Câmpina () is a city in Prahova County, Romania, north of the county seat Ploiești, located on the main route between Wallachia and Transylvania. Its existence is first attested in a document of 1503. It is situated in the historical region of Muntenia.
Geography
The city is located in the western part of Prahova County, northwest of the county seat, Ploiești. It is situated in a hilly region, at the southern end of the Prahova Valley, on the banks of the river Prahova, in between the rivers Câmpea and Doftana.
Câmpina is crossed by national road DN1, which links Bucharest, to the south, with the northwestern part of the country. The Câmpina railway station (opened in 1879) serves the CFR Main Line 300, which runs parallel to DN1, on the right bank of the Prahova.
History
Formerly a customs point on the trade route between Transylvania and Wallachia, the town developed at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century as an oil extraction and processing center. Between 1897 and 1898, Câmpina was the site of the largest oil refinery in Europe.
Notable residents
- (1857–1919), actress
- Dimitrie Bolintineanu (1819–1872), poet and politician; documented the local landscape in his 1862 novel Elena
- Eugen Jebeleanu (1911–1991), poet
- Nicolae Grigorescu (1838–1907), painter
- Henrik Kacser (1918–1995), biochemist and geneticist
- Alexandru Vlahuță (1858–1919), writer and close associate of Nicolae Grigorescu