Vulcan, Romania

From World travel guide

There is also another Romanian village of the same name in Braşov County.

Downtown Mendoza.jpg Vulcan (Hungarian: Vulkán, German: Wolkersdorf or Wulkan) is a city in Hunedoara county, Romania. With a population of 30,188, it is the second-largest city in the Jiu Valley. It includes the villages Paroşeni and Dealul Babii.

The city is named after the Vulcan Pass that connects the Jiu Valley to Oltenia, itself being derived from Slavic "vlk", meaning "wolf".

The coal resources of the region were discovered in 1788 while the Austrian General Landau defended Vulcan from the Ottoman Turks. One night the soldiers could not put out the camp fire they made, as the piles of coal underneath had caught fire. General Landau thought that he could stop the Turks without a fight by setting piles of coal on fire. The Turks noted the large numbers of fires on the heights and thought that the Austrian army was much larger than theirs and retreated.

In 1850, the first mine was set up by the Hoffman brothers of Braşov.

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