Scientific Annals of "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi
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Settlement and toponomy in the Pătârlagele depression: the Buzau valley settlements between Râpile and Zahareşti
Get PDFThe Subcarpathians are known as a region that has been well-settled since early times, but it is also evident that many villages arise from the expansion of subsistence farming from the river terraces to the hillsides during a period of acute population pressure and economic restructuring in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This phase of growth is investigated in the context of the Pătârlagele Depression, concentrating on four settlement groups on the eastern side of the Buzău valley: the Măguricea, Râpile, Tega and Zahareşti localities; with particular reference to the toponomy presented by large-scale maps and key texts (especially Iorgulescu’s epic work of 1892) in addition to the very rich oral evidence. The paper pays attention to both the Buzău terraces and the adjacent landslide surfaces because the latter were also attractive to pioneer peasant farmers on account of their soil fertility and moisture context at a time when the terraces were being used more exclusively for a market economy. Some areas used today for hay, pasture and plum orchards were well cultivated until cereal lands were acquired in the Bărăgan steppe under the 1923 land reform and economic diversification accelerated after 1945. Toponomy is therefore presented as a major source for understanding an important phase of rural settlement. But while the placenames contribute much of interest in terms of ecology and environmental potentials in the light of survival by extended families and other small communities there is little reliable information on the origins of the earlier settlements
Tourist function potential assessment for a sustainable development of small towns: the case of Târgu Ocna
Get PDFThe present paper analyses the way that tourist function can be connected to sustainable development perspectives in the case of a small town. Târgu Ocna is a resort of national interest with old tourist traditions, but having a fluctuating line with regard to the turn to profit of its own potential by an appropriate tourist infrastructure. The study comprises, on the one hand, the evaluation of Târgu Ocna tourist identity within the county context, the tourist function and accessibility of tourist objectives within the intra-urban areas and, on the other hand, the analysis of the public perception on the tourist offer and accessibility and the place of tourism within the social-economic urban system. Gaining an insight on these aspects as well as on the local and regional context are premises for the delineation of a comprehensive tourist function development as an element of the overall sustainable development of the town
The progress of the trade function in the municipality of Roman
Get PDFFor the municipality of Roman (old Moldavian borough, formally attested in 1392, favorably positioned, from a geographical perspective, at the confluence of two rivers: Moldova and Siret, on the grand trade route across Moldavia), the trade activity, along with the strategic function, underlied the foundation of the borough that later became the medieval town. Within this context, after a brief overview of the trade function in the Middle and Modern Ages (regarding the factors that influenced the trade with agricultural, manufactured and industrial products, the traders’ number, the positioning of the marketplaces, storehouses and fairs), we were able to configure - based on more accurate and enriched statistics, for the contemporary period and its two subdivisions - the present commercial profile of the town, as well as its particular features, in terms of quality, quantity, dynamics, structure, position and marketing. Thus, we proceeded to the study of the following items: the dynamics and typology of the commercial unities (using as a criteria the personnel number, the type of the practiced trade, the merchandise structure), the urban positioning, the dynamics of the personnel involved in trade activities, as well as Roman’s external commercial partners. Using statistical indices and indicators for dynamics, structure and density, we made references to the level of development of the trade function (and mainly of the wholesale and retail trade put to the service of approximately 70 000 inhabitants) and to Roman’s immediate, near and peripheral areas of commercial influence. As a conclusion, we made some propositions regarding the expansion of the commercial function that currently employs over 3 000 people (that is 12.3 % of the urban active population)