70 Fun Facts About Romania

What is the capital and largest city of Romania?

It stands on the River Dâmbovița and was nicknamed 'Paris of the East' for its architecture between the wars.

Romania lies on the northwestern shore of which sea?

The Danube empties into it through a delta shared with Ukraine.

Which of these countries does NOT border Romania?

Its neighbours are Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria and Moldova, plus the Black Sea coast.

The name 'Romania' ultimately derives from a Latin word meaning what?

The ethnonym român was first written down by Italian humanists travelling the region in the sixteenth century.

The Romanian language belongs to which family, alongside Italian, French and Spanish?

It evolved from Vulgar Latin and is the official language of both Romania and Moldova, spoken by about 22 million people natively.

The modern Romanian state was formed in 1859 by uniting Wallachia with which other principality?

Alexandru Ioan Cuza ruled the united principalities; the country became a kingdom under Carol I in 1881.

Romania gained independence from which empire in 1877?

The independence was formalised by the Treaty of Berlin the following year.

Romania's Great Union Day on 1 December commemorates the 1918 union of which region with the kingdom?

Bukovina and Bessarabia joined the same year, creating Greater Romania at its largest ever extent.

Which Roman emperor conquered Dacia in 106 AD and turned much of it into a Roman province?

The Dacian king Decebalus had resisted for decades; Rome pulled out again under Aurelian in the 270s.

Remains from Romania's Peștera cu Oase are Europe's oldest known what?

They have been radiocarbon dated to about 40,000 years ago.

Romania joined the European Union in which year?

It had joined NATO three years earlier, on 29 March 2004.

What is the currency of Romania?

Its name means 'lion', a legacy of the Dutch lion thaler coins that once circulated in the region.

A Romanian leu is subdivided into 100 of what?

The word ban also simply means 'money' in Romanian.

What is Romania's highest peak?

It rises to 2,544 m in the Făgăraș range; the Carpathians have 14 ranges topping 2,000 m.

The Danube Delta is the second-largest river delta in Europe after which one?

It is also the best preserved on the continent and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Romania is home to roughly what share of Europe's brown bears (excluding Russia)?

It also holds around a fifth of the continent's wolves, thanks to vast undisturbed Carpathian forests.

The outline of Romania is often said to resemble which creature?

The Danube Delta forms the tail and the Banat the head, at least to those who squint.

Vlad the Impaler's famous 1462 Night Attack at Târgoviște was launched against which sultan?

Vlad ruled Wallachia three separate times and had been held hostage at the Ottoman court as a boy.

Vlad the Impaler's name Dracula came from his father's membership of which chivalric order?

Vlad Dracul means 'Vlad the Dragon' in medieval Romanian; his son became Drăculea, 'son of the Dragon'.

Which castle near Brașov is marketed as 'Dracula's Castle', despite no link to Stoker?

It was built by Saxons in 1377 and now displays Queen Marie's art and furniture collection.

Historian Radu Florescu places Vlad the Impaler's birth in which UNESCO-listed Transylvanian Saxon town?

His father lived there in a three-storey stone house from 1431 to 1435; the town's citadel has been a World Heritage Site since 1999.

Which Neo-Renaissance palace at Sinaia was built for King Carol I between 1873 and 1914?

Carol I, under whom Romania won independence, fell in love with the mountain scenery on a visit in 1866.

Romania's Palace of the Parliament holds which world record?

Ordered by Ceaușescu and built from 1984 to 1997, it weighs about 4.1 million tonnes and is the largest civilian administrative building anywhere.

Who was the chief architect of the Palace of the Parliament, leading a team of about 700 architects?

She was still in her twenties when she won the commission for what was then called the People's House.

Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena were executed by firing squad on which date in 1989?

A drumhead show trial convicted them of genocide and economic sabotage the same day, ending 42 years of Communist rule.

The Romanian revolution of December 1989 began in which western city?

It was the only 1989 revolution in the Warsaw Pact to violently overthrow a leadership and execute its leader.

What was the name of Ceaușescu's feared secret police?

It ran mass surveillance and controlled the press in what was seen as one of the most repressive states in the Eastern Bloc.

Ceaușescu enjoyed a surge in popularity in 1968 for publicly condemning what?

The liberal moment was brief; his regime soon became one of the most rigid in the bloc.

The Transfăgărășan mountain road was built in the early 1970s for what original purpose?

It became world-famous after Top Gear drove it in 2009 and called it the best road in the world.

Nadia Comăneci became the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 at the Olympics at which Games?

She was 14; the scoreboard could not display a 10 and showed '1.00' instead.

How many Olympic gold medals did Nadia Comăneci win in her career?

All were in individual events; she won nine Olympic medals in total across 1976 and 1980.

Which Romanian 'Maradona of the Carpathians' played for both Real Madrid and Barcelona?

Galatasaray fans called him Comandante; at home he was simply Regele, the King.

Which Romanian club became the first Eastern European team to win the European Cup, in 1986?

They were runners-up again in 1989; Dinamo had reached the semi-final in 1984.

Which of these did NOT join Romania in playing all of the first three World Cups?

The national side's best finish came in 1994, when it reached the quarter-finals and was ranked third in the world by 1997.

Which Romanian was the first ATP world No. 1 and the first sportsman to sign with Nike?

He held the top spot for 40 weeks and later wrote novels in French.

Simona Halep won her two Grand Slam singles titles at the 2018 French Open and which other event?

She beat Serena Williams in the final and was year-end world No. 1 in 2017 and 2018.

At which Summer Olympics did Romania finish second in the medal table with 20 golds?

Most of the Eastern Bloc boycotted those Games; Romania went and won 53 medals in all.

Which Romanian, called the patriarch of modern sculpture, made Bird in Space?

US customs once refused to accept a Bird in Space as art and taxed it as a manufactured metal object.

Brâncuși's sculpture Bird in Space sold at auction in 2005 for how much?

His sculptural ensemble at Târgu Jiu, including the Endless Column, stays in Romania.

Which poet, author of Luceafărul, is regarded as Romania's greatest?

His manuscripts, some 14,000 pages in 46 volumes, were gifted to the Romanian Academy in 1902.

Which Romanian-born writer received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature?

A Banat Swabian, she wrote about life under the Ceaușescu dictatorship; Elie Wiesel won the Peace Prize in 1986.

Which Romanian film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2007?

Cristian Mungiu's film about an illegal abortion in the 1980s led the Romanian New Wave onto the world stage.

Romania's biggest annual classical music festival, held in the capital, honours which composer?

It is based at the Romanian Athenaeum, a domed concert hall opened in 1888 and partly funded by the slogan 'Give one leu for the Ateneu!'.

The Voroneț Monastery, one of Bukovina's painted churches, is famous for an intense shade of what colour?

Built by Stephen the Great in 1488 in under four months, it is called the 'Sistine Chapel of the East'.

Stephen the Great reputedly built Voroneț Monastery in 1488 to mark victory at which battle?

Legend says he built it in three months and three weeks on the advice of the hermit Daniil, whose tomb lies inside.

The Merry Cemetery, with its painted tombstones and humorous epitaphs, is in which Romanian village?

Local artist Stan Ioan Pătraș carved the first epitaph in 1935; more than 800 oak crosses followed.

Salina Turda, a tourist attraction near Cluj with an underground amusement park, was originally what?

It produced table salt from at least 1271 until 1932 and opened to visitors in 1992.

Which city is Romania's second most populous and its unofficial Transylvanian capital?

It sits almost exactly equidistant from Bucharest, Budapest and Belgrade.

What is țuică, Romania's traditional spirit that can reach 70% alcohol?

Romania is one of the world's biggest plum producers and up to three-quarters of the crop goes into it.

The Romanian staple mămăligă is most similar to which Italian dish?

It is often served alongside sarmale (stuffed cabbage rolls) and ciorbă, the sour soups.

On 1 March, Romanians celebrate mărțișor by giving what?

The red-and-white token traditionally goes to women and marks the coming of spring.

Which Romanian city was European Capital of Culture in 2007 and European Region of Gastronomy in 2019?

Its Brukenthal National Museum is one of the oldest in the country.

Which Romanian king was forced to abdicate under Soviet occupation in 1947?

Romania then became a socialist republic and a Warsaw Pact member until the 1989 revolution.

Which Dacian king united the tribes and conquered the Greek Black Sea colonies before his murder in 44 BC?

His kingdom collapsed on his death; it was reunited under Decebalus around 85 AD, only to fall to Trajan.

In which era did the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture of 'Old Europe' flourish in Romania?

Its proto-cities covered more than 320 hectares long before the first fortified Bronze Age settlements appeared.

The oldest precisely dated document in Romanian, from 1521, is known as what?

It also contains the first written occurrence of the country's name, calling Wallachia Țara Rumânească.

What is Romania's rank among EU member states by population?

About 19 million people live in a country that is the twelfth-largest in Europe by area.

Most of the Danube Delta lies within which Romanian county?

A small part is in Ukraine's Odesa Oblast; the delta only began forming after 4000 BC when the Black Sea rose to its present level.

Which Romanian scientist's pancreas extract, shown to lower blood sugar in dogs, is part of insulin's history?

Fellow Romanian Emil Palade went on to win the Nobel Prize for his work in cell biology.

At the Eurovision Song Contest, Romania's best results were third places in 2005 and which other year?

The 'popcorn' pop style from Romania briefly went mainstream internationally around the same time.

The Romanian men's handball team won the world championship four times; which was NOT one of those years?

Handball is the country's second team sport, and the women's side has since outshone the men.

How many UNESCO World Heritage Sites does Romania possess?

They include the painted churches of Moldavia, the wooden churches of Maramureș and the Danube Delta.

Which Wallachian prince briefly united Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania in May 1600?

Neighbouring powers forced him to abdicate by September, but he became a symbol of unification in the 19th century.

Where does Romania rank by area among European countries?

At 238,397 square kilometres it is the largest country in Southeastern Europe, split roughly equally between mountains, hills and plains.

Romania joined NATO in 2004 and the EU in 2007; in what year did it gain full Schengen membership?

It had applied in 2007 and was admitted alongside Bulgaria.

Which Romanian air base began a 2024 expansion meant to make it NATO's largest in Europe?

The expansion of the RoAF 57th Air Base, launched in 2024, is planned to span 20 years.

Which Romanian built the first aeroplane to take off under its own power?

Vlaicu built some of the earliest successful aircraft, and Coandă discovered the fluid-dynamics effect named after him.

Which Romanian chemist was the first to synthesise amphetamine?

He also invented a procedure for separating petroleum components with selective solvents; Babeș discovered over 50 types of bacteria.

What share of Romania's population speaks Romanian as a first language?

Hungarian is spoken by 6.28 percent and Vlax Romani by 1.20 percent, with about 40,000 native Ukrainian speakers near the border.

The Romanian Orthodox Church is unusual among Orthodox churches for what reason?

It is the world's third-largest Eastern Orthodox Church and its jurisdiction covers Romania and Moldova.