CRAIOVA, or KRAJOVA  , the capital of the department of Doljiu, Rumania, situated near the left bank of the river Jiu, and on the main Walachian railway from Verciorova to Bucharest . Pop . (1900) 45,438 . A branch railway to Calafat facilitates the export trade with Bulgaria . Craiova is the chief commercial 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 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 head-quarters of the First Army Corps, there are military and commercial academies, an appeal court and a chamber of commerce, besides many churches, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant, with synagogues for the Jews . Craiova, which occupied the site of the Roman Castra Nova, was formerly the capital of Little Walachia . Its ancient bans or military governors were, next to the princes, the chief dignitaries of Walachia, and the district is still styled the banat of Craiova . Among the holders of this office were Michael the Brave (1593–1601), 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, came likewise from Craiova . In 1397 Craiova was the scene of a victory won by Prince Mircea over Bayezid I. sultan of the Turks; and in October 1853, of an engagement between Turks and Russians .