Râmnic

Râmnic lies in the Olt valley of northern Oltenia, on the route towards the Carpathians. It was recorded as a princely town under Mircea the Elder in 1388 and as the seat of Vâlcea County in 1392. The fortress of Cetățuia served the Oltenian bans and, from 1504, the Orthodox bishops of Râmnic. In 1529 Prince Radu of Afumați was killed there in a boyar conspiracy.

Under Matei Basarab and Constantin Brâncoveanu, Râmnic developed as a cultural center associated with paper-making and printing. Its church institutions connected it to the religious life of Wallachia. The town suffered heavy damage during the Habsburg occupation of Oltenia from 1718 to 1739, a period when it again served chiefly as a fortress.