Otopeni () is a town in

Ilfov County Ilfov () is the Counties of Romania, county that surrounds Bucharest, the capital of Romania. It used to be largely rural, but, after the fall of communism, many of the county's villages and communes developed into high-income commuter towns, whi ...

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 ...

, neighbouring the north of

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 ...

along the DN1 road to

Ploiești Ploiești ( , , ), formerly spelled Ploești, is a Municipiu, city and county seat in Prahova County, Romania. Part of the historical region of Muntenia, it is located north of Bucharest. The area of Ploiești is around , and it borders the Ble ...

. It has 21,750 inhabitants, of which 99.0% are ethnic Romanians. One village, Odăile, is administered by the city. Henri Coandă International Airport is located inside Otopeni. The head office of the airline TAROM is located inside the International Departures Terminal in the airport. In addition the head office of Țiriac Air is in Otopeni.

History

The oldest discovered human settlements in the region are very old. On the occasion of excavations in 1966 to expand the nearby Henri Coandă International Airport, archaeologist Margaret Constantiniu of the History Museum of Bucharest identified fragments of ancient

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

and other objects that belonged to an important human settlements existing since the first period of the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

. In an overlay was discovered another settlement are dated to the 10th century. By charter of 14 February 1587, Mihnea Turcitul –

voivode Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...

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 ...

– gave Holy Trinity Monastery half to the village of Islazul and half to the village of Hodopeni (today Otopeni) mills and gypsies. On 20 May 1620, Maria, great Băneasa, Holy Trinity monastery was given back (later Radu Vodă) half the village Hodopeni with Rumani, given by Master Villa, commanding Ruman listen. Historian Constantin C. Giurescu argued that the name Hodopeni comes from Hodopa or Hodoba. At the end of the 19th century, Otopeni town was part of Dâmbovița County, Ilfov province, consisting of two villages, Lower Otopeni and Upper Otopeni, with 851 inhabitants in total. The commune operated a school with 29 students and two churches (one in each village). The village chambers were then part of the town Bucoveni, with 125 inhabitants. Otopeni was transformed into a city as part of Nicolae Ceaușescu's Systematization plan. It replaced the semidetached houses with four-story high apartment buildings.Darrick Danta, "Ceaușescu's Bucharest", '' Geographical Review'' 83, no. 2 (1993)

Local government

As of 2024, the mayor of Otopeni is Constantin Silviu Gheorghe, from the National Liberal Party. The Otopeni Local Council has 17 councillors, even though before the 2008 local elections, it only had 15. It is considered to be a safe Liberal district, currently having the following party composition:

Natives

* Lucian Croitoru (born 1957), economist * Mihai Dobrescu (born 1992), footballer * Ioana Tudoran (born 1948), rower

References

External links

Otopeni
{{Authority control Towns in Romania Populated places in Ilfov County Localities in Muntenia