Dictionary Thesaurus Word Dynamo Quotes Reference Translator Spanish

Counties of Romania

List of counties

The judeţe (translated in English as "counties") are administrative units of Romania.

As of 2008, Romania is divided into 41 counties and one municipality, as follows:

Name	Common Abbrev	Capital	Area (km²)
Alba	AB	Alba Iulia	6,242
Arad	AR	Arad	7,754
Argeş	AG	Piteşti	6,862
Bacău	BC	Bacău	6,621
Bihor	BH	Oradea	7,544
Bistriţa-Năsăud	BN	Bistriţa	5,355
Botoşani	BT	Botoşani	4,986
Braşov	BV	Braşov	5,363
Brăila	BR	Brăila	4,766
Buzău	BZ	Buzău	6,103
Caraş-Severin	CS	Reşiţa	8,514
Călăraşi	CL	Călăraşi	5,088
Cluj	CJ	Cluj-Napoca	6,674
Constanţa	CT	Constanţa	7,071
Covasna	CV	Sfântu Gheorghe	3,710
Dâmboviţa	DB	Târgovişte	4,054
Dolj	DJ	Craiova	7,414
Galaţi	GL	Galaţi	4,466
Giurgiu	GR	Giurgiu	3,526
Gorj	GJ	Târgu Jiu	5,602
Harghita	HR	Miercurea Ciuc	6,639
Hunedoara	HD	Deva	7,063
Ialomiţa	IL	Slobozia	4,453
Iaşi	IS	Iaşi	5,476
Ilfov	IF	Buftea	1,583
Maramureş	MM	Baia Mare	6,304
Mehedinţi	MH	Drobeta-Turnu Severin	4,933
Mureş	MS	Târgu Mureş	6,714
Neamţ	NT	Piatra Neamţ	5,896
Olt	OT	Slatina	5,498
Prahova	PH	Ploieşti	4,716
Satu Mare	SM	Satu Mare	4,418
Sălaj	SJ	Zalău	3,864
Sibiu	SB	Sibiu	5,432
Suceava	SV	Suceava	8,553
Teleorman	TR	Alexandria	5,790
Timiş	TM	Timişoara	8,697
Tulcea	TL	Tulcea	8,499
Vaslui	VS	Vaslui	5,318
Vâlcea	VL	Râmnicu Vâlcea	5,765
Vrancea	VN	Focşani	4,857
Bucureşti	B	(Bucharest municipality)	228

History

The earliest organization into "judeţe" was in the 15th century and each judeţ was ruled by a "jude", a person who had administrative and judicial functions. The modern administrative division into "judeţe" was done during the 19th century using the French departments system as an example: for each judeţ there exists a "prefect", who is the representative of the government to the county and the head of the local administration. Until 1948 each "judeţ" was divided into a number of "plăşi" (singular "plasă"), with each administered by a "pretor" (from the Latin "praetor"), named by the "prefect".

In 1938, King Carol II modified the Constitution, and after that the law of administration of the Romanian territory. It resulted ten "ţinuturi" (approx. translation: "lands"), ruled by "Rezidenţi Regali" (approx. translation "Royal Residents"), appointed directly by the King. Due to World War II, the Second Vienna Award, the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact and the loss of territory that Romania suffered, this style of administration did not last long, the "judeţe" being reintroduced, until the rise of communism, in 1948.

Name	Alternative Name	Capital
Ţinutul Jiu	Ţinutul Olt	Craiova
Ţinutul Argeş	Ţinutul Bucegi	Bucharest
Ţinutul Mării	-	Constanţa
Ţinutul Dunării	Ţinutul Dunărea de Jos	Galaţi
Ţinutul Nistru	-	Chişinău
Ţinutul Prut	-	Iaşi
Ţinutul Suceava	-	Cernăuţi
Ţinutul Mureş	Ţinutul Alba-Iulia	Alba-Iulia
Ţinutul Crişuri	Ţinutul Someş	Cluj
Ţinutul Timiş	-	Timişoara

The Communist party changed it to the Russian model (in raions), but it reverted to the current system (in 1968). In 1981 the former counties of Ilfov and Ialomiţa were re-organised into the present-day counties of Giurgiu, Călăraşi, Ialomiţa and Ilfov. Until 1995 Ilfov was not a proper county, but instead a dependency of Bucharest ("Sectorul Agricol Ilfov").