Craiova (population 270,000) is the capital of Oltenia and the most important city in southwestern Romania — a vibrant university city with a strong industrial base (the most important Renault/Dacia automobile production hub in Romania outside Pitesti) and a surprisingly rich cultural heritage. The Nicolae Romanescu Park (one of the most beautiful landscaped parks in Romania and the Balkans — designed by French landscape architect Edouard Redont in 1901, 96 hectares), the Museum of Oltenia (one of the most comprehensive regional museums in Romania), the Art Museum of Craiova (housed in the spectacular Jean Mihail Palace — the most ornate Baroque palace in southwestern Romania, with an outstanding collection of Constantin Brancusi sculptures — the most important collection of Brancusi work in Romania outside Bucharest), and the lively student culture (40,000+ university students — the most youthful city in Oltenia) make Craiova a rewarding off-the-beaten-path destination in Romania.
Art Museum of Craiova in the Jean Mihail Palace (the most ornate single building and the most important art collection in southwestern Romania): the Jean Mihail Palace (the "Palatul Jean Mihail" — built 1898–1907 for the wealthy Craiovan merchant Jean Mihail: the most elaborate and the most expensively constructed private mansion in the history of Craiova: the French Baroque palace (the most French-influenced domestic architecture in Oltenia: the design inspired by the most fashionable Parisian hotel particulier styles of the Belle Époque — the most architecturally opulent period in French domestic building history) with the most elaborately stuccoed facade in the region, the most ornate wrought-iron balconies and the most dramatically proportioned entrance hall in any private palace in southwestern Romania). The Constantin Brancusi collection (the most important collection of Brancusi work in Romania outside Bucharest): Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957 — the most important Romanian artist in the history of world art and one of the most important sculptors in the history of 20th-century modern art: born in the village of Hobita in Gorj County (180km north of Craiova — the most important birthplace in the history of Romanian art): the father of modern sculpture (the most frequently used critical description of Brancusi's place in art history — the "father of modern sculpture": the man who made the most radical single break with the Western sculptural tradition since Michelangelo (the most transformative single sculptural vision in the 20th century: the reduction of the most complex forms to the most essential geometric shapes))). The "Cumintenia Pamantului" (the most celebrated single Brancusi work in Romania — the "Wisdom of the Earth" or the "Meditation" (the most philosophically loaded title in Brancusi's entire oeuvre): the crouching female figure (the most compact and the most internalized human form in all of Brancusi's work: the figure drawn into itself in the most profound self-contemplation) in the most fundamental geological material (the limestone — the most earth-connected sculptural material in Brancusi's work)).
Museum of Oltenia (one of the most comprehensive regional museums in Romania — housed in the most historically significant building in Craiova's scientific heritage): the Museum of Oltenia (the "Muzeul Olteniei" — the most important multi-disciplinary regional museum in southwestern Romania: the museum covers the most complete range of regional heritage (natural history, archaeology, history, and ethnography) of any single museum in the Oltenia region). The archaeology collection (the most important archaeological artifacts from the Oltenia region): the Dacian period (the most important pre-Roman civilization in the territory of modern Romania: the Dacians (the "Getae" — the most powerful Thracian-descended people in the Lower Danube region: the Dacian tribes of Oltenia were among the most formidable opponents of Roman expansion in the Balkans (the Dacian Wars of Emperor Trajan (101–102 CE and 105–106 CE) were the most expensive and the most politically important military campaigns of the Trajanic period: the conquest of Dacia was the most strategically significant Roman expansion in the 2nd century CE — acquiring the most gold-rich territory in the Roman Empire (the Dacian gold mines of Transylvania were the most productive single gold source in the Roman world))). The ethnographic collection (the most important collection of traditional Oltenian material culture in the region): the Oltenian folk costume (the most distinctive regional traditional dress in southwestern Romania: the Oltenian "ie" (the embroidered blouse — the most internationally recognized element of Romanian folk dress: the "ie" embroidery patterns of Oltenia are the most geometrically complex and the most colorfully bold in Romania (the most red-dominant color palette in Romanian folk embroidery: the red and black geometric patterns on white linen))).
Strada Unirii and the Craiova old centre walk (the most important architectural and commercial promenade in the city): the Strada Unirii (the "Union Street" — the main pedestrian street of central Craiova: the most important 19th-century commercial thoroughfare in the city, lined with the most significant examples of eclectic and neoclassical architecture in Oltenia). The Mihai Viteazul Square (the most important public square in Craiova): the Piata Mihai Viteazul (named after the most important Romanian historical hero of the medieval period: Mihai Viteazul (Michael the Brave — 1558–1601 CE: the Wallachian prince who achieved the most historically significant single political act in pre-modern Romanian history: the first union of the three Romanian principalities (Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania) under a single ruler in 1600 CE — the most politically resonant single year in the history of Romanian national consciousness: the brief unification of 1600 (the most celebrated single year in Romanian nationalist historiography: the year that most clearly foreshadowed the ultimate Romanian national unification of 1918) lasted only one year before Mihai was assassinated (the most violently ended reign in the history of the Wallachian principality)). The Union Church (the most important and the most ancient surviving church in the Craiova city centre): the Church of the Maduvari (the "Buna Vestire" — the Annunciation church (the most frequently dedicated church in Orthodox Christian Romania: the Annunciation (the most important feast day in the Orthodox calendar)): built 1699 (the most precisely dated medieval church construction in Craiova: the founding inscription records the exact year and the most important donors — the local boyar families of the Craiovescu clan (the most powerful aristocratic family in the history of Oltenia)).
Craiova evening dining and Oltenian cuisine (the most important traditional Romanian cuisine of the southwestern region): the Oltenian cuisine (the most distinctive regional variant of Romanian cuisine: characterized by the most generous use of fermented vegetables (sauerkraut — "varza murata": the most important fermented food in the Romanian culinary tradition), the most extensive use of pork (the most important protein in traditional Romanian cooking: the pig (the "porc" — the most culturally significant domestic animal in Romanian rural life: the annual pig slaughter (the "taiatul porcului" — the most important single event in the traditional Romanian rural calendar (held between Christmas and the New Year: the most festive and the most community-bonding food event in the Romanian agricultural year)) produces the most important range of preserved pork products in Romanian cuisine: the bacon (the "slanina"), the smoked sausages (the "carnati afumati"), the headcheese (the "toba") and the rendered lard (the "untura" — the most important cooking fat in traditional Romanian kitchens))). The sarmale (the most celebrated and the most universally loved Romanian dish): the "sarmale" (the Romanian cabbage rolls — the most festive single dish in the Romanian culinary tradition: the dish served at the most important celebrations (Christmas, Easter, weddings and the most important family gatherings)): the pork mince and rice filling (the most important combination in sarmale: the fatty pork mince (the most flavorful mince from the most fat-rich pork cuts) mixed with raw rice (the most absorbent starch — the rice swells during cooking to the most perfectly textured stuffing consistency), the most important aromatics (onion, thyme and black pepper), wrapped in the most sour-fermented cabbage leaf (the "varza murata" — the most tangy fermented wrapper: the lactic acid fermentation of the cabbage gives the sarmale their most characteristically sour edge)).
Nicolae Romanescu Park (one of the most beautifully designed and the most historically important landscaped parks in Romania and the Balkans — 96 hectares in the southwest of Craiova): the Romanescu Park (the "Parcul Nicolae Romanescu" — named after the most important 19th-century mayor of Craiova: Nicolae Romanescu (1857–1927 — the most transformative single mayor in the history of Craiova: the man who commissioned the most ambitious single urban improvement project in the city's 19th-century history (the park, together with the most important urban infrastructure improvements of the early 20th century (the electric tramway, the most modern water supply system and the most important road improvements in the history of the city)) made Craiova the most modernized provincial city in Romania during the Romanescu mayoralty)). The park design (the most French-influenced and the most romantically landscaped park in Romania — designed by Edouard Redont (the French landscape architect — the most important French landscape designer working in Romania in the early 20th century): the design (the most naturalistic landscape style in Romanian park architecture: the "jardin paysager" — the naturalistic English-French landscape garden style (the most internationally fashionable park design in Europe in the 1890s–1910s) applied to the most extensive urban green space in Craiova). The suspension bridge (the most romantically atmospheric single structure in the Romanescu Park — the most photographed feature of the park): the wooden suspension bridge spanning the most scenic section of the park lake (the most picturesque single view in any public park in southwestern Romania: the reflections of the weeping willows and the suspension bridge in the lake water).
Targu Jiu and the Brancusi Monumental Ensemble (the most important outdoor sculpture installation in Romania and one of the most significant public art ensembles in the history of 20th-century world sculpture — 110km north of Craiova): the Brancusi Monumental Ensemble at Targu Jiu (the "Ansamblul Monumental Constantin Brancusi de la Targu Jiu" — the most ambitious and the most publicly scaled single artistic commission in the career of Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957): the three-part memorial ensemble created in 1937–1938 as a monument to the Romanian soldiers who died defending the city of Targu Jiu during the First World War (the Battle of the Jiu — one of the most militarily significant battles in the history of Romanian involvement in WWI: the defence of Targu Jiu in October 1916 against the advancing German and Austro-Hungarian forces)). The Endless Column (the "Coloana Infinitului" — the most important single sculpture in the career of Constantin Brancusi and one of the most important single sculptures in the history of 20th-century art): the 29.35m cast-iron column (the most precisely engineered outdoor sculpture of the Romanian modernist period: the column consists of 17 complete rhomboid modules (the most mathematically precise repetition in any outdoor sculpture of the 1930s) and two half-modules at top and bottom (the most elegantly resolved termination problem in the history of modular sculpture: the half-modules at top and bottom suggest that the column continues infinitely beyond its physical limits — the most important conceptual gesture in the Endless Column: the infinite extension implied in the finite physical object)). The Gate of the Kiss (the "Poarta Sarutului" — the most architecturally scaled single work in the Brancusi ensemble): the limestone gateway (3.45m tall — the most formally precise arch in any Brancusi work) with the "Kiss" motif repeated 40 times around the surface.
Hobita village and the Brancusi birthplace (the most important artistic birthplace pilgrimage in Romania — 180km north of Craiova): the village of Hobita (in Gorj County — the most mountainous county in the Oltenia region: the sub-Carpathian foothills south of the Southern Carpathians (the "Meridional Carpathians" — the most dramatically scenic section of the Carpathian arc in Romania: the highest peaks in Romania (the Fagaras Mountains with Moldoveanu Peak at 2,544m — the highest point in Romania) dominate the northern skyline of the Oltenia sub-Carpathian region)). The Brancusi childhood home (the most important single biographical monument in Romanian art history): the traditional Romanian peasant house (the "casa taraneasca" — the most important domestic architecture type in the history of Romanian folk building: the wooden-beamed, thatched-roof peasant house with the most important carved wooden portal (the "poarta" — the carved wooden gate that is the most important single decorative element in the Gorj County traditional house: the most elaborately carved wooden gates in Romania are found in Gorj County (the most woodcarving-intensive county in the entire Romanian folk art tradition) — the carved wooden gates of Gorj were the most direct influence on the young Brancusi's understanding of form and the most important single craft tradition that shaped his later sculptural sensibility)).
Craiova wine bar evening — the wines of Dragasani (the most important wine region of southwestern Romania, 70km east of Craiova): the Dragasani wine region (the "Podgoria Dragasanilor" — the Dragasani wine district: one of the oldest wine-producing regions in Romania (the most ancient documented viticulture in Oltenia: the Dragasani wines were mentioned in the most important Ottoman court documents of the 16th century as among the most valued wines arriving at the Sublime Porte from the Danubian principalities — the most commercially significant Romanian wine trade in the Ottoman period)). The most important Dragasani indigenous grape varieties: the Tamaioasa Romaneasca (the "Romanian Muscat" — the "Tamaioasa" from the Romanian "tamaie" (incense or frankincense): the most aromatically intense indigenous white grape in Romania (the grape producing the most perfumed and the most honey-and-rose-scented white wine in the Romanian indigenous variety repertoire): the Tamaioasa Romaneasca (Muscat Blanc a Petits Grains — the most ancient and the most noble Muscat clone: the same grape as the most prestigious Muscat in France (the Muscat de Frontignan) and Italy (the Moscato d'Asti — the most internationally famous sweet sparkling Muscat wine in the world)) in the Dragasani terroir produces the most distinctively floral and the most honey-dominant expression of the grape in Romania). The Feteasca Neagra (the "Black Maiden" — the most important indigenous Romanian red grape and the most internationally recognized Romanian red variety): the most tannic and the most deeply colored indigenous Romanian red grape (the "Feteasca Neagra" — the red version of the "Feteasca" family (the most important indigenous grape family in Romania: including the Feteasca Neagra (red), the Feteasca Regala (white) and the Feteasca Alba (white — the most widely planted indigenous Romanian white grape))).
Church of the Apostles and the historic religious heritage of Craiova (the most important 16th-century Orthodox church in the city): the Church of the Holy Apostles (the "Biserica Sfintii Apostoli" — the most historically significant religious building in Craiova: built in 1564 (the most precisely dated 16th-century church in the city) under the patronage of the Craiovescu boyar family (the most powerful aristocratic clan in the history of Oltenia: the Craioveşti (the "people of Craiova" — the most locally named boyar family in Romanian history) controlled the "banie" (the administrative office of the Ban of Oltenia — the most important provincial governorship in the Wallachian principality) for the most sustained period of any single family in the history of Oltenia (from the late 15th to the mid-16th century — the most politically dominant family in the most strategically important province of Wallachia))). The church frescoes (the most artistically significant late Byzantine and post-Byzantine frescoes in the Craiova area): the painted interior (the most elaborately frescoed 16th-century church interior in the Craiova region: the Byzantino-Wallachian fresco style (the most distinctive Romanian medieval painting tradition: the fusion of the most important Byzantine iconographic convention (the most rigidly codified religious art system in the medieval world: the Byzantine "canons" (the most strictly followed artistic rules in any religious painting tradition — the iconographic types, the color assignments and the compositional formulas for every saint and every scene were the most rigidly prescribed in all of medieval art)) with the most locally distinctive Wallachian artistic elements (the most Romanian-specific decorative details in the fresco borders and the most characteristically local saints' portraits))).
Calafat and the Danube (the most dramatically wide and the most historically important river in Romania — 70km south of Craiova): the Danube at Calafat (the "Dunarea la Calafat" — the most imposing single river view in southwestern Romania): the Danube (the "Dunare" in Romanian — the "Danuvius" in Latin: the most historically important river in the entire history of Roman-Barbarian relations in the ancient world: the Danube was the most strategically significant single natural frontier in the Roman Empire (the "limes danubianus" — the Danubian frontier line: the most extensive single defensive frontier in the Roman Empire (stretching from the Black Forest in Germany to the Black Sea in Romania — the most geographically extended single river-based frontier in the ancient world))): at Calafat, the Danube is at its most impressively wide in the southwestern Romanian section (1.5–2km between the Romanian bank at Calafat and the Bulgarian bank at Vidin — the most dramatically wide section of the Danube border in this region). The Calafat-Vidin "New Europe Bridge" (the most important single transnational infrastructure project in the history of Romanian-Bulgarian relations: the bridge (officially the "Danube Bridge 2" or the "New Europe Bridge" — the most diplomatically named transnational bridge in the Balkans (the "New Europe" designation reflecting the most optimistic EU-era framing of Romania-Bulgaria cross-border infrastructure (both countries joined the EU in 2007 — the most simultaneously joined pair of Balkan countries in the history of EU enlargement)): completed and opened on 14 June 2013 (the most recent major bridge over the Danube in the Romania-Bulgaria border section)).
Craiova University quarter and the student culture (the most youthful and the most energetic neighbourhood in the most important university city in southwestern Romania): the University of Craiova (the "Universitatea din Craiova" — established 1947 (the most important single institutional foundation in the post-war history of the city: the establishment of the university transformed Craiova from the most important regional administrative and commercial center in Oltenia into the most important higher education hub in southwestern Romania)): 40,000+ students across the most important faculties (the Faculty of Law (the most historically important faculty in the tradition of Romanian legal education in Oltenia), the Faculty of Medicine (the most important medical education institution in the region), the Faculty of Engineering (the most practically important faculty for the most technically oriented local economy (the Renault/Dacia automobile plant in Craiova — the most important single employer in the Craiova industrial economy — requires the most engineering-qualified graduates of any single employer in Oltenia)). The CS Universitatea Craiova football club (the most passionately supported football club in the Oltenia region and the most historically successful provincial football club in Romanian football): the club (founded 1948 as the sports club of the University of Craiova — the most institutionally connected football club in Romanian university sport) achieved the most sustained success of any southwestern Romanian club in the first division (the "Divizia A" — the most competitive league in Romania): the four Romanian championship titles (1974, 1980, 1981, 1982 — the most successful four-year period in the history of any club from the Oltenia region).
Farewell Craiova dinner — the most important traditional Oltenian dishes for the last meal: the tochitura olteneasca (the most characteristic single dish of Oltenian cuisine — the "tochitura" meaning the most richly sautéed meat mixture: the most hearty traditional meal in southwestern Romanian cooking): the "tochitura olteneasca" (the Oltenian meat stew — the most regionally specific Romanian main course in the southwestern tradition): the combination of the most important Oltenian pork preparations (the fresh pork (the most locally sourced protein in traditional Oltenian cooking — the pork from the most free-range Oltenian village pig), the smoked sausage (the "carnati afumati" — the most characteristically flavored element: the smoked pork sausage adds the most importantly smoky and the most intensely pork-fat-enriched flavor to the stew), the pork liver (the most nutritionally dense organ meat in the traditional Oltenian recipe: the liver cooks the most quickly and the most evenly in the shared braising liquid)) in the most important Oltenian wine-and-tomato sauce (the Dragasani red wine + the Oltenian preserved tomatoes (the "bulion" — the most intensely reduced Romanian tomato paste: the most important flavoring agent in Oltenian cooking)), topped with the most important Oltenian serving garnishes: the fried egg (the most visually dramatic single topping on the tochitura plate — the golden yolk breaking over the meat stew), the "mamaliga" (the Romanian polenta — the most important carbohydrate in Romanian traditional cooking: the coarsely ground cornmeal porridge (the "mamaliga" — the most universally eaten starch in pre-19th century Romanian peasant cuisine: the most affordable and the most filling single food in the Romanian historical diet)).