The Development Strategy of Odobesti Town

Mercredi 13 septembre 2006 3 13 /09 /Sep /2006 17:56

- Publié dans : Urbanisme et Modernisation

The Development Strategy of Odobesti Town

Vision for a modern and successful town (1)

Odobesti town, as part of the country's territory is situated in the eastern part of Câmpia Românà, on a marginal position that establishes the contact between the plain and the Curvature Sub Carpathians. In detail, it is situated on the left shore of Milcov river- the first middle course- on its inferior terrace, at 10 km far east from Focsani.

Odobesti town is also responsible for Unirea village which is situated on the left shore of Milcov , downstream this river that sources in the continuance of the town towards east, along Odobesti ? Focsani road.

The landscape of Odobesti town is typically of high plain, slowly aslant, bordered by Milcov river in the southern part (the middle course), and by Màgura Odobestilor in the north-western part. (1001 m quota).

The town's medium general altitude is of 150m high in terms of Black Sea . The land is good generally for agriculture and especially for viticulture, it is according to the building standards, drinkable water is provided by the adduction network.

The climate is specific because of its settlement in terms of great geographical units and intermission of the plain and sub Carpathian influence. That's why the climate is continental at the contact of the forest and veldt subunits with north towards east winds in winter and north towards west winds in summer and an annual medium temperature of about 9.5 degrees.

The neighbours of the administrative territory of Odobesti town are the following:

- on north: Bolotesti village

- on east: the municipality of Focsani

- on south: Brosteni and Vârtescoiu villages

- on west: Jaristea village

The entire territorial surface of Odobesti town is of 5.564 ha, from which 365 ha land in the town. Current Odobesti town occupies 244.36 ha, that is 53.4% of the town's available building territory.

In terms of use, the territorial surface can be separated into:

Territorial Type	Territorial Surface
Arable	2 988 ha
Vineyard	1 688 ha
Pasture	245 ha
Meadow	2 ha
Other lands (rivers, roads, buildings)	641 ha
TOTAL	5 564 ha

History

The name of the main town is ODOBESTI. The typical of the settlement is still questionable. In ?The Great Romanian Geographical Dictionary, Lahovari shows that the name comes from «ODOBA», which means valley.

According to Nicolae Iorga, the name of the town comes from a shepherd from Vrancea who was the founder of «ODOBA» village and who lived in this area. An old document (Ghenar 20) from 1840 sustains the same.

Another story of the name says that it comes from the Turkish word "ODO"=house, "BESTI"=five, that is a few houses settlement at crossroads. This last opinion can't be accepted because it doesn?t have any sense, nor logic, nor historical proof.

It is more plausible the idea that the name comes from the word valley, (very frequently said about many feudal settlements) or from the name of that founder who could have a name which means valley.

The oldest historical sources testify the existence of Odobesti settlement since 1306. This is very possible as near the settlement there was the old castle of Cràciunea about which we hear a lot from the chronicles of that time.

In 1475 the settlement is mentioned by the historian Grigore Ureche when he talks about the channel that Stefan cel Mare made and which surrounds the fair (currently Gârla Morilor).

Later, in 1685, he mentioned in his historical writings a certain historian Motoc from Odobesti who began the building of Mera Monastery, finished by C. Cantemir, and his wife, Ursa Motoc, gave all her properties to the monastery.

The historian Constantin Giurescu affirmed in his writings that Odobesti, the old vineyard settlement, was transformed from village to fair around Tudor Vladimirescu's insurrection (1821), while there were two different administrative units on the current territory.

This is proved by the fact that in 1834 there are mentioned 172 houses, 10 manors and 3 churches in Odobesti village, and 200 houses, 8 manors and 4 churches in Odobesti fair.

In 1864 was established the communal hospital as a main need due to a great number of inhabitants. This and the transformations that took place after the Regions Union in January 1859 lead us to tha conclusion that the union of the two cores was made around 1860.

From 1968 Odobesti town is also responsible for Patesti village, currently Unirea village.

Population

The population of Odobe?ti town established after the population and houses census in December 2002 is of 8000 inhabitants which represent 2.06% of the total population of Vrancea County . In terms of size in the urban area Odobesti is the smallest town of Vrancea County.

In the last years the population of the town had decreased:

Year	Population
1998	8313
2002 Census	8000

The 2002 Census of population indicated a relative balance of gender in Odobesti town:

Town Division	Total Population	Males	Females
Odobesti Town Total	8000	3926	4074
ODOBESTI	6503	3210	3293
UNIREA	1497	716	781

Same Census revealed the structure of the population divided in age groups and gender. The table below presents these finding compared with the total population Vrancea County:

Age groups / years	Gender	Odobesti	Vrancea	% of total Vrancea	% of total Odobesti per category
0-18	Total	2026	97342	2.08%	25.33%
0-18	Females	901			22.12%
0-18	Males	1125			28.66%
19-35	Total	2276	98382	2.31%