Portal:Romania

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Location of Romania
LocationAt the confluence of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to the east, and the Black Sea to the southeast. It has a predominantly continental climate, and an area of 238,397 km2 (92,046 sq mi) with a population of 19 million people (2023). Romania is the twelfth-largest country in Europe and the sixth-most populous member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest, followed by Cluj-Napoca, Iași, Timișoara, Constanța, Craiova, Brașov, and Galați.

Settlement in what is now Romania began in the Lower Paleolithic followed by written records attesting the kingdom of Dacia, its conquest, and subsequent Romanisation by the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The modern Romanian state was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877. During World War I, after declaring its neutrality in 1914, Romania fought together with the Allied Powers from 1916. In the aftermath of the war, Bukovina, Bessarabia, Transylvania, and parts of Banat, Crișana, and Maramureș became part of the Kingdom of Romania. In June–August 1940, as a consequence of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and Second Vienna Award, Romania was compelled to cede Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union and Northern Transylvania to Hungary. In November 1940, Romania signed the Tripartite Pact and, consequently, in June 1941 entered World War II on the Axis side, fighting against the Soviet Union until August 1944, when it joined the Allies and recovered Northern Transylvania. Following the war and occupation by the Red Army, Romania became a socialist republic and a member of the Warsaw Pact. After the 1989 Revolution, Romania began a transition towards democracy and a market economy.

Romania is a high-income country, with a very high Human Development Index and a highly complex economy, that is emerging to be a middle power in international affairs. Romania ranked 47th in the Global Innovation Index in 2023. Its economy ranks among the fastest growing in the European Union, being the world's 41th largest by nominal GDP, and the 35th largest by PPP. Romanian citizens enjoy one of the fastest and cheapest internet speeds in the world. Romania experienced rapid economic growth in the early 2000s; its economy is now based predominantly on services. It is a producer and net exporter of cars and electric energy through companies like Automobile Dacia and OMV Petrom. The majority of Romania's population are ethnic Romanians and religiously identify themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christians, speaking Romanian, a Romance language (more specifically Eastern Romance). Romania is a member of the United Nations, the European Union, the Schengen Area, NATO, the Council of Europe, BSEC and WTO. (Full article...)

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Aerial view overlooking Roses Park and the Bega

Timișoara (UK: /ˌtɪmɪˈʃwɑːrə/, US: /ˌtm-/, Romanian: [timiˈʃo̯ara] ; German: Temeswar pronounced [ˈtɛmɛʃvaːɐ̯] , also Temeschwar or Temeschburg; Hungarian: Temesvár pronounced [ˈtɛmɛʃvaːr] ; Serbian: Темишвар, romanizedTemišvar; see other names) is the capital city of Timiș County, Banat, and the main economic, social and cultural centre in Western Romania. Located on the Bega River, Timișoara is considered the informal capital city of the historical Banat region. From 1848 to 1860 it was the capital of the Serbian Vojvodina and the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar. With 250,849 inhabitants at the 2021 census, Timișoara is the country's fifth most populous city. It is home to around 400,000 inhabitants in its metropolitan area, while the Timișoara–Arad metropolis concentrates more than 70% of the population of Timiș and Arad counties. Timișoara is a multicultural city, home to 21 ethnic groups and 18 religious denominations. Historically, the most numerous were the Swabian Germans, Jews and Hungarians, who still make up 6% of the population here.

Conquered in 1716 by the Austrians from the Ottoman Turks, Timișoara developed in the following centuries behind the fortifications and in the urban nuclei located around them. During the second half of the 19th century, the fortress began to lose its usefulness, due to many developments in military technology. Former bastions and military spaces were demolished and replaced with new boulevards and neighbourhoods. Timișoara was the first city in the Habsburg monarchy with street lighting (1760) and the first European city to be lit by electric street lamps in 1884. It opened the first public lending library in the Habsburg monarchy and built a municipal hospital 24 years ahead of Vienna. Also, it published the first German newspaper in Southeast Europe (Temeswarer Nachrichten). In December 1989, Timișoara was the starting point of the Romanian Revolution. (Full article...)
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Nicolae "Nicu" Vlad (born 1 November 1963) is a retired heavyweight weightlifter from Romania. He competed for Romania at the 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympics and won a gold, a silver and a bronze medal. He won the world title in 1984, 1986 and 1990 and European title in 1985 and 1986 and set world records in the snatch in 1986 and 1993. Between 1991 and 1996, he lived in Australia and competed for it internationally. In 2006, he was elected member of the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame. He is still especially noteworthy for achieving the heaviest-ever snatch of double-bodyweight—lifting 200.5 kg in the 100 kg class. (Full article...)
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Did you know (auto generated)

  • ... that in the first Romanian universal chronicle, Mihail Moxa shows "the God of the Old and New Testaments baptizing His stars with the names of Olympian deities"?
  • ... that Caloian, a ritual once practiced in southern and eastern Romania, involved the burial of a figurine by young girls, one of whom acted as a priest?
  • ... that Soviet-trained commissar Dumitru Petrescu supervised propaganda aimed at purging a "nest of reactionaries" out of the Romanian Army?
  • ... that Romanian-born Helen O'Brien escaped advancing Russians on the King's horse, opened Eve, and worked as a spy for MI5 and MI6?
  • ... that Dimitrie Ralet, a pioneer Romanian orientalist, commended Ottoman reformers for not "blindly adopting what we in Europe take to mean civilization"?
  • ... that Romanian literary scholar Dan Simonescu, who edited a chronicle dealing with the reign of Michael the Brave, had to delete any mention of Michael having "all the Jews murdered"?

More did you know

  • ...that Romania's Palace of Parliament, despite the building process not being completely finished, is the biggest building in Europe and the second-largest building in the world?

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