Romania’s has a rather tumultuous history. Over the centuries, various migrating people invaded Romania.Its historical provinces,Wallachia and Moldova, offered stubborn resistance to the invading Ottoman Turks. Transylvania changes rulers from Habsburg, Ottoman, Hungarian and Wallachian rule.

Romania’s post WWII history as a communist-block nation is more widely known, primarily due to the excesses of the former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. In December 1989 a national uprising led to his overthrow and his death. The 1991 Constitution established Romania as a republic with a multiparty system, market economy and individual rights of free speech, religion and private ownership. Romania became an EU country in 2007.

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Population: 21.4 million (2009  est.)

Currency: Romanian Leu (RON)

Official Language: Romanian

Ethnic Groups: 89% – Romanian; 7.5% – Hungarian; 1.9% –  Gipsy; 1.6% – German, Other

Religions: 87% – Christian Orthodox; 5% – Roman Catholic, 5% – Protestant,
Greek-Catholic, Jewish, Unitarian

* Source: Romanian Tourism

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3 Interesting Facts:

1. The modern jet engine was invented by the Bucharest-born inventor Henri Coanda in 1910.
2. The scientist who discovered insulin was Nicolae Paulescu, a Romanian, who originally called it pancreine. Although two Canadian scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923 for their study of insulin, Paulescu’s pioneering work in the field of diabetic medicine was duly accredited.
3. The archetypical vampire Count Dracula, created by Bram Stoker, was inspired by the pitiless Romanian general Vlad Tepes, also known as Vlad the Impaler because one of his favorite ways of punishing people was by impaling them.
4. Ok, I am originally from Bucharest, Romania, so I HAD to give you an extra fact: did you know that Bucharest’s mass transit network is the fourth largest in Europe?

See more on Romania from Cris2Travel:

• Bucharest
• Sinaia
• Blog: History of Bucharest