Belcești is a commune in

Iași County Iași County () is a county (județ) of Romania, in Western Moldavia, with the administrative seat at Iași. It is the most populous county in Romania, after the Municipality of Bucharest (which has the same administrative level as that of a c ...

Western Moldavia Moldavia ( ro, Moldova), also called Western Moldavia or Romanian Moldavia, is the historic and geographical part of the former Principality of Moldavia situated in eastern and north-eastern Romania. Until its union with Wallachia in 1859, the P ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

, situated on the

Bahlui The Bahlui is the largest river of the city of Iași, in eastern Romania. It is a right tributary of the river Jijia. Its name is derived from Cuman and it means "muddy river". The Bahlui has a length of 119 km and a catchment area of 1967&n ...

River 44 km from Iași. One of the county's largest communes, with a population of 10,555 in 2011, it is composed of six villages: Belcești, Liteni, Munteni, Satu Nou, Tansa, and Ulmi. Belcești is situated at 45 km from Iași, on the Iași-Podu Iloaei-Hârlău line. In the vicinity of Belcești, the important Tansa-Belcești dam was built on the Bahlui River in order to prevent flooding. Most Belcești residents work in agriculture, with fishing another livelihood.

History

Belcești was first mentioned in historical documents in 1420. Belcești's citizens appear again in the historical documents of Moldavia on April 5, 1448, under the reign of Petru Mușat. On May 12, 1489, Belcești appears in the historical documents of Moldavia with the royal church and court between the villages given by Stephen the Great to the boyars Negrescu and Ivașcu.History
at the Belcești Town Hall site In the documents that are at the State Archives of Iași, we find mentioned that the ruler Petru Șchiopu at 4 February 1579 gives the village of Belcești with all the mills, to the Monastery Of Galata in Iași. Another village component of the commune, Ulmi, was also given by Petru Șchiopu to the Monastery of St. Paraskevi in Iasi, but the first document of giving was not preserved. So it is that the first mention about the village of Ulmi appears On August 2, 1597, during the reign of Ieremie Movilă. This documentary attestation is preceded by various vestiges belonging to older times, such as the coins discovered in Belcești during the reign of Alexander the Good (1400-1432). In the documents arrived to us, it is specified that the decision of these villages was preserved "from the age" suggesting the idea that at the time of their elaboration the villages were old. At first, at its appearance, Belcești was situated at east of the current village Ulmi, and between 1805 and 1820 a part of the inhabitants moved to the left side of Bahlui river forming the village Văleni — the other villages being formed by impropriety and swarming.

References

* ''România - ghid turistic''. Editura Sport-turism, 1983. * ''România - Atlas geografic''. Communes in Iași County Localities in Western Moldavia {{Iaşi-geo-stub