To understand the Regions of Romania, you must first understand
how Romania's river and mountains
form their natural barriers and
byways.
Ever since the Dacian and Roman days, the great scythe-shaped swath of
the mighty Carpathian mountain range has split Transilvania from the
fertile alluvial Wallachian and Moldovan plains.
Romania was naturally bordered by the Danube and Prut Rivers in the
south and east, and for much of history, the Tisa river in the west on the Pannonian plains.
Wallachia is divided by the Olt River into Oltenia and Muntenia,
formerly known as "Little Wallachia" and "Big Wallachia".
This is the Romanian homeland, with the people from this region long
considered the "true Romanians". The Romans never had a
convincing hold on the Muntenia portion, staying south of the Danube and
mostly west of the Olt River during their brief centuries in the region.
Muntenia: Europe's Biggest Cliffs
Rivalling the Alps of western Europe, Romania's
Carpathian Alps offer stunning and dramatic vistas at every turn!
Bucharest is the great magnet in the middle of Muntenia, halfway
between the mountains and the Danube, along one of dozens of rivers
flowing across the rich soil of the plains which make up most of this
region.
Along the northern region of Muntenia nestle the winter holiday towns
under the greatest cliff system in Europe. The foothills protect now
as they have for generations the important medieval monasteries, fortified
towns and castles which make such intriguing tourist destinations today,
including the Bran castle of Dracula fame.
This gentle region of Oltenia was once it's own principality, extending down
from the Retezat mountains to the most scenic
sections of the Danube River at the Iron Gates, where the quintessentially
European river enters Romania for it's final run to the sea.
The works of famous Oltenian sculptor Brāncuşi,
including his Endless Column are laid out in his home town of
Tārgu Jiu. Romanians often dismiss this
beautiful region of hardworking miners and farmers as unimportant, but for
the traveller, it is an unspoilt land at the core of the Romanian psyche
and soul.
The Counties of Historical Banat
Today's Hungary, Romania and
Serbia, with the 1918 Banat Republic border shown in the dark blue
line, with the six counties of Banat.
The Banat was it's own republic (for two weeks in 1918), and it's vibrant
capital Timişoara serves as a fine monument of
progressive Romanian Western culture. Today bordering both Serbia and
Hungary, the Banat region showcases it's Habsburg and Ottoman heritage
with finesse.
The Roman baths at Băile Herculane are the
focus of this idyllic mountain resort town surrounded by forest reserves,
with the "Holy Waters of Hercules" favoured by Austrian emperor Franz
Josef.
The Apuseni mountains lift majestically to end the long run of the
Pannonian plains down to the Tisa river, now in Hungary. The
Bihor massif
offers fantastic
ice caves featuring fascinating stalactites, with hiking and skiing in
some charming little mountain towns.
The vestiges of Habsburg rule are apparent in the architecture of
Oradea, and you can enjoy cosmopolitan Arad along the
Mureş river with it's beautiful old buildings from it's days in the
Austro-Hungarian empire.
The Wooden Churches of Maramureş
A strong vessel of true Romanian architecture, the
wooden churches are preserved under the UN's World Heritage mandate
Eight of the medieval wooden churches are listed on the UNESCO World
Heritage sites list, and with good reason. These inspired creations
are the heart of a culture and society which seems ageless, surviving the
tides and turns of time.
Bordering Hungary and the Ukraine, Maramureş
nonetheless remains a crucible of northern Romanian culture, with it's own
customs, music and myths across villages in quiet verdant valleys.
Including part of the old Austro-Hungarian province of Bukovina, yet
more World Heritage sites abound in the Painted Churches of Bukovina.
On a hilly plain running from the Eastern Carpathians and the
Rarău Massif down to the River Prut, the Bucovina region was known as the "upper country" for centuries.
From here comes the sparkling Dorna mineral water at the spa town of
Vatra-Dornei, nestled in wide hollow below the most dramatic mountain
passes in all of Europe, immortalised in Bram Stoker's Dracula novel.
Old fair towns now cater to ski tourists and pilgrams to the great old
monasteries.
With as much claim to being truly Romanian as the Wallachian Region,
this glorious fertile land features some of the best wine-growing regions
at Cotnari, the Bicaz Gorges, yet more fabulous old monasteries, and more.
Ottoman Influences in Dobrogea
Held by the Turks until the 20th Century,
Romania's Dobrogea region and the seaport city
of Constanţa holds wondrous surprises from it's
days as a Greek outpost and a Roman trade port.
Traipse merrily through an old village church yard and marvel at the
carved wooden features, view an old princely court and castle from the
1600s, and view the long tendrils and countless bays of the Mountain
Spring Lake. And all this from a single village in the Moldovan
foothills!
Sunny Dobrogea offers a happy palette of interesting features, from
the truly delightful Black Sea beaches, to Europe's newest land in the
extensive Danube Delta with it's endless bird life.
Constanţa's old Mosques and old seaport feel will transport you into a
1950s movie, while the fun-strip of resort zone Mamaia
will delight the kids with it's rides and water park. Quieter little
beach towns abound along the coast, leading to significant old Greek and
Roman towns rivalling those in the Mediterranean.
The largest and best known of the Romanian regions is surrounded by
the other 8 regions of Romania. Yes, here you will find enough
Dracula lore to keep the most ardent fan amused.
Saxon settlers made their indelible mark on old market towns like
Sibiu and Sighişoara, the architecture
harkening to locations further up the Danube. The Turks were
prevented from fully taking Transilvania, although it was a vassal state
for a while, and it remained part of the a series of empires in Austria
and Hungary for centuries until 1920.
A Typical Transilvanian Market Town
In the long fertile Făgăras
Valley on the Olt River between Braşov and
Sibiu
The great Carpathian mountain range which curves through Romania like
a scythe has long been the rampart insulating East and West in Europe.
All of what is now Romania was made up of small buffer states as
principalities administered by a minor prince or official under the rule
of the Ottoman empire, the Hapsburgs, the Russians or Slavs.
Romania's
regions feature some very different histories as principalities of the
Turkish Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian Hapsburg and Russian Empires, as well as
Tatar, Polish and Slavic influences.
Ottoman Regions
At the height of its power, the Ottoman Empire contained 29 provinces,
with Moldova, Transylvania, and Wallachia being tributary principalities
all or partly
under Istanbul's control, but, with the exception of Dobrogea, never
really true Ottoman provinces as in Bulgaria.
Alexandru Ioan Cuza
United Wallachia with Moldova, 1859
Wallachia, the Romanian Heartland
The historic region known as Wallachia is given the nostalgic term
"Ţara Romānească" (Romanian Country, more like
"Heartland" in this sense)and includes
what is now Muntenia,
Dobrogea, most of Oltenia , and parts of Moldova.
Wallachia since the middle ages has been inhabited by the people who
became today's modern Romanians, termed "Vlachs" by their Slavic and Saxon
neighbours.
About 80% of this traditional Romanian region which at least those
living there consider to be the "real" Romanian territory, is still within
Romania's national borders. Wallachia today is represented by an
eagle in Romania's coat of arms.
The Wallachian people generally were bounded by the Carpathian
mountains in the north and inhabited mainly the great sweep of alluvial
plains going from the mountains down to the Danube.
Influenced heavily by Pecheneg and Cuman cultures (early Romanian rulers
were of Cuman origins to the north-east of today's Romania), the Romanian
identity developed using the strongest influences of it's roots, from it's
Thracian or Geto-Dacian ancestry to picking out the best of Roman,
Byzantine, Ottoman, and now European Union cultures.
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