Popești-Leordeni () is a town in
Ilfov County,
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 seldom used ''Valahia'' are synonyms in R ...
,
Romania, south of downtown
Bucharest, although from the northern edge of the town to the southern edge of Bucharest the distance is less than . Most of its inhabitants commute to Bucharest, with Popești-Leordeni being seen as a
satellite town of the Romanian capital.
History
Popești-Leordeni was historically the site of two separate villages — Popești (name derived from ''popă'', "priest", akin to the word "
pope") and Leordeni (name derived from ''leurdă'', "
ramsons
''Allium ursinum'', known as wild garlic, ramsons, cowleekes, cows's leek, cowleek, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek, Eurasian wild garlic or bear's garlic, is a bulbous perennial flowering plant in the amaryllis family Amary ...
" or ''Allium ursinum'').
The villages were first attested during the 16th century: Leordeni was a domain of the
Băleanu family of
Wallachian
boyars, while Popești was included in the lands belonging to ancestors of the
chronicle
A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...
r
Radu Popescu
Radu may refer to:
People
* Radu (given name), Romanian masculine given name
* Radu (surname), Romanian surname
* Rulers of Wallachia, see
* Prince Radu of Romania (born 1960), disputed pretender to the former Romanian throne
Other uses
* Radu ( ...
. The latter was inherited by the
Phanariote nobleman known under the name
Alexandru Conduratu, who settled it with
Bulgarians from around
Nikopol and from the
Banat; the newly created locality was named ''Popești-Conduratu'' or ''Pavlicheni'', in reference to "
Paulicians" (a tradition designated the Roman Catholic group of the
Bulgarian community by the names of their ancestors).
Popești and Leordeni were united into a single
commune in 1873; boyar lands were divided by successive
land reforms, and the Conduratu
manor house was passed to the Costa-Foru family (whose member
Constantin Costa-Foru was a well-known journalist in the
interwar period
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
).
As it stands, Popești-Leordeni is currently a growing suburb of Bucharest, and has seen large developments from the 2010s onwards. However this has come along with criticism of poor urban planning and lack of building permits for its new buildings.
Demographics
As of 2002:
Ethnicity
*
Romanians: 14,915 (98.7%)
*
Roma: 164 (1.1%)
*
Hungarians: 12 (0.1%)
*
Italians: 6 (0.04%)
Language
The inhabitants of Popești-Leordeni have the following languages as their first language:
*
Romanian: 15,001 (99.3%)
*
Romani
Romani may refer to:
Ethnicities
* Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia
** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule
* Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
: 80 (0.5%)
*
Hungarian: 8 (0.05%)
*
Italian: 5 (0.03%)
Religion
*
Romanian Orthodox: 9665 (63.9%).
*
Roman Catholic: 5308 (35.1%)
*Other religions or non-religious: 152 (1.0%)
In 1930, 99.2% of the 3,489 inhabitants declared as ethnic Romanians. 63.8% were Roman Catholic, 36.1% Romanian Orthodox.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Popesti-Leordeni
Towns in Romania
Populated places in Ilfov County
Localities in Muntenia
Bulgarian communities in Romania