Târgovişte
judetul Dâmboviţa
This is where my vacation started and ended. Târgovişte (Targoviste) is the County Seat of judetul Dâmboviţa (Dambovita County). It's where my wife Rodica lived before moving to America. It's where her sister-in-law Elena (who drove me around Romania) lives now. It's where I might live in the future.
Târgovişte was formerly spelled Tîrgovişte (Tirgoviste) during the Communist period. However, after the fall of Communism in 1989, the spelling was changed to its present form. The same happened with the county name: Dîmboviţa became Dâmboviţa. Of course, many people (including my wife) refuse to give up on its former spelling. After all, the sound of "â" in Romanian is certainly much closer to an "i" sound than an "a" sound. If you have someone simulate choking you with their hands around your neck while you say the letter "i" you'll have some idea of how both "â" and "î" sound.
Today Târgovişte is a bustling market town that dates from 1396. For nearly 250 years (1418-1659) it was the capital of Wallachia before the capital was moved to Bucharest. During the 15th century, Vlad Ţepeş (Vlad the Impaler, or Dracula) lived in Târgovişte. Tourists can visit the ruins of his castle where he lived while he was the prince of Wallachia.
On 22 December 1989, all Romanian eyes were once again on Târgovişte, 49 km northwest of Bucharest.
Following anti-Ceauşescu protests in Bucharest, Communist president and dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu (Ceausescu) and his wife Elena fled the capital by helicopter. Just hours before their arrest, they hijacked a car in Titu, 44 km northwest of Târgovişte, where they were spotted by two soldiers who finally caught up with them in Târgovişte.
The Ceauşescus were promptly taken to the military garrison in town, where they were tried in secret on Christmas Day, and shot by a firing squad three hours later. Once again all eyes in Romania were glued to their TV sets as they watched (along with the rest of the world) the hastily arranged court session and execution by firing squad inside Târgovişte's military garrison to prove the two were really dead.
I will include many more details about this hated and cruel dictator in my Romanian History section.
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