Romania is a country of unknown values when we speak about knowing Romanian history or even the way of everyday local communication. For Bulgarians, it is as interesting as it is exciting to visit this so near, but at the same time so distant country.

Romania’s known history dates from 10 000 BCE. Cave paintings from this time were found in caverns in north-western Transylvania.

One of the oldest fossils found to date of modern humans in Europe was also in these lands; it seems to be between 34 000 and 36 000 years old.

The territory of today’s Romania was first inhabited in 3000 BCE when Thracian tribes of Indo-European origin migrated from Asia and settled there. The people were called Dacians. The Dorian Greek Herodotus spoke about them as “the fairest and most courageous of men” because they believed in immortality of the soul and were not afraid to die.

Just few years after Dacian civilisation reached its peak around 100 CE, the Romans conquered and colonised today’s Romania, it became a Roman province and the local people adopted the conquerors’ language. Roman troops left Dacia about 170 years later.

In the11th century, Romanians were the only Latin people in the eastern part of the former Roman Empire and the only Latin people who belonged to the Orthodox faith. Around the same time, Hungarian (Magyar) forces invaded north-eastern and central Romania (Transylvania). In the 12th century, Saxon (German) settlers began to establish several towns in Transylvania.

During the 16th century, threatened by the Turks who conquered Hungary, the three Romanian provinces of Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania were able to retain their autonomy by paying tribute to the Turks.

After the province of Moldavia lost its eastern territory of Bessarabia to Russia and Transylvania fell under the direct rule of Hungary in the mid-19th century, in 1862, Wallachia and Moldavia united to form a national state of Romania. Nineteen years later Romania become a kingdom.

World War 1 was entered by Romania on the side of the Triple Entente because the country aimed to regain its lost territories – parts of Transylvania, Bessarabia and Bucovina – and it succeeded to do so four years later, in 1918.

The then Soviet Union annexed Bessarabia and northern Bucovina in 1940. Germany and Italy forced Romania to cede northern Transylvania to Hungary and southern Dobrogea (Dobrudja) to Bulgaria. After widespread demonstrations against King Carol II, Ferdinand I’s son, marshall Ion Antonescu forced Carol II to abdicate in favour of his 19-year-old son, Mihai. Carol II fled Romania and a year later Antonescu imposed a military dictatorship.

The Yalta Agreement of 1945 made Romania a communist state. In the 1980s, obsessed with repaying the national debt and with megalomaniac building projects, Romania’s communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu ordered a ban on import of any consumer products and commanded exportation of all goods produced in Romania except minimum food supplies. He also imposed severe restrictions on civil rights.

In 1989, Romanians united in protests against the communist leadership and local demonstrations sparked a national uprising that finally ousted Ceausescu and his cabinet. Three years later Romanians voted for a new constitution.

Religion

Today’s Romanians were introduced to Christianity in the fourth century. Followers of the Orthodox religion currently make up 70 per cent of the population of the country. Only six per cent are Roman Catholics, three per cent of which are Uniate. The Uniates, Eastern or Byzantine Rite Catholics, had broken away from the Orthodox Church and accepted papal authority while retaining the Orthodox ritual, canon and calendar, and conducting the worship service in the Romanian language. In 1948, in an obvious attempt to use religion to foster political unity, the country’s 1.7 million Uniates were forcibly reattached to the Romanian Orthodox Church.

About six per cent of people are Protestant, with about 18 per cent of the population unaffiliated to any religious group.

Culture

Romania’s cultural heritage is rich and varied. Like the Romanians themselves, it is fundamentally defined as the meeting point of three regions: Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The Romanian identity formed on a substratum of mixed Roman and Dacian elements, with many other influences.

During late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the major influences came from the Slavic people who migrated and settled in nearby Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, Poland and Russia. Romania’s culture is also influenced by the mediaeval Greeks and the Byzantine Empire, as well as by the long domination by the Ottoman Empire. Hungarians and Germans living in Transylvania also left their traces in the country.

Modern Romanian culture emerged and developed over roughly the last 250 years under a strong influence from Western culture, particularly from France and Germany.

Among foreigners, the Romanians are famous as some of the friendliest and most hospitable people in the world.

Romania is also associated with big names in arts and sport. Constantin Brancusi was one of the most acclaimed modern sculptors, who lived and worked in Paris. One of the world’s greatest opera sopranos is also Romanian – Angela Gheorghiu.

Another famous Romanian is Alexandra Nechita, a young painter living in California, known for her distinct style. Other world-renowned Romanian artists include pan flute virtuoso Gheorghe Zamfir, piano player Radu Lupu and musician George Enescu.

Romanian literary greats include Mircea Eliade, Eugen Ionesco and Nobel prize winner Elie Wiesel.

US Open and Roland Garos winner Ilie Nastase and the Olympic champion gymnast Nadia Comaneci are saluted by all citizens of the world, as are the gymnastics coaches Bela and Marta Karolyi.

Interesting for visitors to the country are Romanian holidays and celebrations. The country fetes its ancient heritage, the changing seasons, religious holidays, and life-cycle events, such as birth, marriage and death, with festivals that have remained unchanged for centuries. Some of Europe’s most traditional folklore ways are meticulously preserved here, with young celebrants wearing the same costumes and dancing the same steps to tunes played on instruments traditional to their forefathers since immemorial times – like the tilinca, cobza, violin, taragot and zongora. In June a traditional crafts fair is held. Enthusiasts from all over Romania gather at the Village Museum in Bucharest for free demonstrations of traditional woodcarving, rug and textile weaving, embroidery, pottery, glass blowing, egg painting and others.

During July, Romania celebrates the so-called Bucharest of Old, which is celebration of the city as it was 150 years ago. On the streets of the city one can enjoy a parade of 1800s costumes, horse-drawn carriages, traditional food, music and special performances.

The Mediaeval Days, also in July, are a three-day celebration of mediaeval arts, crafts and music, recreating the atmosphere of mediaeval Sighisoara using mediaeval cultural traditions.

Following is the Maidens’ Fair (Targul de Fete) – a historical matchmaking festival where villagers in traditional costumes walk up to Gaina Mountain for dancing, feasting and choosing a mate.

During the month of August, villagers celebrate the Dance at Prislop, which salutes the ties among three of Romania’s main regions: Transylvania, Moldavia and Maramures. The locals, decked out in in traditional dress, meet for a parade to Prislop Pass in the Carpathian Mountains, then participate in traditional dances, singing and feasting. Another annual event, Romania’s Folk Art Festival, is presented by noted folk artists to those interested in traditional crafts, such as pottery, textile embroidering, woodcarving and more.

In September the local Sambra Oilor is celebrated – a festival that marks the return of the sheep herds from the mountains. October is the month of the Romanian Wine Making Festival.

People from Transylvania also celebrate Halloween in their own specific way. Visitors can join tours, shows and celebrations following the footsteps of the character of Bram Stoker’s novel, Transylvania’s Count Dracula.