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Revision as of 21:51, 29 November 2002 by Gabbe (talk | contribs) (fixed a link)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Bucharest (population 2 million, Romanian, Bucureşti) is the capital city and industrial and commercial centre of Romania, located in the southeast of the country, on the Dîmbovia river.
Established in the 14th century, Bucharest is first mentioned under its present name as a residence in 1459 of the Walachian prince Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler). It was the princely seat of Walachia and from 1698 and of the united provinces of Walachia and Moldavia from February 1859 (renamed Romania in December 1861 while still nominally subject to the Ottoman Empire).
The city became the capital of an independent Romania in 1878. The city's population increased from 32,000 in 1800 and 282,000 in 1900 to the present-day number slightly over two million (excluding the largely rural outer ring of Ilfov county).
During Nicolae Ceausescu's communist dictatorship, most of the historical part of the city, including old churches, was distroyed, to be replaced with grandomanic socialist buildings.