Plasă

For the Professional Lighting and Sound Association, see PLASA.

Plasă (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈplasə], plural plăși [ˈpləʃʲ]) was a territorial division unit of Romania, ranking below county (județ) and above commune. It was headed by a Pretor, appointed by the county Prefect. The institution headed by the Pretor was called Pretură.

The plăși of Timiș-Torontal County in 1930

The division of counties into plăși was used starting from the rule of Carol I as Domnitor, throughout the existence of a Romanian Kingdom, and during the first two years of the Romanian People's Republic, until they were replaced in 1950 by raions, following the Soviet system.^[1] In 1938, the country's 71 județe were divided into 429 plăși.^[2]

References

1. "Legea nr. 5 pentru raionarea administrativ-economică a teritoriului Republicii Populare Romîne" (published in Buletinul Oficial, No. 77 / September 8, 1950); Ronald A. Helin, "The Volatile Administrative Map of Rumania", in Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 57, No. 3 (September 1967), pp.481-502
2. (in Romanian) Petre Mihai Băcanu, "Cum ar trebui să arate harta redesenată a României?", March 11, 2010; accessed February 17, 2013