Călărași: places, data and stories

Călărași, the town that bought its own ground

Residents deposited 250,000 lei in 1852, and Călărași was declared a free town. A 1875 settlement recognised the town’s ownership up to the channels of the Borcea and Gâtul Ezerului.

The Empty House — 1 in 4 Dwellings Stands Empty

The 2021 Census counts 2.53 million unoccupied dwellings — 25.5% of the housing stock. In Mehedinți 36.3% are empty. County map, breakdown and why the rural empty stock does not solve city rents.

The Hills Made of Houses: more than a thousand years of Gumelnița, from 406 radiocarbon dates

Between 4900 and 3800 BC on the Lower Danube, people built their houses one on top of another until their villages became mounds. A clock drawn from 406 radiocarbon dates, the gold of Varna, four people raised elsewhere and what has actually been found under Bucharest, in Romanian and English.

Romanian villages left without a school, 2013–2026

Of 6,833 villages with a school on the Ministry of Education's 2013–14 list, 1,329 have none in 2025–26. A map of every village over 13 years, and why the official count of rural schools (−76%) does not mean as many schools closed.

How old is your town?

The median age of each of Romania’s 3,181 localities, computed from the registered population by single year of age (INS, POP107D), on a map with every real boundary. Search your locality, see how old it is against the country and the county, its age fingerprint in one hundred squares, its pyramid by sex and its path from 1992 to 2026. In 528 localities there are now more registered people aged 80 or over than children under 10; in 1992 there were 9.