Pitesti

Piteşti is the capital city of Argeş County, in the Wallachia informal region of Romania, on the Argeş River.

Piteşti is an important commercial and industrial center. Nearby Mioveni is the site of Dacia car production.

The earliest traces of human settlements in this area relate to the Paleolithic. Piteşti itself was first mentioned on May 20, 1386.

Piteşti was one of the temporary residences of Wallachian rulers. Due to its positioning on the junction of important routes, the town used to be renowed as an important commercial center.

In the 1950s, the town gained an ill notoriety, when the communist authorities used the local detention facility to subject political detainees to the infamous Reeducation, in which violence between inmates was encouraged to the point of being mandatory. The purpose of the experiment was to psychologically destroy the capacity for outside attachment and outside loyalty, thus creating the brainwashed New Man that would suit a Leninist society. The experiment was cancelled after five years. Twenty two inmate/participants were condemned with sixteen being condemned to death for the experiments in a 1953/54 trial. A new trial in 1957 convicted certain members of the prison staff to light sentences. They were later pardoned.