One miner’s job generated many others in the Jiu Valley: schoolteachers, shopkeepers, doctors and nurses. And toward the end of the 20th century, miners were represented by an aggressive labor union. It was a well-paying job; many miners made double the average salary for the area.

The mines had been subsidized by the Romanian government. But those payments have largely ended, partly because of budgetary constraints and commitments made to the European Union, which forced many to shut down. The European Union’s clean air mandates prompted more closures.

In the next few years, only two mines are expected to remain. And while coal now provides nearly a third of Romania’s energy needs, that share is expected to slip in the years ahead, as power plants shift to natural gas. In 1996, Romania produced 7.2 million tons of coal; now, it is less than two million tons.

The collapse of coal has cast a pall across cities in the Jiu Valley, cradled in Romania’s Carpathian Mountains. Like other postindustrial regions around the world, it is increasingly being left behind. By 1989, almost 200,000 called the region home; now, only half that number do.