Old topography sea level plate in Targoviste train station
Targoviste is one of the better preserved historic towns of southern Romania, which seems to have avoided the burnt of the architectural heritage’s destruction occasioned by the wild Romanian property bobble of the 2000s. Its train station dates from 1883 and retains some of the original features. One of those picturesque remnants is a topographic plate affixed on the wall, shown in the above picture, indicating the sea level elevation in that location: 557.41 metres. I like the lettering style and the spelling typical of the end of the c19th written Romanian language. The railway network construction has been one of the main means by which Romania was properly mapped in the late c19th by the army’s topographic service, using a triangulation base point in the centre of Bucharest in the vicinity of the New Saint George’s Church.
