CRAIOVA, the capital of the department of Dolj, in Ru mania, situated near the left bank of the river Jiu, and on the main railway from Verciorova to Bucharest. Pop. (1930) 63,063. A branch railway runs to Calafat. Craiova is the chief commer cial town west of Bucharest ; the surrounding uplands are very rich in grain, pasturage and vegetable products, and contain extensive forests. The town has rope and carriage factories, and manufactories of belting, candles, leather, soap and terra-cotta, and grain and flour mills. Close by is a large tannery worked by convict labour and supplying the army. The principal trade is in cattle, cereals, fish, linen, pottery, glue and leather. In the town, which is the headquarters of the I. Army Corps, there are military and commercial academies, an appeal court and a chamber of commerce, besides many churches and Jewish synagogues.
Craiova, which occupied the site of the Roman Castra Nova, was formerly the capital of Little Wallachia. Its ancient bans or military governors were, next to the princes, the chief dignitaries of Wallachia, and the district is still styled the banat of Craiova. Among the holders of this office were Michael the Brave (1593 16o1), and several members of the celebrated Bassarab family (q.v.). The bans had the right of coining money stamped with their own effigies, and hence arose the name of bani (centimes). The Rumanian franc, or leu ("lion"), so called from the image it bore, likewise came from Craiova.