About Romania

Lying in the south-eastern part of Europe, Romania’s old history goes back thousands of years to the times of tribes and migrations. Today, the country lies on the same spot where the Romanian’s ancestors once roamed: the Dacians, a Thracian tribe. United in a kingdom in the first century before Christ - under the wise rule of king Burebista - the Dacians were eventually conquered by the Romans and their Emperor Trajan in the first century after Christ. That proved to be the birth certificate for the Romanian language and people. Attacked by migratory people, the Roman administration left at the end of the second century AD leaving behind a mixed population, speaking a Latin language. Years passed and so did the different waves of migration. The geography of Romania, with the Carpathians lying right in the middle of the country didn’t help its inhabitants that were sharing the same language and religion to live together.

Transylvania was slowly conquered from the beginning of the 10th century till the 13th century by the newly formed Hungarian kingdom and transformed into an autonomous province. To protect its borders, the Hungarians invited Germans to settle in Transylvania. In the 16th century, while Hungary was conquered by the Turks, Transylvania became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, retaining its autonomy by paying a tribute to the sultan. As a result the Reformation found an open gate at Romanian's German and Hungarian inhabitants. Following the defeat of the Turks at Vienna, Transylvania became a part of the Hapsburg Empire and later of the newly Austrian-Hungarian Empire.

The other two Romanian feudal principalities, Walachia and Moldova were found in the 14th century and played an important role in keeping the Romanian language and religion for further generations. Never conquered by the Turks, the provinces fought hard against the Ottoman expansion to the north, especially in the 15th century when great figures of Romanian history rose up in the war for freedom. Both provinces paid tribute to the sultan but both kept their autonomy. Despite different uprisings for freedom, the Ottoman suzerainty lasted till the 19th century when both provinces choose the same prince to be their ruler, Al Ioan Cuza, so creating a national state that used for the very first time the name of Romania. In 1866 when Al Ioan Cuza was forced to abdicate, his place was taken by a German Prince from the Hohenzollern family, Prince Carol I. Under his rule, Romania gained independence in 1877.

In the first world war Romania joined the Triple Entente in 1916, the main reason being the recovery of Transylvania and the unifications of all three Romanian provinces under the same name.

Between the wars Romania tried to secure the borders and worked on new reforms, but the dictatorship of nonconformist king Carol II as well as the appearance of Hitler on the European political stage diminished all this efforts. In 1940 Romania lost a lot of its territory, Basarabia was occupied by the Russians, northern Transylvania by the Hungarians, and southern part of Dobrogea by the Bulgarians. This forced the king to abdicate in favor of his young son Michael and Marshall Ion Antonescu who became the regent / dictator. In 1941 Antonescu brought Romania into Hitler’s anti-soviet war. After King Michael joined a coup against Antonescu, Romania changed the course of the war in august 1944 when Romania changed sides. After the forced abdication of king Michael in 1947, a communist regime was installed in Bucharest, a regime that was to last for 50 years and left its mark on the country and her people.

The stormy history of the country as well as the mixture of so many ethnicities living together, created an amazing cultural heritage that can still be seen today. Music, dances, beliefs were always an important part of the surviving “battles” and of national identity and are still an important part of everyday life, even today. Communities still play an important role and modernity is still intermatched with tradition everywhere you’ll go in Romania. The history brought people together or forced them to split, but what was left are amazing traces of a lifetime that is very rare in Europe: medieval towns, traditional village, and an unchanged way of life.

Another important heritage of the Romanians, inherited from this colourful mixture of ethnicities, and also very cherished by them is food. A visit to Romania is formost a culinary experience that you can hardly forget. The different dishes, the different ingredients, and the time taken to prepare it are all arts themselves. Food is bringing bringing people together, uniting them.

Like history, nature also didn't poorly equip the country. The different geography of Romania brings together mountains with endless plains, sea shores with highlands, rivers and lakes, creating an amazing biodiversity that still survives and represents some of the best kept in Europe. The large numbers of animals & wildflowers are an amazing heritage, surviving mostly because of the traditional way of life that changed little, especially in the countryside. Today Romania holds one of the highest numbers of large carnivores in Europe. And large numbers of birds find their nests in the delta. The pastoral scenery in the fields and meadows up in the mountains, scythed by hand every year, creates a perfect environment for wild flowers that still bloom here, even though they have long disappeared from other parts of the continent.

This was in short some info about our country, but its simply too much too tell it all at once. Therefore, we hope to meet you soon to show you for yourself what our country has to offer you!