape and strengthen, from year to year, in our county, like in the whole country.