Targu Jiu

Place description

The city of Targu Jiu is the capital city of the county of Gorj and it is located within the geographical area of Subcarpatii Getici Mountains, in the Targu Jiu - Campu Mare Basin, one of the largest sub-Carpathian inter-hill depressions, between the Subcarpatii Gorjului Mountains in north and the Bran Hill in south, at the confluence of the Amaradiei Pietroasei River with the Jiul River. It stretches 13 km from north to south and 10 km from east to west, on both banks of the Jiul River.

Tourist attractions in the town and surrounding areas:

Calea Eroilor Street and Brancusi - The works of the Romanian sculptor have defined the modern concepts of forms in sculpture, painting and industrial design. Constantin Brancusi was born in Pestisani, Gorj, on February 21, 1876, into a peasant family. He studied arts in Craiova and Bucharest before going to Paris in 1904, where, for a short time, he was assistant to Auguste Rodin. Brancusi was asked to erect a monument in the memory of the Romanian soldiers who gave their lives in the World War I. Here, the artist has codified in the whole sculpture, the eternity of his nation. From the ethnological point of view, the monuments in Targu-Jiu represent, in cosmic manner, the human life, from birth, symbolized by the Table of Silence, and ending with the passing into nonexistence, symbolized by the Column of the Infinite (a stylization of the funeral pillars found in south-eastern Romania). The distance between them, representing the period of the human life, is interrupted by the Gate of the Kiss, the symbol of marriage and of the start of a new life cycle.

The “Constantin Brâncusi” Memorial Home in Hobita (29 km away from Targu Jiu) - the place from where once left this son of the lands of Gorj. In this region of Subcarpatii Olteniei Mountains, the one who sculpted ideas, becoming famous around the world, has found his most fertile sources of inspiration.

The "Ecaterina Teodoroiu” Memorial Home in Targu Jiu - here was born the heroine from Jiu, who was decorated for her courage and advanced to the rank of second lieutenant.