Fundulea is an agricultural town in

Călărași County Călărași () is a county (județ) of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in Muntenia, with the county seat at Călărași. Demographics In 2011, it had a population of 285,050 and a population density of 56.02/km2. * Romanians – 94.1% ...

Muntenia Muntenia (, also known in English as Greater Wallachia) is a historical region of Romania, part of Wallachia (also, sometimes considered Wallachia proper, as ''Muntenia'', ''Țara Românească'', and the rarely used ''Valahia'' are synonyms in Ro ...

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

. It is on the

Bărăgan Plain The Bărăgan Plain ( ) is a steppe plain in south-eastern Romania. It makes up much of the eastern part of the Wallachian Plain. The region is known for its black soil and a rich humus, and is mostly a cereal-growing area. It is bounded on the s ...

, approximately east of the capital

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, in the historical region of

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ; : , : ) is a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia was traditionally divided into two sections, Munteni ...

. It has a population of 6,714 (as of 2021). The A2 freeway and Mostiștea River pass through its vicinity. Two villages are administered by the town: Alexandru Ioan Cuza and Gostilele. It officially became a town in 1989, as a result of the

Romanian rural systematization program The Romanian rural systematization program was a Social engineering (political science), social engineering program undertaken by Nicolae Ceaușescu's Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania primarily at the end of the 1980s. The legal framework f ...

. Historically, Fundulea's outskirts housed a military base maintained by the

Romanian Army The Romanian Land Forces () is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. Since 2007, full professionalization and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the Land Forces. The Romanian Land Forc ...

. The town is home to an agricultural institute, the National Agricultural Research and Development Institute (, INCDA). A

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

known as Lake Fundulea, fed by water from the Mostiștea, is a popular spot for

sport fishing Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing or game fishing, is fishing for leisure, exercise or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is occupational fishing activities done for profit; or subsistence fishing, ...

History

During the 19th century, the village of Fundulea housed the ''Sionu'' estate of writer

Gheorghe Sion Gheorghe Sion (May 22, 1822 – October 1, 1892) was a Moldavian, later Romanian poet, playwright, translator and memoirist. He was born in Mamornița to '' paharnic'' (royal cup-bearer) Ioniță Sion and his wife Eufrosina (''née'' Schina), th ...

, which, through the 1923 marriage of his daughter Marica, became the property of eccentric novelist, poet, and heraldist

Mateiu Caragiale Mateiu Ion Caragiale (; – 17 January 1936), also credited as Matei or Matheiu, or in the antiquated version Mateiŭ,Sorin Antohi"Romania and the Balkans. From Geocultural Bovarism to Ethnic Ontology" in ''Tr@nsit online'', Institut für die Wi ...

Perpessicius Perpessicius (; pen name of Dumitru S. Panaitescu, also known as Panait Șt. Dumitru, D. P. Perpessicius and Panaitescu-Perpessicius; October 22, 1891 – March 29, 1971) was a Romanian literary historian and critic, poet, essayist and fiction wr ...

, "Tabel cronologic", in Mateiu Caragiale, '' Craii de Curtea-Veche'', Editura pentru Literatură, Bucharest, 1965, p.XIX, XXI. Caragiale intended to turn it into a private domain, and reportedly flew an ensign he had created for himself. The INCDA was created in 1962, during the Communist period, through the merger between the Research Institute for

Maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

Cultivation (''Institutul de Cercetări pentru Cultura Porumbului'') and the Field Cultivation Department (''Departamentul Culturilor de Câmp'') of the Romanian Agronomic Institute.

Natives

Fundulea is the birthplace of the following notable people: * Augustin Călin (b. 1980), football manager *

Mircea Nedelciu Mircea Nedelciu (; November 12, 1950 – July 12, 1999) was a Romanian short-story writer, novelist, essayist and literary critic, one of the leading exponents of the ''Optzeciști'' generation in Literature of Romania, Romanian letters. The auth ...

(1950–1999), a novelist in whose honor a local primary school was named in 2002 Ion Bogdan Lefter
"Școala 'Mircea Nedelciu' "
in ''

Observator Cultural ''Observator Cultural'' (meaning "The Cultural Observer" in English) is a weekly literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast ...

'', Nr. 143, November 2002 *

Gabriel Oprea Gabriel Oprea (; born 1 January 1961) is a Romanian politician and a general in the army reserves. The former president of the National Union for the Progress of Romania (UNPR) and a former member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) who is now ...

(b. 1961), general and politician, who was acting Prime Minister in 2015

References

Populated places in Călărași County Localities in Muntenia Towns in Romania {{Călăraşi-geo-stub