Interesting facts about Romania
Romania is the only Latin country in the Eastern Europe (Except Moldova, which used to be part of Romania until the end of the World War II). It’s like a Latin island surrounded by mainly Slavic countries.
Facts about Romania Name and Language
The name of Romania dates back in the antiquity, when the original territory Dacia, became one of the Roman Empire’s provinces.
Romanian language is a romance language (similar to French and Italian), with some influences from Turkish, Slavic, Hungarian, German, Greek.
Interesting to notice that in all territories that now form the modern Romania (after the “Great Union” in 1918), people were always speaking Romanian language, which btw. is 1,700 years old.
Facts about the Geography of Romania
Geographically, Romania is situated in the Southeastern part of the Europe, at about 43° – 48° latitude N and 20° – 29° longitude E.
Bucharest – the capital is on the 45° parallel N, same as Montreal and Ottawa in Canada, Minneapolis and Portland in USA, Milan and Venice in Italy, or Lyon in France
On the East side it is bordered the Black Sea (Coastline: 225 km), between Bulgaria (to the South) and Ukraine (to the North).
The Western neighbors are Hungary and Serbia.
Romania is situated on the last part of the Danube River, which is a very important transportation route in the Europe Union (Corridor VII).
As the second large river in Europe that passes through more countries than any other river in the world.
Recently, after the opening of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal,the river connects the Port of Rotterdam and the industrial centers of Western Europe with the Black Sea.
Danube drains its waters to the Black Sea trough the Danube Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It hosts about 3,450 animal species and 1,700 plant species, and also 45 freshwater fish species.
The total area of the country is 237,500 sq km. (about the size of Minnesota), compared to: Bulgaria 608 km, Hungary 443 km, Moldova 450 km, Serbia and Montenegro 476 km (all with Serbia), Ukraine (north) 362 km, Ukraine (south) 169 km.
Bucharest (Bucuresti) is the capital and the largest city, with a population of 1.88 million (2011).
In is situated in the South-East of the country, on the Dâmbovița River. The capital is also the center of media, culture and art of the country.
Between the two world wars, Bucuresti used to be a beautiful elegant city on the model of France capital – and it used to be called “The little Paris”.
Today a lot of the old buildings are deteriorated by either the war or the 2 major earthquakes that occurred in 1916 and 1977. The modern era of the Bauhaus current (in its cheapest application) and USSR influence, brought some ugly architecture which still exist. Little by little a new modern architecture changes the landscape of the capital, transforming it from a nostalgic city into a modern business oriented metropole.
The climate is temperate continental, with cold, snowy winters sunny and hot summers and mild springs and falls, similar to the countries on the same latitude in Western Europe or N. America.
Romania has a very diverse, yet very balanced relief: about 30% mountains, 30% plains and 30% hills, with lots of springs, rivers and lakes.
The Central Transylvanian Basin is separated from the Plain of Moldavia on the east by the Carpathian Mountains and separated from the Wallachian Plain on the South by the Transylvanian Alps.
From the Black Sea and Danube Delta to the high top of the mountains, Romania offers lots of tourism, sports and leisure opportunities.
- The “Cold Mountain” movie was filmed int the Carpatians of Romania
The country was gifted with a lot of natural resources like: oil, natural gas, coal, iron, salt and many more
Romania is also one richest country in natural mineral and thermal springs and lakes, which have been used from the antiquity to heal a diverse range of medical conditions. There are 70 natural medical spas including those along the Black Sea border
Because of the mild climate and sunny hills, Romania has one of the older traditions of wine production in the world – starting back in the early history.