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One of the most picturesque towns in western Transylvania,
Oradea (German Grosswardein, Hungarian Nagyvárad) lies about
8 miles (13 km) east of the Hungarian border. Its history
goes back to the 9th-10th century, when it was the capital
of the first feudal state in the area, a principality ruled
by Prince Menumorut. The Tatars destroyed the town in their
cruel invasion of Europe in 1241, but Oradea was born again
in the 15th century, under the Corvinus dynasty, to be later
occupied by the Turks between 1660 and 1692. The face of the
town has changed profoundly around the turn of this century,
when most of the old houses were rebuilt and customized
according to the new and trendy architectural style coming
from Vienna, the "Sezession". This style gives Oradea a
distinct West European personality, and accounts for much of
its tourist appeal.
Satu Mare is located at the northwest of Romania. Its 600 km
away from the capital, Bucharest, 10 km away from the
Hungarian border and 30 km away from the Ukraine (it makes
it an important crossroads in Transylvania). It can be
easily reached either by car, road or even a plane (Satu
Mare has an international airport, but the destinations
number is still low).
later, in the 16th century the fortress was destroyed by the
Ottomans and then by the Habsburgs, later it was
reconstructed by the Austrians, and in 1721 it became a
"royal free city". Satu Mare was prosperous during the 2
world wars under the Romanian regime and in 1930 it already
had 33 banks.
During the WWII the area was under Hungarian fascist rule.
Anti-Semitic and anti-Romanian activities were seen daily in
Satu Mare. The town was liberated by the Romanian army in
1944, not before more than 18,000 Jews of Satu Mare and its
region were deported to extermination camps. The war left
Satu Mare with a big rip, both socially and economic. The
population in 1950 dropped to the numbers of 1930.
It took decades until Satu Mare started to become prosperous
again and after the investments of the communist regime it
developed quickly. After the collapse of the communism Satu
Mare entered a time of stagnation but in the new Millennium
the situation is getting better rapidly in all the way of
life (including the tourism) and with some more investment.
Satu Mare will become a must see to every traveler. German
colonists were the first to settle here in the 12th century.
In a very short time the town acquired a free-city status
and its Annual Fair and skilled craftsmen became well known
throughout Europe. Today the people of Bistrita are trying
to resume the century-old tradition of the Annual Fair, and
they successfully hosted an European Festival of Humor, for
five years now. The area around the town is noted for its
timber and wine. Nasaud, a few miles northwest, is famous
for its timber and fruit and for the fine embroidery on the
traditional peasant clothes. The city was
first documented in 1332 in the papal registry under the
name Novum Forum Siculorum. Horse-drawn carts jostle for space against
fast cars whose drivers are talking money on mobile phones;
farm workers watch American TV courtesy of satellite dishes
standing in the rear yard of their medieval farmhouse.
Romania is clawing itself forward, slowly and surely
sloughing off the remnants of the Ceausescu era. The
transition is not easy, and for some it's downright painful.
In the middle of the picturesque scenery and the headlong
rush to development where the money is fast and the suits
Armani, parts of the country are being left out. But in 1996
a neocommunist government was voted out and replaced by one
talking about genuine reform, so the country is not without
hope. Bucovina's painted monasteries
were the first in the world to be adorned with frescoes on
the outside. Painted in the 16th century, these frescoes
also went beyond the confines of religious art, conveying
political as well as religious messages. Painting on glass
and wood, a traditional peasant art, has been widespread in
Romania since the 17th century and remains popular today.
Romanian literature draws heavily on the country's rich
folkloric heritage coupled with its turbulent history as an
occupied country inhabited by a persecuted people. In the
15th century an oral epic folk literature emerged, and
writings in the Romanian language took shape around 1420.
Modern literature emerged in the 19th century. Romania's
best known writer internationally is playwright Eugene
Ionesco (1912-94), an exponent of the 'Theatre of the
Absurd'. Literature became a tool of the communist party
from 1947 onwards. Since 1990 many works have been published
attesting to the horrors of the communist period. Folk music
and dancing have long been popular in Romania. Couples dance
in a circle, a semicircle or a line. Modern Roma (Gypsy)
music has absorbed many influences and professional Roma
musicians play whatever village clients want. Ancient Romania was inhabited
by Thracian tribes. In the first century BC, Greece
established the state of Dacia there to counter the threat
from Rome. Dacia fell to Rome in 106 AD, becoming a province
of the Roman Empire. Faced with Goth attacks in 271 AD,
Emperor Aurelian decided to withdraw the Roman legions south
of the Danube, but the Romanised Vlach peasants remained in
Dacia, forming a Romanian people. By the 10th century, small
Romanian states emerged, and their consolidation led to the
formation of the principalities of Moldavia, Wallachia and
Transylvania. From the 10th century the Magyars spread into
Transylvania and by the 13th century it was an autonomous
principality under the Hungarian crown. In the 14th century
Hungarian forces tried unsuccessfully to capture Wallachia
and Moldavia. Visas: EU and US citizens with
valid passports have the luxury of being able to visit
Romania visa-free for 30 days. All other Western visitors
need a visa, obtainable in advance at a Romanian embassy or
upon entry to Romania. Oval-shaped Romania is the
largest Eastern European country apart from Russia and
Ukraine. It lies on the Black Sea and, moving clockwise from
the south, shares borders with Bulgaria, Yugoslavia
(Serbia), Hungary, Ukraine and Moldova. The forested
Carpathian Mountains account for one third of the country's
area; another third is covered by hills and tablelands full
of orchards and vineyards; and the final third comprises a
fertile plain where cereals, vegetables and herbs are grown.
Nowadays, Oradea is still the heart of a strong Hungarian community (the
border is just a few miles away) and an important cultural
center in this part of the country with a state theater,
puppet theater, philharmonic orchestra, library, and Museum.
It is also known for the neighboring spas "Felix".
While in Oradea, you will enjoy feasting your eyes on the "Sezession"
houses that look very much like huge icing cakes with their
pale pink, green, blue and white, richly decorated facades.
The population of Satu mare is around 115,000 inhabits, with
a Romanian majority, Large Hungarian minority and some
smaller ethnic groups Satu Mare was first mentioned in the
10th century as a fortress called" Zotmar".
Bistrita-Nasaud county is located in the central-eastern
part of Romania, between the 46o47' and 47o37' north
latitude parallels and between 23o37' and 25o36' east
longitude meridians, on the head waters of the Great Somes
river. To the north it borders Maramures county, Suceava
county to the east, Mures county to the south, and Cluj
county to the west. The county's area is 5 355 km2, which is
2.2% of the country's area. As of 31 December 2000,
Bistrita-Nasaud county administratively consisted of 3 towns
and one municipality, 53 communes and 235 villages. The
county's capital city is Bistrita.
Bistrita-Nasaud county has a various and complex geography
with the shape of a natural amphitheatre, widened in steps
towards the Transylvania Plain, with three zones of
geography: the mountain zone - consists of a mountain wreath
belonging to the Eastern Carpathian Arch, the northern and
central group, including the Tibles, Rodna, Suhard, Bârgau
and Calimani massifs; this step has the shape of a circular
arc, with the convex side set to Maramures and Moldova, with
the average heights of 1 500 m, but with high peaks in the
Rodna Mountains (the Ineu Peak 2 279 m and the Calimani Peak
2 100 m); the hilly zone - lies in the central-western part
of the county occupying 2/3 of its area; the meadow zone -
joining the waters of the main rivers, especially of the
Great Somes river and its influents, representing only about
3% of the county's area.
In 1405 the King of Hungary Sigismund of Luxembourg granted the
city of Târgu-Mureş the right to organize fairs and in 1482
the King Matthias Corvinus declared the city a royal
settlement. It became a municipality in 1616, changing its
name to Marosvásárhely, the Romanian equivalent of which is
Târgu-Mureş (Târg and Vásár mean "Market" in Romanian and
Hungarian respectively).
In 1754 Târgu-Mureş became home to the supreme court of justice of
the Principality of Transylvania which provided a major
boost to the city's social and economic life.
Avram Iancu, the leader of the 1848 Romanian revolution in
Transylvania, was a young lawyer in the city of Târgu-Mureş
before engaging in the fight for the rights of Romanians
living in Transylvania.
The provincial appearance of the city changed greatly in the late
19th and early 20th century. The spectacular Transylvanian
Secession-style city hall complex was opened, as part of
mayor Bernády György's urban renewal, in 1913. After World
War I, Târgu-Mureş became part of Romania, like the rest of
Transylvania. After it became a city of Romania,
Marosvásárhely was first re-named Oşorheiu. Economic success
continued until World War II. From having been an 89%
Hungarian-populated city (1910), Romanian population
increased throughout the latter half of the 20th century.
From 1940 to 1944, as a consequence of the Second Vienna Award,
Târgu-Mureş was ceded to Hungary. During this period, a
Jewish ghetto was established in the city. It re-entered the
Romanian administration at the end of the war in October
1944.
After World War II, the communist administration of Romania
conducted a policy of massive industrialization that
completely re-shaped the community, and set up a Hungarian
Autonomous Province based in the city, which lasted 15
years. Târgu-Mureş became the center of economic and social
life of the region.
In March 1990, shortly after the Romanian Revolution of 1989
overthrew the communist regime, Târgu-Mureş was the stage of
violent confrontations between ethnic Hungarians and
Romanians.
As of 2000, a considerable percentage of the population of
Târgu-Mureş has started to work abroad temporarily. The
local economy has started to get stronger after various
investors settled in the area.
Târgu-Mureş has a substantial Szekler minority. Since 2003 some
Szekler organizations have been campaigning for the city to
again become centre of an autonomous region. Dorin Florea is
the first directly elected ethnic Romanian mayor of the
city, though the city council retains a majority of ethnic
Hungarians.
Romania has majestic castles, medieval towns, great hiking and
wildlife, and the cheap skiing of much of the 'undiscovered'
former Eastern Bloc. And the Romanians, despite being among
Europe's poorest people, generally haven't cottoned on to
the scams and ploys so common elsewhere to separate
travelers from their money. You'll be floored at how
different Romania is, but you'll almost certainly see signs
that it's chasing the dreams of the rest of the West.
Area: 237,500 sq km (91,700 sq mi)
Population: 22.5 million
Capital city: Bucharest (pop 2 million)
People: Romanians (90%), Hungarians (7%), Roma (Gypsies)
(2%), Germans, Ukrainians
Language: Romanian, Hungarian (in Transylvania)
Religion: Romanian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant
Government: Republic
President: Ion Iliescu
Prime Minister: Adrian Nastase
GDP: US$90 billion
GDP per head: US$4000
Annual growth: -8%
Inflation: 40%
Major industries: Agriculture, manufacturing
Major trading partners: EU (esp. Germany, Italy, France),
USA, Turkey
Romanian is closer to classical Latin than it is to other
Romance languages, and the grammatical structure and basic
word stock of the mother tongue are well preserved. Speakers
of French, Italian and Spanish won't be able to understand
much spoken Romanian but will find written Romanian more or
less comprehensible. Romanian is spelt phonetically so once
you learn a few simple rules you should have no trouble with
pronunciation.
Romania is the only country with a Romance language that
does not have a Roman Catholic background. It is 86%
Romanian Orthodox, 5% Roman Catholic, 3.5% Protestant, 1%
Greco-Catholic, 0.3% Muslim and 0.2% Jewish. Unlike other
ex-communist countries where the church was a leading
opposition voice to the regime, the Romanian Orthodox Church
was subservient to and a tool of the government. Today it is
hierarchical, dogmatic and wealthy.
Romanians are extremely hospitable. They will welcome you
into their modest homes, feed you until you burst, and
expect nothing in return other than friendship. Don't rebuff
it.
Those who live to eat have long found life pretty dull in
Romania. Restaurants still serve traditional, sometimes
tedious fare: grilled pork, pork liver, grilled chicken,
tripe soup and greasy potatoes, though things are turning
around. You can find excellent offerings in the larger
cities with a little perseverance. Romania's most novel dish
is mamagliga, a hard or soft cornmeal mush which is boiled,
baked or fried. In many Romanian households, it's served as
the main dish. The other mainstay of the Romanian diet is
ciorba (soup). The sweet-toothed won't starve: typical
desserts include placinta (turnovers), clarite (crepes) and
saraille (almond cake soaked in syrup). Romanian wines are
cheap and good. Avoid the ubiquitous Ness, an awful instant
coffee made from vegetable extracts, and try cafea naturala,
a 'real' coffee made the Turkish way, with a thick sludge of
ground coffee beans at the bottom and a generous spoonful of
sugar.
Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries Wallachia and
Moldavia offered strong resistance to Ottoman Empire
expansion. During this struggle the prince of Wallachia,
Vlad Tepes (known as the Impaler, because he rarely ate a
meal without a Turk writhing on a stake in front of him),
became a hero; he later became associated with Dracula.
Transylvania fell to Ottoman control in the 16th century,
and after this Wallachia and Moldavia paid tribute to the
Turks but retained their autonomy. In 1600 the three
Romanian states were briefly united under Mihai Viteazul,
prince of Wallachia, after he joined forces with the ruling
princes of Moldavia and Transylvania against the Turks.
Unity lasted only one year, after which he was defeated by a
joint Habsburg-Transylvanian force, and then captured and
beheaded. Transylvania came under Habsburg rule, while
Turkish suzerainty continued in Wallachia and Moldavia until
well into the 19th century. In 1775 the northern part of
Moldavia, Bucovina, was annexed by Austria-Hungary. This was
followed in 1812 by the loss of its eastern territory,
Bessarabia, to Russia. After the Russo-Turkish War of
1828-29, Ottoman domination over the principalities finally
came to an end.
After 1848 Transylvania fell under the direct rule of
Austria-Hungary from Budapest, and ruthless Magyarisation
followed. In 1859 Alexandru Ioan Cuza was elected to the
thrones of Moldavia and Wallachia, creating a national
state, which was named Romania in 1862. Carol I succeeded
him in 1866, and in 1877 Dobruja became part of Romania.
Romania was declared a kingdom in 1881, with Carol I as
king. He died at the start of WWI and was succeeded by his
nephew Ferdinand I who, in 1916, entered the war on the side
of the Triple Entente. His objective was to liberate
Transylvania from Austria-Hungary. In 1918, Bessarabia,
Bucovina and Transylvania became part of Romania.
After WWI, numerous political parties emerged in Romania,
including the Legion of the Archangel Michael, better known
as the fascist Iron Guard. Led by Corneliu Codreanu, this
party dominated the political scene by 1935. Carol II, who
had succeeded his father Ferdinand I to the throne, declared
a royal dictatorship in 1938, and all political parties were
dissolved. In 1939 he clamped down on the Iron Guard (which
he had previously actively supported) and had Codreanu and
other legionaries assassinated. In 1940 the USSR occupied
Bessarabia, and Romania was forced to cede northern
Transylvania to Hungary by order of Germany and Italy.
Southern Dobruja was also given to Bulgaria. These setbacks
sparked off widespread demonstrations, and the king called
in General Marshall Ion Antonescu to help quash the rising
mass hysteria. Antonescu forced Carol to abdicate in favour
of his 19-year-old son Michael, and then imposed a fascist
dictatorship with himself as conducator (leader). In 1941 he
joined Hitler's anti-Soviet war. In 1944 with the Soviet
Union approaching Romania's border, Romania switched sides.
The Soviet-engineered return of Transylvania to Romania
helped the Moscow-backed communists win the 1946 elections.
A year later King Michael was forced to abdicate, and a
Romanian People's Republic was proclaimed. A period of state
terror then ensued, in which all pre-war leaders, prominent
intellectuals and suspected dissidents were rounded up and
imprisoned in hard-labor camps. In the late 1950s Romania
began to distance itself from Moscow, pursuing an
independent foreign policy under Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
(1952-65) and Nicolae Ceausescu (1965-89). Ceausescu
condemned Soviet 'intervention' in Czechoslovakia in 1968,
earning him praise and economic aid from the West. If his
foreign policy was skilful, his domestic policy was inept
and megalomaniacal. Most of his grandiose projects (the
construction of the Danube-Black Sea 'Death' Canal and the
behemoth House of the People in Bucharest, and
systemization) were expensive failures. His Security (secret
police) kept the populace in check, recruiting a vast
network of informers.
The advent of Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s meant that
the USA no longer needed Romania, and withdrew its 'most
favored nation' status. Ceausescu decided to export
Romania's food to pay off the country's mounting debt. While
Ceausescu and his wife, Elena (his first deputy prime
minister), lived in luxury, his people struggled to feed
themselves, as bread, eggs, flour, oil, salt, sugar, beef
and potatoes were rationed; by the mid-1980s meat was
unobtainable. In 1987 protest riots in Brasov were crushed.
On 15 December 1989, as one communist regime after another
collapsed in Eastern Europe, Father Laszlo Tokes spoke out
against Ceausescu from his Timisoara church. That evening a
crowd gathered outside his home to protest at the decision
of the Reformed Church of Romania to remove him from his
post. Clashes between the protesters and the Securities and
army troops continued for the next four days. On 19 December
the army joined the protesters. On 21 December Bucharest
workers booed Ceausescu during a mass rally and street
battles between army troops and Securities and the people
began in the capital. The following day the Ceausescus tried
to flee Romania, but were arrested. They were tried by an
anonymous court, and executed by firing squad on Christmas
Day.
It is now believed that members of the National Salvation
Front, which took over government of Romania after
Ceausescu's death, had been plotting his overthrow for
months before the December 1989 demonstrations forced them
to act earlier. Initially a caretaker government, it was
elected to power in 1990, led by Ion Iliescu. Student
protests against its ex-communist leadership were crushed
when 20,000 coal miners from the Jiu Valley were brought in
to stage a counter riot. The miners were drafted to
Bucharest again a year later to force the resignation of
reform-minded prime minister Petre Roman.
Iliescu and the National Salvation Front were reelected in
1992, but rampant inflation, unemployment, and allegations
of government corruption, meant that in 1996 Iliescu was
voted out in favour of Emil Constantinescu, leader of the
reform-minded Democratic Convention of Romania. A dramatic
about-face in December 2000 saw voters reinstate Iliescu as
their president. Romanians probably considered Iliescu the
lesser of two evils - his opponent was extremist Corneliu
Vadim Tudor of the far-right Greater Romania Party.
Health risks: Rabies, typhoid and encephalitis are present
in Romania; vaccinations should be considered.
Time: GMT/UTC plus 2 hours (a further hour ahead in summer)
Electricity: 220V, 50 Hz
Weights & measures: Metric
Tourism: 2.83 million visitors per year
If people didn't prosper under Ceausescu, bears did! He
allowed no one but himself to hunt them, the result being
that the Carpathian mountains are now home to 60% of
Europe's bears. Some 40% of Europe's wolves and 35% of its
lynx also live there, along with stag, wild boar, badger,
deer, fox, and the green woodpecker, jay and grey owl.
Romania's main draw card for twitchers is the Danube Delta,
home to 60% of the world's small pygmy cormorant population,
the white grey egret, bee-keeper and white-tailed eagle.
Half the world's population of red-breasted geese winter
here. The protected delta has the largest unbroken reed bed
in the world. The Carpathian mountains boast the least
spoilt forests in Europe, rich in beech, sycamore, maple,
poplar and birch. Some 1350 floral species have been
recorded in the Carpathians, including the yellow poppy,
Transylvanian columbine, saxifrage and edelweiss. Romania
has 13 national parks, including the Retezat Mountains in
the Carpathians, and more than 500 protected areas.
You don't go to Romania for the weather. The average annual
temperature is 11°C in the south and on the coast, but only
2°C in the mountains. Romanian winters can be extremely cold
and foggy, with lots of snow from December to April. In
summer there's usually hot, sunny weather on the Black Sea
coast. The majority of Romania's rain falls in the spring,
with the mountains getting the most, the Danube Delta the
least.