Romania ( ; archaic: Rumania,
Roumania; ) is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian
arch
, bordering on the Black Sea
. Almost all of the
Danube Delta is located within its territory.
Romania
shares a border with Hungary
and Serbia
to the west,
Ukraine
and the Republic of Moldova
to the northeast, and Bulgaria
to the
south.
The territory's recorded history includes periods of rule by
Dacians, the
Roman
Empire, the
Bulgarian empire,
the
Kingdom of Hungary, and the
Ottoman Empire. As a nation-state,
the country was formed by the merging of
Moldavia and
Wallachia in
1859 and it gained recognition of its
independence in
1878.
Later, in 1918, they
were joined by Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia
. At the end of World
War II, parts of its territories (roughly the present day
Republic of
Moldova) were occupied by the USSR and Romania became a
member of the Warsaw Pact.
With the fall of the
Iron Curtain in
1989, Romania started a
series of political and economic reforms. After a decade of
post-revolution economic problems, Romania made economic reforms
such as low
flat tax rates in 2005 and
joined the
European Union on January 1, 2007. While Romania's income level
remains one of the lowest in the European Union, reforms have
increased the growth speed. Romania is now an upper-middle income
country economy.
Romania has the
9th largest
territory and the
7th largest
population (with 21.5 million people) among the
European Union member states.
Its
capital and largest city is Bucharest
( ), the
6th largest city in the EU with 1.9 million people.
In 2007,
Sibiu
, a city in Transylvania, was chosen as a European Capital of
Culture. Romania also joined NATO
on March 29,
2004, and is also a member of the Latin Union
, of the Francophonie,
of the OSCE
and of the United Nations, as well as
an associate member of the CPLP
. Romania is a
semi-presidential unitary state.
Etymology
The name of
Romania ( ) comes from which is a derivative
of the (
Roman). The fact that Romanians
call themselves a derivative of
Romanus ( ) is mentioned
as early as the 16th century by many authors, including Italian
Humanists travelling in
Transylvania,
Moldavia and
Wallachia.
The oldest surviving document written in the
Romanian language is a 1521 letter
known as "Neacşu's Letter from
Câmpulung
". This document is also notable for having
the first occurrence of "Rumanian" in a Romanian written text,
Wallachia being here named The Rumanian
Land –
Ţeara Rumânească (
Ţeara from the
land).
In the following centuries, Romanian documents use interchangeably
two spelling forms:
Român and
Rumân.
"am scris
aceste sfente cǎrţi de învăţături, sǎ fie popilor rumânesti... sǎ
înţeleagǎ toţi oamenii cine-s rumâni creştini" "Întrebare
creştineascǎ" (1559), Bibliografia româneascǎ veche, IV, 1944, p.
6.
"...că văzum cum toate limbile au şi înfluresc întru cuvintele
slǎvite a lui Dumnezeu numai noi românii pre limbă nu avem. Pentru
aceia cu mare muncǎ scoasem de limba jidoveascǎ si greceascǎ si
srâbeascǎ pre limba româneascǎ 5 cărţi ale lui Moisi prorocul si
patru cărţi şi le dăruim voo fraţi rumâni şi le-au scris în
cheltuială multǎ... şi le-au dăruit voo fraţilor români,... şi
le-au scris voo fraţilor români" Palia de la Orǎştie
(1581–1582), Bucureşti, 1968.
În Ţara Ardealului nu lăcuiesc numai unguri, ce şi saşi peste
seamă de mulţi şi români peste tot locul..., Grigore Ureche,
Letopiseţul Ţării Moldovei, p. 133–134. Socio-linguistic evolutions
in the late 17th century led to a process of semantic
differentiation: the form
"rumân", presumably usual among
lower classes, got the meaning of "bondsman", while the form
român kept an
ethno-linguistic meaning. After the abolition of
serfdom in 1746, the form "rumân" gradually
disappears and the spelling definitively stabilises to the form
"român", "românesc". In his well known literary testament
Ienăchiţă
Văcărescu writes: "Urmaşilor mei Văcăreşti!/Las vouă
moştenire:/Creşterea limbei româneşti/Ş-a patriei cinstire."
In the
"Istoria faptelor lui Mavroghene-Vodă şi a răzmeriţei
din timpul lui pe la 1790" a Pitar Hristache writes: "Încep
după-a mea ideie/Cu vreo câteva condeie/Povestea
mavroghenească/Dela Ţara Românească.
The name "România
" as common homeland of all Romanians is documented
in the early 19th century. The first known mention of the term
"Romania" in its modern denotation dates from 1816, as the Greek
scholar Dimitrie Daniel
Philippide published in Leipzig
his work
"The History of Romania", followed by "The Geography of
Romania".
On the tombstone of Gheorghe Lazăr in Avrig
(built in
1823) there is the inscription: "Precum Hristos pe Lazăr din morţi
a înviat/Aşa tu România din somn ai deşteptat." This name
has been officially in use since December 11, 1861.
English-language sources still used the terms "Rumania" or
"Roumania", borrowed from the French spelling "
Roumanie",
as recently as
World War II, but since
then those terms have largely been replaced with the official
spelling "
Romania".
History
Prehistory and Antiquity
The
oldest modern human remains in Europe were discovered in the
"Cave With
Bones
" in present day Romania. The remains are
approximately 42,000 years old and as Europe’s oldest remains of
Homo sapiens, they may
represent the first such people to have entered the continent. But
the earliest written evidence of people living in the territory of
the present-day Romania comes from
Herodotus in book IV of his
Histories written 440 BCE, where he
writes about the
Getae tribes.
Dacians, considered a part of these Getae, were a
branch of Thracians that inhabited
Dacia (corresponding to modern Romania,
Moldova
and northern Bulgaria). The
Dacian
kingdom reached its maximum expansion during King
Burebista, around 82 BC, and soon came under the
scrutiny of the neighboring
Roman
Empire. After an attack by the Dacians on the
Roman province of
Moesia in 87 AD, the Romans led a series of wars
(
Dacian Wars) which eventually
led to the victory of Emperor
Trajan in
106 AD, and transformed the core of the kingdom into the
province of
Roman Dacia.
Rich ore deposits were found in the province, and especially gold
and silver were plentiful. which led to Rome heavily colonizing the
province. This brought
Vulgar Latin and
started a period of intense
romanization, that would give birth to
proto-
Romanian. Nevertheless, in
the 3rd century AD, with the invasions of migratory populations
such as
Goths, the
Roman Empire was forced to pull out of Dacia
around 271 AD, thus making it the first province to be
abandoned.
Several competing theories have been generated to explain the
origin of modern Romanians.
Linguistic and geo-historical analysis tend to indicate that
Romanians have coalesced as a major ethnic
group both South and North of the
Danube.
For further discussion, see Origin of Romanians.
Middle Ages
After the Roman army and administration left Dacia, the territory
was invaded by the
Goths, then, in the 4th
century by
Huns. They were followed by more
nomads including
Gepids,
Avars,
Bulgars,
Pechenegs, and
Cumans.
In the
Middle Ages, Romanians lived in
three distinct principalities:
Wallachia (
—"Romanian Land"),
Moldavia ( ) and
Transylvania. By the 11th century,
Transylvania became a largely autonomous part of the
Kingdom of Hungary, and became
independent as the
Principality of Transylvania
from the 16th century, until 1711. In the other
Romanian principalities, many small
local states with varying degrees of independence developed, but
only in the 14th century did the larger principalities of Wallachia
(1310) and Moldavia (around 1352) emerge to fight the threat of the
Ottoman Empire.
Vlad III the Impaler maintained an
independent policy in relation to the Ottoman Empire, and, in 1462,
defeated
Mehmed II's offensive during
The Night Attack.
By 1541,
the entire Balkan peninsula and
most of Hungary became
Ottoman provinces. In contrast, Moldavia, Wallachia, and
Transylvania, came under Ottoman
suzerainty, but conserved fully internal autonomy
and, until the 18th century, some external independence.
During
this period the Romanian lands were characterised by the slow
disappearance of the feudal system; the
distinguishment of some rulers like Stephen the Great, Vasile Lupu, and Dimitrie Cantemir in Moldavia, Matei Basarab, Vlad III the Impaler, and Constantin Brâncoveanu in
Wallachia, Gabriel Bethlen in
Transylvania; the
Phanariot Epoch; and the appearance of the
Russian
Empire
as a political and military influence.
Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania
at the end of the 16th century
In 1600, the principalities of Wallachia, Moldova and Transylvania
were simultaneously headed by the
Wallachian prince Michael the Brave (
Mihai Viteazul),
Ban of
Oltenia,
but the chance for a unity dissolved after Mihai was killed, only
one year later, by the soldiers of
Austrian army general
Giorgio Basta. Mihai Viteazul, who was prince
of Transylvania for less than one year, intended for the first time
to unite the three principalities and to lay down foundations of a
single state in a territory comparable to today's Romania.
After his
death, as vassal tributary states, Moldova and Wallachia had complete
internal autonomy and external independence, which was finally lost
in the 18th century. In 1699, Transylvania became a
territory of the
Habsburgs'
Austrian empire, following the Austrian victory over the Turks in
the
Great Turkish War. The
Austrians, in their turn, rapidly expanded their empire: in 1718 an
important part of Wallachia, called
Oltenia,
was incorporated to the Austrian monarchy and was only returned in
1739.
In
1775, the Austrian empire occupied the north-western part of
Moldavia, later called Bukovina, while the
eastern half of the principality (called Bessarabia) was occupied in 1812 by Russia.
Independence and monarchy
Territories inhabited by Romanians
before WWI
During the period of
Austro-Hungarian rule in
Transylvania, and
Ottoman suzerainty over
Wallachia and
Moldavia,
most
Romanians were in the situation of
being
second-class
citizens (or even non-citizens) in a territory where they
formed the majority of the population.
In some Transylvanian
cities, such as Braşov
(at that
time the Transylvanian Saxon
citadel of Kronstadt), Romanians were not even allowed to reside within
the city walls.
After the failed
1848
Revolution, the
Great Powers did
not support the Romanians' expressed desire to officially unite in
a single state, which forced Romania to proceed alone against the
Ottomans. The electors in both
Moldavia and
Wallachia chose in 1859 the same person –
Alexandru Ioan Cuza– as
prince (
Domnitor in
Romanian). Thus, Romania was created as a
personal union, albeit a Romania that did not include Transylvania.
There, the upper class and the aristocracy remained mainly
Hungarian, and Romanian nationalism inevitably ran up against
Hungarian in the late 19th century. As in the previous 900 years,
Austria-Hungary, especially under the
Dual Monarchy of 1867, kept the
Hungarians firmly in control even in the parts of Transylvania
where Romanians constituted a local majority.
In a 1866
coup d'état, Cuza was
exiled and replaced by Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
, who became known as Prince Carol of Romania.
During the
Russo-Turkish
War Romania fought on the Russian side, in and in the
1878 Treaty of Berlin, Romania was
recognized as an
independent state by the
Great Powers.
In return, Romania
ceded three southern districts of Bessarabia to Russia and acquired Dobruja. In 1881, the
principality was raised to a
kingdom and Prince Carol became
King Carol I.
The 1878–1914 period was one of
stability and progress for Romania.
During
the Second Balkan War, Romania
joined Greece
, Serbia, Montenegro
and Turkey
against
Bulgaria, and in the peace Treaty of Bucharest Romania
gained Southern
Dobrudja.
World Wars and Greater Romania
- (1916–1945)
In August 1914, when
World War I broke
out, Romania declared
neutrality.
Two years later, under pressure from the Allies (especially France,
desperate to open a new front), on August 14/27 1916, Romania
joined the Allies, declaring war on
Austria-Hungary. For this action, under the
terms of the
secret military
convention, Romania was promised support for its goal of
national unity for all Romanian people.
The
Romanian military
campaign ended in disaster for Romania as the
Central Powers conquered two-thirds of the
country and captured or killed the majority of its
army within four months. Nevertheless,
Moldavia remained in Romanian hands after
the invading forces were stopped in 1917.
By the war's end,
Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire had collapsed and
disintegrated; Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania proclaimed unions with the
Kingdom of Romania in
1918. Total
deaths
from 1914 to 1918, military and civilian, within contemporary
borders, were estimated at 748,000.
By the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, Hungary renounced in
favour of Romania all the claims of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy over
Transylvania. The union of Romania
with Bukovina was ratified in 1919 in the
Treaty of Saint Germain, and
with Bessarabia in 1920 by the Treaty of Paris.
The Romanian expression
România
Mare (literal translation "Great Romania", but more commonly
rendered "Greater Romania") generally refers to the Romanian state
in the
interwar period, and by
extension, to the territory Romania covered at the time (see map).
Romania achieved at that time its greatest territorial extent
(almost ), managing to unite all the historic Romanian lands.
During the Second World War, Romania tried again to remain neutral,
but on June 28, 1940, it received a
Soviet ultimatum with an implied
threat of
invasion in the event of
non-compliance.
Under pressure from Moscow
and Berlin
, the
Romanian administration and the army were forced to retreat from
Bessarabia as well from Northern
Bukovina to avoid war. This, in combination with other
factors, prompted the government to join the
Axis. Thereafter, southern
Dobruja was awarded to Bulgaria, while
Hungary received
Northern
Transylvania as result of an
Axis arbitration. The
authoritarian
King Carol II
abdicated in 1940, succeeded by the
National Legionary State,
in which power was shared by
Ion
Antonescu and the
Iron Guard. Within
months, Antonescu had crushed the
Iron
Guard, and the subsequent year Romania entered the war on the
side of the
Axis powers.
During the war, Romania was the most important source of oil for
Nazi Germany, which attracted
multiple bombing raids by the
Allies. By means of the
Axis invasion of the Soviet Union,
Romania recovered Bessarabia and northern Bukovina from the Soviet
Russia, under the leadership of general
Ion Antonescu. The Antonescu regime played a
major role in the
Holocaust, following to
a lesser extent the
Nazi policy of oppression
and massacre of the
Jews, and
Romas, primarily in the Eastern territories
Romania recovered or occupied from the Soviet Union (
Transnistria) and in
Moldavia.
In August 1944, Antonescu was toppled and arrested by King
Michael I of Romania. Romania changed
sides and joined the
Allies,
but its role in the defeat of
Nazi
Germany was not recognized by the
Paris Peace Conference of 1947.
By the end of the war, the Romanian army had suffered about 300,000
casualties.
Jewish
Holocaust victims totaled 469,000 within the 1939 borders,
including 325,000 in Bessarabia and Bukovina.
Communism
- (1945–1989)
With
Red Army forces still stationed in the
country and exerting
de facto control, the
Communist-dominated government
called
new
elections, which were won with 80% of the vote through
intimidation and likely
electoral
fraud. They thus rapidly established themselves as the dominant
political force.
In 1947, the
Communists forced
King Michael I to abdicate and leave
the country, and proclaimed Romania a
people's republic.
Romania remained
under the direct military
occupation and economic control of the
USSR
until the
late 1950s. During this period, Romania's vast natural
resources were continuously drained by mixed Soviet-Romanian
companies (
SovRoms) set up for exploitative
purposes.
From the late 1940s to the early 1960s, the
Communist government established a reign of
terror, carried out mainly through the
Securitate (the new secret police). During this
time they launched several campaigns to eliminate "
enemies of the state", in which numerous
individuals were killed or imprisoned for arbitrary political or
economic reasons. Punishment included deportation, internal exile,
and internment in forced labour camps and prisons; dissent was
vigorously suppressed. A notorious experiment in this period took
place in the
Piteşti prison,
where a group of political opponents were put into a program of
reeducation through torture. Historical records show hundreds of
thousands of abuses, deaths and incidents of torture against a wide
range of people, from political opponents to ordinary
citizens.
A very large
nationalization scheme
had been established by the communist State as from 1948. It did
not only impacted industries, factories or agriculture productions
lands, but also private houses and buildings. The figure of around
400,000 buildings confiscated by the State is regularly mentioned.
According to Societatea Academică din România (SAR) between 241.000
and 600.000 properties have been seized by the Romanian state. In
an attempt to compensate the owners who cannot get back theirs
lands of real estates (A law passed in 1995 allowed the confiscated
goods to be sold to tenants), a special fund has been created in
2005:
Fondul Proprietatea.
In 1965,
Nicolae Ceauşescu came to
power and started to pursue independent policies such as being the
only Warsaw Pact country to condemn the
Soviet-led 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia
, and to continue diplomatic relations with Israel
after the
Six-Day War of 1967; establishing
economic (1963) and diplomatic (1967) relations with the Federal
Republic of Germany
. Also, close ties with the Arab countries (and the PLO) allowed
Romania to play a key role in the Israel–Egypt
and
Israel–PLO peace processes. But as Romania's
foreign debt sharply increased between 1977 and 1981 (from 3 to 10
billion US dollars), the influence of international financial
organisations such as the IMF
or the
World Bank grew, conflicting with
Nicolae Ceauşescu's autarchic policies. He eventually initiated a
project of total reimbursement of the foreign debt by imposing
policies that impoverished Romanians and exhausted the Romanian
economy, while also greatly extending the authority of the
police state, and imposing a
cult of personality. These led to a
dramatic decrease in Ceauşescu's popularity and culminated in his
overthrow and execution in the bloody
Romanian Revolution of
1989.
In 2006, the
Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship
in Romania estimated the number of direct victims of communist
repression at two million people. This number does not include
people who died in liberty as a result of their treatment in
communist prisons, nor does it include people who died because of
the dire economic circumstances in which the country found
itself.
Present-day democracy
After the revolution, the
National Salvation Front, led by
Ion Iliescu, took partial multi-party
democratic and free market measures. Several major political
parties of the pre-war era, such as the
Christian-Democratic
National Peasants' Party, the
National Liberal Party and
the
Romanian Social
Democrat Party were resurrected.
After several major
political rallies, in April 1990, a sit-in protest contesting the
results of the recently held parliamentary elections began in
University
Square, Bucharest
accusing the Front of being made up of former
Communists and members of the Securitate. The protesters did not
recognize the results of the election, deeming them undemocratic,
and asked for the exclusion from the political life of the former
high-ranking Communist Party members. The protest rapidly grew to
become an ongoing mass demonstration (known as the
Golaniad). The peaceful demonstrations degenerated
into violence, and the violent intervention of coal miners from the
Jiu Valley led to what is remembered as
the
June 1990 Mineriad.
The
subsequent disintegration of the Front produced several political
parties including the Romanian Democrat Social Party (later
Social
Democratic Party
), the Democratic Party and the
(Alliance
for Romania). The first governed Romania from 1990 until
1996 through several coalitions and governments and with Ion
Iliescu as head of state. Since then there have been three
democratic changes of government: in 1996, the democratic-liberal
opposition and its leader
Emil
Constantinescu acceded to power; in 2000 the Social Democrats
returned to power, with Iliescu once again president; and in 2004
Traian Băsescu was elected
president, with an electoral coalition called
Justice and Truth Alliance. The government
was formed by a larger coalition which also includes the
Conservative Party and the
ethnic Hungarian party.
Post-Cold War
Romania developed closer ties with Western Europe, eventually joining NATO in 2004, and
hosting in Bucharest the 2008
summit. The country applied in June 1993 for membership
in the
European Union and became an
Associated State of the EU in 1995, an Acceding Country in 2004,
and a member on January 1, 2007.
Following the free travel agreement and politic of the post-Cold
War period, as well as hardship of the life in the post 1990s
economic depression, Romania has an increasingly large
diaspora, estimated at over 2 million
people. The main emigration targets are Spain, Italy, Germany,
Austria, UK, Canada and the USA.
Geography
Topographic map of Romania
With a surface area of , Romania is the largest country in
southeastern Europe and the
twelfth-largest
in Europe.
A large part of Romania's border with
Serbia and Bulgaria is formed by the Danube. The Danube is joined
by the Prut River, which forms the border
with the Republic of
Moldova. The Danube flows into the Black Sea within Romania's territory forming the Danube Delta, the second largest and the best
preserved delta in Europe, and a biosphere reserve and a
biodiversity World Heritage
Site. Other important rivers are the
Siret, running north-south through
Moldavia, the
Olt, running
from the oriental Carpathian Mountains to
Oltenia, and the
Mureş, running through
Transylvania from East to West.
Romania's terrain is distributed roughly equally between
mountainous, hilly and lowland territories.
The Carpathian
Mountains dominate the center of Romania, with fourteen of its mountain
ranges reaching above the altitude of 2,000 meters.
The
highest mountain in Romania is Moldoveanu Peak
( ). In south-central Romania, the
Carpathians sweeten into hills, towards the
Bărăgan Plains. Romania's
geographical diversity has led to an accompanying diversity of
flora and fauna.
Environment
A high percentage (47% of the land area) of the country is covered
with natural and semi-natural ecosystems. Since almost half of all
forests in Romania (13% of the country) have been managed for
watershed conservation rather than production, Romania has one of
the largest areas of undisturbed forest in Europe. The integrity of
Romanian forest ecosystems is indicated by the presence of the full
range of European forest fauna, including 60% and 40% of all
European brown bears and wolves, respectively. There are also
almost 400 unique species of mammals (of which Carpathian
chamois are best known), birds, reptiles and
amphibians in Romania.
There are almost (almost 5% of the total area) of protected areas
in Romania. Of these,
Danube Delta Reserve
Biosphere is the largest and least damaged wetland complex in
Europe, covering a total area of .The significance of the
biodiversity of the Danube Delta has been internationally
recognised. It was declared a Biosphere Reserve in September 1990,
a Ramsar site in May 1991, and over 50% of its area was placed on
the
World Heritage List in
December 1991. Within its boundaries is one of the most extensive
reed bed systems in the world.
There are two other
biosphera reserves: Retezat National Park
and Rodna National Park
.
Flora and fauna
In Romania there have been identified 3,700 plant species from
which to date 23 have been declared
natural monuments, 74 missing, 39 are
endangered, 171 vulnerable and 1,253 are considered rare. The three
major vegetation areas in Romania are the alpine zone, the forest
zone and the steppe zone. The vegetation is distributed in an
storied manner in accordance with the characteristics of soil and
climate, but according to altitude as:
oak,
flasks,
linden,
ash (in the steppe zone and low hills),
beech,
oak (between 500 and 1200
meters),
spruce,
fir,
pine (between 1200 and 1800 m),
juniper,
Mountain Pine and
dwarf trees (in 1800 and 2000 meters), alpine
meadows consisting of small herbs (over 2000 meters). Off the high
valleys, due to persistent moisture, there is a specific vegetation
of
meadow,
reed,
rush,
sedge, and often with
patches of
willows,
poplars and
Arini. In the
Danube Delta swamp vegetation is
dominant.
The fauna of Romania consists of 33,792 species of animals, 33,085
invertebrate and 707
vertebrate. The vertebrate species consist of 191
fish, 20
amphibian, 30
reptile, 364
bird and
102
mammal species. Fauna is especially
broken down by vegetation. Thus, specific floor steppe and forest
steppe have the following species:
rabbit,
hamster,
ground
squirrel,
pheasant,
drop,
quail,
carp,
perch,
pike,
catfish, the forest floor
of hardwood (oak and beech):
boar,
wolf,
fox,
barbel,
woodpecker, and for
coniferous forest floor:
trout,
lynx,
deer,
goats and specific alpine fauna like
black and
bald eagles.
In particular the Danube Delta is the place where hundreds of
species of birds exist, including
pelicans,
swans,
wild geese
and
flamingos, birds that are protected by
law. The delta is also a seasonal stopover for migratory birds.
Some rare species of birds in the
Dobrogea
area are the
pelican,
cormorant,
little deer,
Red-breasted Goose,
White-fronted Goose and the
Mute Swan.
Climate
Owing to its distance from the open sea and position on the
southeastern portion of the European continent, Romania has a
climate that is transitional between
temperate and
continental with four distinct seasons.
The average annual temperature is 11 °C (52 °F) in the south and in
the north.
The extreme
recorded temperatures are in Ion Sion
1951 and in Bod
1942.
Spring is pleasant with cool mornings and nights and warm days.
Summers are generally very warm to hot, with summer (June to
August) average maximum temperatures in Bucharest being around ,
with temperatures over fairly common in the lower-lying areas of
the country.Minima in Bucharest and other lower-lying areas are
around , but at higher altitudes both maxima and minima decline
considerably. Autumn is dry and cool, with fields and trees
producing colorful foliage. Winters can be cold, with average
maxima even in lower-lying areas being no more than and below in
the highest mountains, where some areas of
permafrost occur on the highest peaks.
Precipitation is average with over per year only on the highest
western mountains — much of it falling as
snow
which allows for an extensive skiing industry. In the south-centern
parts of the country (around Bucharest) the level of precipitation
drops to around , while in the Danube Delta, rainfall levels are
very low, and average only around 370 mm.
Demographics
Demographics of Romania between
1961-2003
Ethnic map of Romania in 2002
According to the 2002 census, Romania has a population of
21,698,181 and, similarly to other countries in the region, is
expected to gently decline in the coming years as a result of
sub-replacement fertility
rates.
Romanians make up 89.5% of the
population. The largest
ethnic
minorities are
Hungarians, who make up 6.6%
of the population and
Roma,
or Gypsies, who make up 2.46% of the population. By the official
census 535,250
Roma live in Romania.
Hungarians, who are a sizeable minority in
Transylvania, constitute a majority in
the counties of Harghita
and Covasna.
Ukrainians,
Germans,
Lipovans,
Turks,
Tatars,
Serbs,
Slovaks,
Bulgarians,
Croats,
Greeks,
Russians,
Jews,
Czechs,
Poles,
Italians,
Armenians, as well as other ethnic
groups, account for the remaining 1.4% of the population. Of the
745,421
Germans in Romania in
1930, only about 60,000 remained. In 1924, there were 796,056
Jews in the Kingdom
of Romania. The number of Romanians and individuals with ancestors
born in Romania living abroad is estimated at around 12 million.
Languages
The official language of Romania is
Romanian, an
Eastern Romance language related
to
Italian,
French,
Spanish,
Portuguese and
Catalan. Romanian is spoken as a first
language by 91% of the population, with
Hungarian and
Rroma, being the most important
minority languages, spoken by 6.7% and 1.1% of the population,
respectively. Until the 1990s, there was also a substantial number
of German-speaking
Transylvanian
Saxons, even though many have since emigrated to Germany,
leaving only 45,000 native German speakers in Romania. In
localities where a given ethnic minority makes up more than 20% of
the population, that minority's language can be used in the public
administration and justice system, while native-language education
and signage is also provided.
English and
French are the main foreign languages taught
in schools. English is spoken by 5 million Romanians, French is
spoken by 4–5 million, and German, Italian and Spanish are each
spoken by 1–2 million people. Historically, French was the
predominant foreign language spoken in Romania, even though English
has since superseded it. Consequently, Romanian English-speakers
tend to be younger than Romanian French-speakers. Romania is,
however, a full member of
La
Francophonie, and hosted the Francophonie Summit in 2006.
German has been taught predominantly in Transylvania, due to
traditions tracing back to the Austro-Hungarian rule in this
province.
Religion
Romania is a
secular state, thus
having no
national religion. The
dominant religious body is the
Romanian Orthodox Church, an
autocephalous church within the
Eastern Orthodox communion; its members make up 86.7% of the
population according to the 2002 census. Other important
Christian denominations include
Roman Catholicism
(4.7%),
Protestantism (3.7%),
Pentecostalism (1.5%) and the
Romanian Greek-Catholic
Church (0.9%). Romania also has a
Muslim minority concentrated in
Dobrogea, mostly of Turkish ethnicity and numbering
67,500 people. Based on the 2002 census data, there are also 6,179
Jews, 23,105 people
who are of no religion and/or
atheist, and
11,734 who refused to answer. On December 27, 2006, a new Law on
Religion was approved under which religious denominations can only
receive official registration if they have at least 20,000 members,
or about 0.1 percent of Romania's total population.
Largest cities
Bucharest is the capital and the largest city in
Romania. At the census in 2002, its population was over 1.9
million. The
metropolitan area of
Bucharest has a
population of about 2.2 million. There are several plans to
increase further its metropolitan area to about 20 times the area
of the
city proper.
There are 5 more cities in Romania, with a population of around
300,000, that are also present in the
EU's top 100 most populous cities.
These are: Iaşi
, Cluj-Napoca
, Timişoara
, Constanţa
, and Craiova
. The other cities with populations over
200,000 are Galaţi
, Braşov, Ploieşti
, Brăila
and
Oradea
.
Another 13 cities have populations over 100,000.
At
present, several of the largest cities have a metropolitan area: Constanţa (450,000 people),
Braşov
, Iaşi
(both with around 400,000) and Oradea (260,000) and several others
are planned: Timişoara (365,000),
Cluj-Napoca (380,000),
Brăila-Galaţi (600,000),
Craiova (335,000), Bacău
and
Ploieşti.
Education
Since the
Romanian
Revolution of 1989, the Romanian educational system has been in
a continuous process of
reform that has been
both praised and criticized. According to the Law on Education
adopted in 1995, the educational system is regulated by the
Ministry
of Education and Research. Each level has its own form of
organization and is subject to different legislation.
Kindergarten is optional for children between 3
and 6 years old.
Schooling starts at age 7
(sometimes 6), and is compulsory until the 10th grade (which
usually corresponds to the age of 17 or 16).
Primary and
secondary education are divided into 12 or
13 grades.
Higher education is
aligned with the
European
higher education area.
Aside from the official schooling system, and the recently-added
private equivalents, there exists a semi-legal, informal, fully
private tutoring system.
Tutoring is mostly used during
secondary as a preparation for the various
examinations, which are notoriously difficult. Tutoring is
widespread, and it can be considered a part of the Education
System. It has subsisted and even prospered during the Communist
regime.
In 2004, some 4.4 million of the population were enrolled in
school. Out of these, 650,000 in kindergarten, 3.11 million (14% of
population) in primary and secondary level, and 650,000 (3% of
population) in tertiary level (universities). In the same year, the
adult literacy rate was 97.3% (45th worldwide), while the combined
gross enrollment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary schools
was 75% (52nd worldwide). The results of the
PISA assessment study in schools for the year 2000
placed Romania on the 34th rank out of 42 participant countries
with a general weighted score of 432 representing 85% of the mean
OECD score. According to the
Academic Ranking of World
Universities, in 2006 no Romanian university was included in
the first 500 top universities world wide.
Using similar
methodology to these rankings, it was reported that the best placed
Romanian university, Bucharest University
, attained the half score of the last university in
the world top 500.
Romanian high school curricula have recently been
censored and restructured, owing to a growing
trend of religious conservatism. In 2006, the
theory of evolution, which had been
taught since the country's Communist era, was dropped from the
compulsory curriculum nationwide. Philosophical writers critical of
religion, such as
Voltaire and
Camus have also been removed from the philosophy
curriculum. Instead, students are taught
7-day Creationism in Orthodox
religion classes, which under new proposals could become
compulsory.
Government
Politics
The
Constitution of Romania
is based on the
Constitution of
France's Fifth Republic and was approved in a national
referendum on December 8, 1991. A plebiscite held in October 2003
approved 79 amendments to the Constitution, bringing it into
conformity with European Union legislation. Romania is governed on
the basis of multi-party democratic system and of the segregation
of the legislative, executive and judicial powers. Romania is a
semi-presidential democratic
republic where executive functions are shared between the
president and the
prime minister.
The President is elected by popular
vote for maximum two terms, and since the amendments in 2003, the
terms are five years. The President appoints the
Prime Minister, who in turn
appoints the
Council of Ministers.
While the
president resides at Cotroceni Palace
, the Prime Minister with the Romanian Government is based at
Victoria
Palace
.
The legislative branch of the government, collectively known as the
Parliament (
Parlamentul
României), consists of
two
chambers – the
Senate
(
Senat), which has 140 members, and the
Chamber of Deputies
(
Camera Deputaţilor), which has 346 members. The members
of both chambers are elected every four years under a system of
party-list
proportional representation.
The justice system is independent of the other branches of
government, and is made up of a hierarchical system of courts
culminating in the
High Court of Cassation and
Justice, which is the supreme court of Romania. There are also
courts of appeal, county courts and local courts. The Romanian
judicial system is strongly influenced by the
French model, considering that it is based on
civil law and is
inquisitorial in nature. The
Constitutional Court
(
Curtea Constituţională) is responsible for judging the
compliance of laws and other state regulations to the
Romanian Constitution, which is the
fundamental law of the country. The constitution, which was
introduced in 1991, can only be amended by a public referendum, the
last one being in 2003. Since this amendment, the court's decisions
cannot be overruled by any majority of the parliament.
The country's entry into the
European
Union in 2007 has been a significant influence on its domestic
policy. As part of the process, Romania has instituted reforms
including
judicial reform, increased
judicial cooperation with other member states, and measures to
combat corruption.
Nevertheless, in 2006 Brussels report,
Romania and Bulgaria were described as the two most corrupt countries in
the EU.
Administrative divisions
Romania
is divided into forty-one counties (sing. judeţ, pl.
judeţe), plus the municipality of Bucharest (Bucureşti) – which has equal rank. Each
county is administered by a county council (
consiliu
judeţean), responsible for local affairs, as well as a
prefect, who is appointed by the central
government but cannot be a member of any political party,
responsible for the administration of national (central) affairs at
the county level. Since 2008, the president of the county council
(
preşedintele consiliului judeţean) is directly elected by
the people, and not by the county council as before that.
Each county is further subdivided into
cities
(sing.
oraş, pl.
oraşe) and
communes (sing.
comună, pl.
comune), the former being
urban,
and the latter being
rural localities. There
are a total of 319
cities and 2686
communes in Romania. Each city
and commune has its own mayor (
primar) and local council
(
consiliu local). 103 of the larger and more urbanised
cities have the status of
municipality, which gives them
greater administrative power over local affairs. Bucharest is also
reckoned as a city with municipality status, but it is unique among
the other localities in that it is not part of a county. It does
not have a county concil, but has a prefect. Bucharest elects a
general mayor (
primar general) and a general city council
(
Consiliul General Bucureşti). Each of Bucharest's six
sectors also elects a mayor and a local council.
The
NUTS-3
level divisions reflect Romania's administrative-territorial
structure, and correspond to the 41 counties, and the Bucharest municipality. Cities and communes are NUTS-5
level divisions. The country currently does not have NUTS-4 level
divisions, but there are plans to make such associating neighboring
localities for better coordination of local development and
assimilation of national and European funds.
The 41 counties and Bucharest are grouped into eight
development regions
corresponding to NUTS-2 divisions in the European Union. Prior to
Romania's accession into the European Union, these were called
statistical regions, and were used exclusively for statistical
purposes. Thus, albeit they formally existed for over 40 years, the
regions are publicly a news. There are proposals in the future to
cancel county councils (but leave the prefects) and create regional
councils instead. This would not change the nomenclature of the
country's territorial subdivision, but would presumably allow
better coordination of policy at the local level, more autonomy,
and a smaller bureaucracy.
There are also proposals to use four
NUTS-1
level divisions; they would be called macroregions
(Romanian:
Macroregiune). NUTS-1 and -2 divisions have no
administrative capacity and are instead used for co-ordinating
regional development projects and statistical purposes.
- Macroregiunea 1:
- Nord-Vest
(6 counties: Bihor,
Bistriţa-Năsăud,
Cluj, Maramureş
, Satu Mare,
Sălaj; roughtly northern Transylvania)
- Centru
(6 counties: Alba,
Braşov, Covasna, Harghita, Mureş, Sibiu; roughly southern
Transylvania)
- Macroregiunea 2:
- Nord-Est
(6 counties: Bacău, Botoşani, Iaşi, Neamţ, Suceava, Vaslui;
Moldavia except the counties of Vrancea and
Galaţi)
- Sud-Est
(6 counties: Brăila, Buzău, Constanţa, Galaţi, Tulcea, Vrancea;
lower Danube, including Dobrudja)
- Macroregiunea 3:
- Macroregiunea 4:
Foreign relations
Since December 1989, Romania has pursued a policy of strengthening
relations with the West in general, more specifically with the
United States and the
European Union.
It joined
the North
Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) on
March 29, 2004, the European Union
(EU) on January 1, 2007, and the International Monetary Fund
and the World Bank in
1972, and is a member of the World Trade
Organization.
The
current government has stated its goal of strengthening ties with
and helping other Eastern European
countries (in particular Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia
) with the process of integration with the
West. Romania has also made clear since the late 1990s that
it supports NATO and EU membership for the democratic former Soviet
republics in Eastern Europe and the
Caucasus.
Romania also declared its public support for
Turkey, Croatia
and Moldova joining the European Union. With Turkey,
Romania shares a privileged economic relation.
Because it has a
large Hungarian minority, Romania has also developed strong
relations with Hungary – the latter
supported Romania's bid to join the EU.
In December 2005, President
Traian
Băsescu and
United
States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed an agreement that
would allow a U.S. military presence at several Romanian facilities
primarily in the eastern part of the country. In May 2009, the
American state secretary
Hillary
Clinton declared that "Romania is one of the most trustworthy
and respectable partners of the USA" during a visit of the Romanian
foreign minister.
Relations with The Republic
of Moldova are special, considering that the two countries
practically share the same language, and a
fairly common historical background. A
movement
for unification of Romania and Moldova appeared in the early
1990s after both countries achieved emancipation from communist
rule, but quickly faded away with the new Moldovan government that
had an agenda to preserve a Moldovan republic independent of
Romania. Romania remains interested in Moldovan affairs and has
officially rejected the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, but the two
countries have been unable even to reach agreement on a basic
bilateral treaty.
Armed Forces
The Romanian Armed Forces consist of
Land,
Air, and
Naval Forces, and are led by a
Commander-in-chief who is managed
by the
Ministry of
Defense. The
president is
the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces during
wartime. Of the 90,000 men and women which the Armed
Forces comprise, 15,000 are civilians and 75,000 are military
personnel—45,800 for land, 13,250 for air, 6,800 for naval forces,
and 8,800 in other fields.
The total defence spending currently accounts for 2.05% of total
national
GDP, which represents approximately 2.9
billion
dollars (
ranked
39th). However, the Romanian Armed Forces will spend about 11
billion dollars between 2006 and 2011, for modernization and
acquisition of new equipment.
The Land Forces have overhauled their
equipment in the past few years, and today are an army with multiple NATO
capabilities, participating in a NATO peacekeeping mission in
Afghanistan
. The Air Force currently operates modernized
Soviet
MiG-21LanceR fighters which are due to be replaced by
new advanced 4.5
generation Western jet fighters, such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon, Eurofighter Typhoon or JAS 39 Gripen. Also, in order to
replace the bulk of the old transport force, the Air Force ordered
seven new
C-27J Spartan tactical airlift aircraft which are to be
delivered starting with late 2008. Two modernized ex-
Royal Navy Type 22
frigates were acquired by the Naval Forces in 2004, and a
further four modern missile corvettes will be commissioned until
2010.
Economy
With a
GDP of around $264
billion and a
GDP per capita
(
PPP) of $12,285 estimated
for 2008, Romania is an upper-middle income country economy and has
been part of the
European Union since
January 1, 2007.
After the
Communist regime was
overthrown in late 1989,
the country experienced a decade of economic instability and
decline, led in part by an obsolete industrial base and a lack of
structural reform. From 2000 onwards, however, the Romanian economy
was transformed into one of relative
macroeconomic stability, characterised by high
growth, low
unemployment and declining
inflation. In 2006, according to the
Romanian
Statistics Office, GDP growth in real terms was recorded at
7.7%, one of the highest rates in Europe. Growth dampened to 6.1%
in 2007, but was expected to exceed 8% in 2008 because of a high
production forecast in agriculture (30–50% higher than in 2007).
The GDP grew by 8.9% in the first nine months of 2008, but growth
fell to 2.9% in the fourth quarter and stood at 7.1% for the whole
2008 because of the
financial
crisis.
According to
Eurostat data, the Romanian
PPS GDP per capita stood at 46% of the EU average in 2008.
Unemployment in Romania was at 3.9% in
September 2007, which is very low compared to other middle-sized or
large European countries such as Poland
, France,
Germany and Spain. Foreign debt is also comparatively low,
at 20.3% of GDP. Exports have increased substantially in the past
few years, with a 25% year-on-year rise in exports in the first
quarter of 2006. Romania's main exports are clothing and textiles,
industrial machinery, electrical and electronic equipment,
metallurgic products, raw materials, cars, military equipment,
software, pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, and agricultural
products (fruits, vegetables, and flowers). Trade is mostly centred
on the member states of the European Union, with Germany and Italy
being the country's single largest trading partners. The country,
however, maintains a large trade deficit, which increased sharply
during 2007 by 50%, to €15 billon.
After a series of privatisations and reforms in the late 1990s and
early 2000s, government intervention in the Romanian economy is
somewhat lower than in other European economies. In 2005, the
government replaced Romania's
progressive tax system with a
flat tax of 16% for both personal income and
corporate profit, resulting in the country having the lowest fiscal
burden in the European Union, a factor which has contributed to the
growth of the private sector. The economy is predominantly based on
services, which account for 55% of GDP, even though industry and
agriculture also have significant contributions, making up 35% and
10% of GDP, respectively. Additionally, 32% of the Romanian
population is employed in agriculture and primary production, one
of the highest rates in Europe.
Since 2000, Romania has attracted increasing amounts of foreign
investment, becoming the single largest investment destination in
Southeastern and Central Europe.
Foreign direct investment was
valued at €8.3 billion in 2006.
According to a 2006 World Bank report, Romania currently ranks 49th
out of 175 economies in the ease of doing business, scoring higher
than other countries in the region such as Hungary and the
Czech
Republic
.
Additionally, the same study judged it to be
the world's second-fastest economic reformer (after Georgia) in 2006. The average gross wage per month
in Romania was 1855 lei in May 2009, equating to €442.48
(US$627.70) based on international exchange rates, and $1110.31
based on purchasing power parity.
Transportation
Due to its location, Romania is a major crossroad for International
economic exchange in
Europe. However, because
of insufficient investment, maintenance and repair, the transport
infrastructure does not meet the current needs of a
market economy and lags behind
Western Europe. Nevertheless, these
conditions are rapidly improving and catching up with the standards
of
Trans-European
transport networks.
Several projects have been started with
funding from grants from ISPA
and several loans from International Financial
Institutions (World Bank, IMF, etc.)
guaranteed by the state, to upgrade the main road corridors. Also, the
Government is actively pursuing new external financing or
public-private partnerships to further upgrade the main roads, and
especially the country's
motorway
network.
The
World Bank estimates that the railway
network in Romania comprised of track in 2004, which would make it
the fourth largest railroad network in Europe. The
railway transport experienced
a dramatic fall in freight and passenger volumes from the peak
volumes recorded in 1989 mainly due to the decline in GDP and
competition from road transport. In 2004, the railways carried 8.64
billion passenger-km in 99 million passenger journeys, and 73
million metric tonnes, or 17 billion ton-km of freight. The
combined total transportation by rail constituted around 45% of all
passenger and freight movement in the country.
Bucharest is the only city in Romania which has an underground railway system. The
Bucharest Metro was only opened in
1979 and is now one of the most accessed systems of the
Bucharest public transport network
with an average ridership of 600,000 passengers during the
workweek.
Tourism
Tourism focuses on the country's natural landscapes and its rich
history and is a significant contributor to the Romania's economy.
In 2006, the domestic and international
tourism generated about 4.8% of gross domestic
product and 5.8% of the total jobs (about half a million jobs).
Following commerce, tourism is the second largest component of the
services sector. Tourism is one of the most dynamic and fastest
developing sectors of the economy of Romania and characterized by a
huge potential for development. According to the
World Travel and Tourism
Council Romania is the fourth fastest growing country in the
world in terms of travel and tourism total demand with a yearly
potential growth of 8% from 2007-2016. Number of tourists grew from
4.8 million in 2002 to 6.6 million in 2004. Similarly, the revenues
grew from 400 million in 2002 to 607 in 2004. In 2006, Romania
registered 20 million overnight stays by international tourists, an
all-time record, but the number for 2007 is expected to increase
even more. Tourism in Romania attracted €400 million in investments
in 2005.
Over the
last years, Romania has emerged as a popular tourist destination
for many Europeans (more than 60% of the foreign visitors were from
EU countries), thus attempting to compete with Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and
Spain. Romania destinations such as Mangalia
, Saturn
, Venus
, Neptun
, Olimp, Constanta
and Mamaia
(sometimes
called the Romanian
Riviera) are among the most popular attraction during
summer. During winter, the skiing resorts along the
Valea Prahovei and Poiana
Braşov
are popular with foreign visitors.
For their
medieval atmosphere and castles, Transylvanian cities such as Sibiu, Braşov, Sighişoara
, Cluj-Napoca, Târgu Mureş
have become important touristic attractions for
foreigners. Rural tourism focused on folklore and
traditions, has become an important alternative recently, and is
targeted to promote such sites as Bran
and its Dracula's Castle
, the Painted churches of
Northern Moldavia, the Wooden churches of
Maramureş, or the Merry Cemetery
in Maramureş
County. Other major natural attractions in Romania
such as Danube Delta, Iron Gates
(Danube Gorge), Scărişoara
Cave
and several other caves in the Apuseni
Mountains
have yet to receive great attention.
Culture
Romania has its unique culture, which is the product of its
geography and of its distinct historical evolution. Like Romanians
themselves, it is fundamentally defined as the meeting point of
three regions:
Central Europe,
Eastern Europe, and the
Balkans, but cannot be truly included in any of
them. The Romanian identity formed on a substratum of mixed
Roman and quite possibly
Dacian elements, with many other influences.
During
late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the major influences came from
the Slavic peoples who migrated and
settled in near Romania; from medieval Greeks, and the
Byzantine Empire; from a long
domination by the Ottoman Empire;
from the Hungarians; and from the
Germans living in
Transylvania. Modern Romanian culture emerged and developed
over roughly the last 250 years under a strong influence from
Western culture, particularly
French, and
German culture.
Arts
The Romanian literature began to truly evolve with the
revolutions of 1848 and the
union of the two
Danubian
Principalities in 1859. The
Origin of the Romanians began to be
discussed and
in
Transylvania and Romanian scholars began studying in France,
Italy and Germany. The German philosophy and French culture were
integrated into modern Romanian literature and a new elite of
artists led to the appearance of some of the classics of the
Romanian literature such as
Mihai
Eminescu,
George Coşbuc,
Ioan Slavici. Although they remain
little known outside Romania, they are very appreciated within
Romania for giving birth to a true Romanian literature by creating
modern lyrics with inspiration from the
old folklore tales. Of them, Eminescu is
considered the most important and influential Romanian poet, and is
still very much loved for his creations, and especially the poem
Luceafărul. Among other
writers that made large contributions around the second half of
19th century are
Mihail
Kogălniceanu (also the first prime minister of Romania),
Vasile Alecsandri,
Nicolae Bălcescu,
Ion Luca Caragiale, and
Ion Creangă.
The first half of the 20th century is regarded by many Romanian
scholars as the
Golden Age of Romanian culture and it is
the period when it reached its main level of international
affirmation and a strong connection to the
European cultural trends. The most
important artist who had a great influence on the world culture was
the
sculptor Constantin Brâncuşi, a central
figure of the modern movement and a pioneer of abstraction, the
innovator of world sculpture by immersion in the primordial sources
of folk creation. His sculptures blend simplicity and
sophistication that led the way for
modernist sculptors. As a testimony to his skill,
one of his pieces,
"Bird in
Space" , was sold in an auction for $27.5 million in 2005,
a record for any sculpture. In the period between the two world
wars, authors like
Tudor Arghezi,
Lucian Blaga,
Eugen Lovinescu,
Ion
Barbu,
Liviu Rebreanu made
efforts to synchronize Romanian literature with the European
literature of the time.
George Enescu,
probably the best known Romanian musician, also came from this
period; a
composer,
violinist,
pianist,
conductor, and teacher, the annual
George Enescu Festival is held in
Bucharest in his honor.
After the world wars, communism brought heavy censorship and used
the cultural world as a means to better control the population.
Freedom of expression was constantly restricted in various ways,
but the likes of
Gellu Naum,
Nichita Stănescu,
Marin Sorescu or
Marin
Preda managed to escape censorship, broke with "
socialist realism" and were the leaders of
a small "Renaissance" in Romanian literature. While not many of
them managed to obtain international acclaim due to censorship,
some, like
Constantin Noica,
Paul Goma and
Mircea Cărtărescu, had their
works published abroad even though they were jailed for various
political reasons.
Some artists chose to leave the country entirely, and continued to
make contributions in exile. Among them
Eugen Ionescu,
Mircea
Eliade and
Emil Cioran became renown
worldwide for their works. Other literary figures who enjoy acclaim
outside of the country include the poet
Paul
Celan and Nobel laureate
Elie
Wiesel, both survivors of the Holocaust. Some famous Romanian
artists musicians are the folk artist
Tudor Gheorghe, and the virtuoso of the
pan flute Gheorghe Zamfir – who is reported to have
sold over 120 million albums worldwide.
Romanian cinema has recently achieved worldwide acclaim with the
appearance of such films as
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu,
directed by
Cristi Puiu, (
Cannes 2005 Prix un certain regard winner), and
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2
Days, directed by
Cristian
Mungiu (
Cannes 2007
Palme d'Or winner). The latter,
according to
Variety, is
"further proof of Romania's new prominence in the film
world."
Monuments
The
UNESCO
List of World Heritage Sites includes
Romanian sites such as the Saxon villages with fortified churches in
Transylvania
, the Painted churches of
northern Moldavia with their fine exterior and interior
frescoes, the Wooden
Churches of Maramures unique examples that combine Gothic style
with traditional timber construction, the Monastery of Horezu, the citadel of
Sighişoara, and the Dacian Fortresses of the Orăştie
Mountains
. Romania's contribution to the World
Heritage List stands out because it consists of some groups of
monuments scattered around the country, rather than one or two
special landmarks.
Also, in 2007, the city of Sibiu famous for
its Brukenthal National Museum
is the European Capital of Culture
alongside the city of Luxembourg
.
National Flag
The national flag of Romania is a tricolour with vertical stripes:
beginning from the flagpole, blue, yellow and red. It has a
width-length ratio of 2:3.
Romania's national flag is very similar to
that of Chad
.
Sports
Football is by far the most
popular sport in Romania. The governing body is the
Romanian Football Federation,
which belongs to
UEFA. The top division of the
Romanian
Professional Football League attracted an average of 5417
spectators per game in the 2006–07 season.
At international
level, the Romanian
National Football Team has taken part 7 times in the Football World Cup, and it had the most
successful period throughout the 1990s, when during the 1994 World Cup in the United States
, Romania reached the quarter-finals and was ranked
by FIFA
on the
6th place. The core player of this "
Golden Generation" and perhaps the best
known Romanian player internationally is
Gheorghe Hagi (nicknamed
the Maradona of
the Carpathians). Famous currently active players are
Adrian Mutu and
Cristian Chivu. The most famous football club
is
Steaua Bucureşti, who in
1986 became the first Eastern
European club ever to win the prestigious
European Champions Cup title, and who
played the final again in 1989.
Another successful Romanian team
Dinamo Bucureşti played a semifinal in
the
European Champions Cup in
1984 and a
Cup Winners Cup semifinal
in the 1990. Other important Romanian football clubs are
Rapid Bucureşti,
CFR 1907 Cluj-Napoca and
FC Universitatea Craiova.
Tennis is the second most popular sport in terms of registered
sportsmen. Romania reached the
Davis Cup
finals three times (1969, 1971, 1972). The tennis player
Ilie Năstase won several
Grand Slam titles and dozens of other
tournaments, and was the first player to be
ranked as number 1 by
ATP from 1973 to
1974. The
Romanian Open is held every
fall in Bucharest since 1993.
Popular
team sports are
rugby union (
national rugby team has
so far
competed at every Rugby World
Cup),
basketball and
handball. Some popular
individual sports are: athletics, chess,
sport dance, and martial arts and other fighting sports.
Romanian
gymnastics has had a large
number of successes – for which the country became known worldwide.
In the
1976 Summer Olympics,
the gymnast
Nadia Comăneci
became the first gymnast ever to score a perfect ten. She also won
three gold medals, one silver and one bronze, all at the age of
fifteen. Her success continued in the
1980 Summer Olympics, where she was
awarded two gold medals and two silver medals.
Romania participated in for the first time in the
Olympic Games in 1900 and has taken part in 18
of the 24 summer games. Romania has been one of the more successful
countries at the
Summer Olympic
Games (
15th
overall) with a total of 283 medals won throughout the years,
82 of which are gold medals. Winter sports have received little
investments and thus only a single bronze medal was won by Romanian
sportsmen in the
Winter Olympic
Games.
See also
Notes
References
- Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language, 1998; New
Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language, 2002
- Vlad III (ruler of Walachia). Britannica Online
Encyclopedia.
- Note: follow the World War II link:
- Martin
Gilbert. Atlas of the Holocaust. 1988
- Law Nr. 119 of June 11th 1948
- mostly by the Decree 92/1950, 111/1951, 224/1951, 513/1953, and
409/1955 - direct link to the 92/1950 decree (Romanian Chamber
of Deputies)
- SAR Brief Policy n°34, September 2008, page 5 : direct link to the survey
- 2002 census data, based on Population by ethnicity, gives a total of 535,250 Roma
in Romania. This figure is disputed by other sources, because at
the local level, many Roma declare a different ethnicity (mostly
Romanian, but also Hungarian in the West and Turkish in Dobruja)
for fear of discrimination. Many are not recorded at all, since
they do not have ID cards. International sources
give higher figures than the official census( UNDP's
Regional Bureau for Europe, World Bank, .
-
http://www.bucharestherald.com/politics/34-politics/3116-hillary-clinton-romania-one-of-the-most-trustworthy-and-respectable-partners-of-the-usa-
- Law no. 75 of 16 July 1994, published in Monitorul
Oficial no. 237 of 26 August 1994.
- Governmental Decision no. 1157/2001, published in Monitorul
Oficial no. 776 of 5 December 2001.
- Romanians were for example stereotyped as gymnasts, as in the
South Park episode
Quintuplets 2000
External links
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