The Vrancea County

Its first documentary mention is on July, 2-nd, 1431 when it is named VARAN-CHA which means "the forest land" or the black land.

Its surface is of 4,863 sq.km. The population is of 393,400 inhabitants.

The capital city of this county is the municipality of Focsani with a population of 100,000 inhabitants.

The relief is in flight of steps from West to East and consists in hills and mountain massives of 960 m to 1,783 m above sea level (the Goru Peak).

This county is crossed by the Siret, Putna, Zabala, Milcov, Susie, and Ramnic Rivers.

The climate is an Eastern-continental one and influenced from North and South.

The Vrancea county is the activest seismic zone of Romania. The seismic epicentre is situated in the village of Vrancioaia where there is a modern station of seismology.

A third part of the surface of this county is covered by forests.

In this county there is the biggest vineyard of Romania which covers the hills and terraces with grape-vine. Under the trade mark of Odobesti, Cotesti, Panciu, different kinds of wine, cognac and champagne using French methods, brandy and vermouth are made.

The Romanian history, culture and civilization are represented by: - the Mera Monastery - a fortified building built in 1685; it is the only building built in Romania by the Cantemir family (patriots, rulers and scholars). - the Princely cellar from Odobesti, built in 1839 where now there is one of the richest collection of chaise wine bottles in Romania. belonging to the "Vincon" unit from Focsani.
- the wooden church (in oak beams) in the village of Prisaca-Valea Sarii, built in 1770 on the upper course of the Putna River.
- the Village Museum is a synthesis of the Vrancea's folk traditions, of agricol folk and handcraft technics, customs and inhabited conditions - is situated in the Crangul Petresti, 7 km far from Focsani.
- the Romanian Heros' Mausoleum dedicated to solidiers who died on the Marasesti-Marasti-Soveja-Focsani-Sud front line, in the first World War.

Soveja is one of the wellknown rest and cure spas. It is known thanks to its folk traditions. Here the "Miorita" ballad, the poem of the ethnogenesis of the Romanian people, born.

The monuments of nature situated in this county are:
- the fire from Andreiasu - emanations of gas with a permanent burning at the surface (Andriesu is a mountain locality which is documentary mentioned in August, 8th, 1445).
- the Putna waterfall, 71 km far from Focsani, 76 m long, 14 m high, and a flow of 9 cubic meters/sec.
- the Lepsa trout station situated in the mountain village of Tulnici.
- the "Maior Gheorghe Pastia" Theatre, an impressive European building offered to Focsani's inhabitants by this officer in 1913.

The Union Square in Focsani - a pile of buildings of historic and civic evocation built in the '70. The Union Obelisk, a work of Romanian sculptor Ion Jalea is artistically the landmark of Focsani, a town considered as the first capital city of the United Principalities: Moldavia, and Wallachia, on January, 24th 1859.