Alexandria (Romania)
Alexandria is the county seat for Teleorman County, Romania.
Understand
About 100 km south-west of the capital of Bucharest, on the Vedea river, it is one of the 3 least populated county seats of Romania, due in part to its short history and also to residents leaving since the end of communism.
Quite a young city, established less than 200 years ago in 1834, it was named after its founder, Alexandru II Ghica, prince of Romania from 1834 to 1842. Mostly settled by farmers, craftsmen, and traders, the city survived for more than a hundred years (until after the Second World War) through its produce trading (grains and cattle). Despite some intense industrialization in the 1970s, after the fall of Communism the population diminished and the factories decayed.
Get in
By car
Probably the most used option is the 90-km (55 miles) national road (marked as DN6 and/or E70) from Bucharest. See the section on Types of roads in Romania for what to expect on conditions, speed limit, and other details.
By bus
There are plenty buses from Bucharest (1½ hr travel time), although their frequency varies from 30 min to 2 hr. Their schedules, available on autogari.ro, reveal that they usually start from Autogara 13 Septembrie (aka Autogara Rahova) - which, although modern, still keeps some of its less-than-ideal reputation.
By train
The only rail connection to Alexandria is via an out-of-the-way Roşiori, and the slow Regio trains (which take about one whole hour for about 35 km) are only 4-5 times per day, and sometimes at inconvenient hours (timetables can be found on the railway operator's CFR website), which makes this option a last resort.
Get around
See
- The Cathedral and other churches.
- History Museum.