By Russell Kelley
Last month, we spent 16 days driving around Romania, getting a glimpse of the capital Bucharest in the historical region of Wallachia and some of the cities and villages in three other regions of Romania: Transylvania, Maramureş, and Bukovina. Here is our trip report, preceded by some history about this country situated at the crossroads of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe.
Why Romania?
The first question we are asked about our trip is, without fail, why Romania? A fair question, since most people (including me before our trip) would have a hard time locating Romania on a map, or coming up with the name of any city in Romania other than Bucharest, or the name of any of its regions other than Transylvania.
One reason was to get away from the crowds that are invading the prime tourist destinations of Western Europe. One hundred million tourists visited France last year (many during the Summer Olympics), and 30,000 people visit the rebuilt Notre-Dame Cathedral each day this summer. When we were there in June, Rome was saturated with tourists. The residents of Barcelona are in the streets protesting against overtourism. We wouldn’t dream of setting foot on a beach on the Mediterranean Sea in France, Italy or Spain in July or August. The list goes on.
But the real answer is that it was my wife Lynn’s idea. Years ago she read The Snows of Yesteryear by Gregor von Rezzori (1914-1998), a memoir about growing up in the former Duchy of Bukovina (which was divided between Romania and Ukraine in World War II) between the two World Wars, nostalgically harking back to the bygone era when it was ruled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was made up of a “multifarious population of not one but half a dozen nationalities, with not one but half a dozen religions, and with not one but half a dozen different tongues”. She wanted to discover something of the Mitteleuropa melting pot described in such lyrical terms by von Rezzori.
This was not our first trip behind the former Iron Curtain. The 15 Soviet Socialist Republics, including the Socialist Republic of Romania, and the other Soviet-aligned republics were terra incognita for us until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. But over the past 30 years, we have steadily chipped away at this vast unknown territory, visiting (counterclockwise) Russia, Estonia, Poland, former East Germany, former Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Mongolia – and now Romania. We discovered that one thing they all have in common is that, whereas Western countries set about rebuilding and modernizing their cities after World War II, often by demolishing the old and building the new, the Communist countries needed all the housing they could get, so they kept the old and built the new on the outskirts of the historic city centers, which were frozen in time. That meant that the old buildings, while dilapidated, were still there to be restored once the Iron Curtain fell. The classic example is Berlin: West Berlin is essentially a modern city built after World War II. It is East Berlin that has all the historic buildings, starting with Museum Island.
While the former Soviet Bloc countries are certainly not all A-list tourist destinations, we have learned a lot about the world when visiting them. And when you visit a country, it takes on a new relevance. You follow it in the news. You take an interest in the people. And so it was with Romania.
Romania Today
Romania has a population of around 20 million people. Incomes are relatively low in Romania, so four to five million Romanians work abroad, particularly in the Italy, Spain and the UK, where they can earn more money. Surprisingly, to make up the labor deficit the restaurants and hotels we visited often had Nepalese waiters and waitresses. Reportedly, Romania has also brought in workers from Vietnam.
The population of the capital Bucharest is 1.9 million. The next largest city is by Iași in Moldavia with a population of 318,000, closely followed by Cluj-Napoca in Transylvania with a population of 317,000. Next is Timişoara in the Banat region, with a population of 314,000.
Romania is half the size of France and roughly circular in shape. It has borders with Ukraine to the north, Hungary and Serbia to the west, Bulgaria to the south, and the Republic of Moldova, another short border with Ukraine, and the Black Sea to the east. The Danube River forms the southern boundary of Romania.
The historic regions of Romania and principal cities. Oltenia and Muntenia combined form the region of Wallachia.
Romania is divided into 41 administrative districts, or counties, often named after the major city in the district, but most people still refer to the historic regions that make up the country. The major regions are Wallachia (where Bucharest is located) on the south side of the country between the Southern Carpathian Mountains and the Danube; Moldavia (which includes Bukovina, which is also spelled Bucovina) on the east side; and Transylvania in the center of the country, bordered by the Carpathian Mountains to the east and south. The smaller regions are Dobrogea (including the Danube Delta) on the Black Sea in the southeast corner of the country; the Banat and Crişana on the west side of the country; and Maramureş in the north above Transylvania. (In the past, Maramureş and the Banat and Crişana have all been considered to be part of Transylvania.)
The crescent shape of the Eastern and Southern Carpathian Mountains with the Transylvanian Plateau in the center.
HISTORY
Wallachia and Moldavia were unified in 1859 (and named Romania in 1862), and Transylvania (which represents one third of the territory of today’s Romania) was only added in 1918 to create what was then known as Greater Romania, so the history of Romania before those dates is that of its historic regions.
What follows is a very simplified introduction to Romania’s long and complicated history.
The Romans and the Barbarians
The Romans under Emperor Trajan conquered the Kingdom of Dacia, corresponding roughly to today’s Romania, in 106 AD. Dacia became the easternmost province of the Roman Empire. The Romans withdrew from Dacia in 271 when it became too difficult to defend against Asian invaders. Then followed the Age of the Great Migrations when one nomadic tribe after another swept across the land, including the Vandals, Goths, Huns, Alans, Gepids, Avars, Slavs and Bulgars.
The Hungarians and Transylvania
The Magyars (Hungarians), approaching from the west, settled in Transylvania around the year 1,000. The Carpathian Mountains formed the eastern and southern borders of the Transylvanian Plateau.
In the 12th century, to defend against invaders from the south, Hungarian kings invited groups of Germans to settle in the sparsely populated territory of southern Transylvania, later including the Teutonic Knights for a brief period between 1211 and 1225. The Székelys (or Szeklers), a Hungarian ethnic group who claimed descent from Attila’s Huns, colonized the mountainous eastern edge of Transylvania. The Hungarians and Germans were Catholic.
Medieval Transylvania was a feudal society with lands cultivated by serfs and towns occupied by craftsmen. At the top of the social order were the Hungarian nobles, who had their own towns. Next were the German burghers and the Székelys. At the bottom were the Romanian serfs, known as Vlachs (from Wallachia), who faced discrimination, in part because they were Orthodox Christian.
The industrious Germans – later known as “Saxons” – built fortified towns surrounded by walls and bastions in Transylvania to protect against frequent attacks by the Tatars (Mongols). Transylvania is known as “Siebenbürgen” in German, in reference to the seven principal fortified towns established by the Saxons. The towns were strictly governed by trade guilds.
After a peasant uprising in 1437-38, the Hungarian nobles made a pact with the Saxons and Székelys, known as the Union of Three Nations, whereby each of these three ethnic groups (Nationes) agreed to recognize and defend the rights of the others, effectively prohibiting Vlachs from holding public office or residing in the Saxon or Magyar towns.
Wallachia and Moldovia
South and east of the Carpathian Mountains, respectively, the principalities of Wallachia (whose capital has been Bucharest since 1659) and Moldovia (which was then twice as big as it is today, stretching to the Dniester River in the east) were established in 1330 and 1359, respectively. They were beyond Hungarian control from the west, but they more vulnerable to Ottoman invasions from the south.
The Ottomans
From the mid-14th century, the Ottoman Empire of the Seljuk Turks spread inexorably north and west into Central Europe. After many valiant attempts at resistance, especially by Moldavia’s national hero Ştefan cel Mare (Stephen the Great, 1437-1505), Wallachia and Moldovia ultimately agreed to pay tribute to the Turks to avoid war – Wallachia in 1417 and Moldovia in 1526 – and were able to remain semi-autonomous as a result. (In the interim, the Ottomans conquered Constantinople, the center of Orthodox Christianity, in 1453.)
After the crushing defeat of Hungary by Suleiman the Magnificent at the Battle of Mohács (in the Kingdom of Hungary) in 1526, in 1529 Transylvania also became a semi-independent vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. The Hungarian princes paid tribute to the Turks and in turn enjoyed relative autonomy. With Transylvania now beyond the reach of Catholic religious authority, many Saxon churches converted to Lutheranism, and many Hungarian churches converted to Calvinism.
Ottoman influence in Central Europe began to ebb after the failure of the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683. Turkish suzerainty over Transylvania formally ended in 1699, but continued in Wallachia and Moldovia until 1878.
The Roma
The Roma (Gypsies) left northern India in the 10th and 11th centuries and arrived in Europe around 1407, at the same period as the Tatar invasions. Most Roma were enslaved upon arrival in what is today Romania, becoming “settled Gypsies”; others became nomads. Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldova finally freed their Gypsies in the mid-19th century. Many Roma emigrated to Western Europe in the 1860s.
During World War II, many Roma were deported to concentration camps. After the war, the Communist regime forced the survivors to live on the outskirts of villages, where many still live today.
The Austrians
After the defeat of the Ottomans at the Battle of Vienna in 1683, the Austrian Hapsburgs took control of Transylvania, imposing Austrian governors on the region. In 1698, the Austrians, in an attempt to “re-Catholicize” Transylvania, promised to grant Orthodox Romanians the same civil rights as the three Nations if they joined the new so-called Uniate Church which accepted papal authority. (The Uniate Church was also known as the Catholic Church of the Eastern Rite, or the Greco-Catholic Church.) The promise was withdrawn in 1701, but it represented the beginning of the Vlachs’ demand for equal rights in Transylvania.
In 1784, Hapsburg Emperor Joseph II abolished serfdom in Transylvania.
In 1775, the Ottomans ceded the region of Bukovina in the northern part of Moldavia to the Hapsburgs as compensation for Austria’s mediation in a Russian-Turkish War. At that time Bukovina was twice as large as the Romanian region is today. Bukovina remained part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918. After the Germans and their Austrian allies lost the Great War, Bukovina was transferred to Romania.
The Russians
As the Ottoman Empire declined, Russia expanded. Russo-Turkish wars led to Russia’s annexation of the eastern half of Moldavia (known as Bessarabia) and occupation of Wallachia and the remainder of Moldavia in the first half of the 19th century, leading up to the Crimean War. The Congress of Paris of 1856 that ended that war reaffirmed Turkish rule in those regions. But the Russians would come back with a vengeance during World War II.
Independence
In 1859, Wallachia and Moldavia proclaimed their unification under a single ruler, Alexandru Ioan Cuza. The United Provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia were renamed Romania in 1862. Cuza was overthrown in 1866 and replaced by a German prince who ruled as Carol I, the first of four kings of Romania. Romania declared independence in 1877. Romania’s independence from the Ottoman Empire was officially recognized in 1878, after more than 300 years as a vassal state.
Meanwhile, the Dual Monarchy of Austria and Hungary was established in 1867 and Transylvania became part of Greater Hungary, ruled directly from Budapest, with a policy of “Magyarization” making Hungarian the official language.
Greater Romania
Romania entered World War I in 1916 allied with Britain, France and Russia against Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and later the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. Following Austria-Hungary’s defeat, Transylvania’s union with Romania was declared in 1918, ending more than 800 years of Hungarian control, and both Bessarabia (the eastern half of Moldavia, freed by the Russian Revolution) and Bukovina were reunited with Romania. Romania reached its largest size in 1920.
As a result of the war, Hungary lost half of its population and two-thirds of its land. In Transylvania, Hungarian estates were expropriated and Romanians immigrated into the region. The resentment felt by Hungarians about these losses nourished the debate about the origins of Transylvania. The “immigration theory” favored by the Hungarians held that Transylvania was empty after the Romans left Dacia in 271, and that ethnic Romanians developed elsewhere and only later immigrated into the region. The “continuity theory” favored by the Romanians holds that Transylvania was inhabited by ethnic Romanians ever since antiquity and that it was the Hungarians who immigrated there around the year 1,000.
King Carol II presided over a corrupt system that resulted in no fewer than 25 separate governments between 1930 and 1940.
Map of Greater Romania in 1920. Bukovina extended north to include Czernowitz, and Moldavia extended east to include Bessarabia. King Ferdinand I ruled from 1914 to 1927. Queen Marie was born in England in 1875 and was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She married Ferdinand in 1893.
World War II
In June 1940, as a result of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, the Russians annexed Bessarabia and the northern half of Bukovina (including Gregor von Rezzori’s hometown of Czernowitz, which is now the Ukrainian city of Chernovtsy). Hitler then forced King Carol II to cede Northern Transylvania (including Maramureş) to Hungary and southern Drobrogea (around the Danube Delta) to Bulgaria.
In September 1940, Carol II was compelled to abdicate. He was succeeded by his 19-year-old son Michael (Mihai), but it was the fascist General Ion Antonescu who took power. His regime was known as the National Legionary State. Antonescu brought into government members of the Iron Guard, a far-right, highly antisemitic political party.
On November 20, 1940, Romania joined the Axis Alliance and officially entered World War II. Romania actively assisted the Nazis in the invasion of the Soviet Union, and retook possession of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. Some Saxon men embraced Nazism and joined the German army.
World War II and the subsequent Communist era fundamentally changed the demographic landscape of Romania.
The Holocaust
The chapter on Romania of the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) Act Report, prepared for Congress by the U.S. State Department in 2020, begins as follows:
Romania, under pro-Nazi dictator Ion Antonescu, joined the Axis alliance in November 1940 and collaborated in the persecution and extermination of Jews. Quantifying the deadly impact of the Holocaust on Romanian Jews is complicated due to the numerous border and population shifts prior to and during World War II (WWII), with most experts evaluating population totals and deaths by area. For instance, in the summer of 1940, Romania was forced to cede territory to Hungary and the Soviet Union that contained more than half of its approximately 750,000 Jews. Following the June 1941 Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Romania seized back the ceded Soviet territories and occupied a larger area in Ukraine, to which it deported well over 100,000 Romanian Jews. Some 250,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews died in areas under Romanian control between 1941 and 1944. In 1942, the Romanian regime initially agreed to turn over to Nazi Germany the 300,000 Jews still within Romania, but then refused to do so, resulting in their survival.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) estimates that 220,000 Romanian Jews died in the Holocaust, which includes at least 90,000 Jews deported by Hungary from northern Transylvania. Other Romanian sources, such as the International Commission for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania, estimate a higher number – between 280,000 and 380,000. Of the 25,000 Roma deported to Transnistria, at least 11,000 perished.
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) estimates that between 9,300 and 17,000 Jews live in Romania today.
Here is a link to the full country report:
https://2021-2025.state.gov/reports/just-act-report-to-congress/romania/
During Ion Iliescu’s second term as President of Romania between 2000 and 2004, he established the “International Commission for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania”, following diplomatic incidents caused by the Holocaust denial practiced by important figures in the country’s leadership. The commission, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, submitted its report on the Holocaust in Romania on November 11, 2004, which was declared a “state document” by Iliescu.
The full report can be viewed here:
https://www.yadvashem.org/docs/international-commission-on-romania-holocaust.html
On August 24, 1944, with Soviet troops approaching its borders, Romania switched sides. Russian troops freely entered Romanian territory, where they remained until 1958.
The Communist Era
After World War II, as punishment for having supported the Nazis, the Russians deported 30,000 Saxon men and women in Transylvania to work as slave labor for between three and seven years in mines in the Donbas. Many did not return. Those who did found that their property had been expropriated.
The Soviets established the Republic of Moldova from the land it annexed in Bessarabia, including Transnistria, leaving the western half of Moldavia to Romania. They transferred northern Bukovina to Ukraine. These transfers resulted in Romania’s current borders in Moldovia and Bukovina.
On December 30, 1947, King Michael was forced to abdicate and the People’s Republic of Romania was proclaimed.
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party, who ruled Romania between 1952 and his death in 1965, began the process of nationalization and collectivization. He curried favor with the Soviet Union by renaming the city of Braşov “Oraşul Stalin” between 1950 and 1960.
Gheorghui-Dej’s once protégé Nicolae Ceauşecu succeeded him as Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party. Ceauşecu’s dictatorship lasted 24 years and evolved into a personality cult that was ruthlessly enforced by the Securitate (Secret Police).
The Ceauşecu Era
The following quotations are all taken from panels in the Museum of Communism in Bucharest:
“In Romania, the beginnings of communism can be traced back to the formation of workers’ circles. The ideas of social democracy, influenced by Russia and France, took shape with the establishment of the Social-Democratic Party of Romanian workers in 1893. In 1921, a faction within the party transformed it into the Communist Party of Romania and joined the Third International. However, due to the extremist ideas and the rejection of the Treaty of Versailles, the party was outlawed in 1924, leading to a period of underground activity and the arrest of influential communists such as Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and Nicolae Ceauşecu.
“The unexpected revival of communism in Romania occurred after a dramatic turn of events at the end of World War II. Faced with significant territorial losses, on August 2, 1944, King Michael dismissed and arrested Marshal Antonescu, the leader of the Romanian Army. Romania shifted its allegiance and turned against Germany, allowing Soviet troops to freely pass through the country. These troops remained stationed in Romania until 1958, effectively legitimizing the return of communism.
“…the 1946 elections were won by the communists, although there have been ongoing allegations of fraud. This marked the beginning of significant political, economic, and social transformations that would shape Romania and its people for decades to come.
“Nicolae Ceauşecu was the dictator of Romania from 1965 to 1989… His official title was ‘General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party, President of the Socialist Republic of Romania, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.’ During his leadership, communist propaganda attributed him with superlative titles such as ‘the most beloved son of the Romanian people’, ‘the genius helmsman’, ‘an exceptional personality of the contemporary world’, ‘a fighter for the cause of justice, peace, and socialism’, ‘the great and beloved leader’, and ‘the genius of the Carpathians’.
“His moment of glory came in 1968 when he publicly opposed the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the communist countries of the Warsaw Pact (thus suppressing the ‘Prague Spring’). Ceauşecu refused to send troops, distancing himself from Soviet policy. The West appreciated his stance and provided massive external loans to our country. These funds were used in numerous projects in the 1970s. The construction of the Bucharest Metro, the Transfǎgǎrǎşan Highway, a considerable number of factories and plants, and the completion of the Danube Black Sea Canal were among the achievements.
“The second stage of Ceauşecu’s leadership was characterized by the establishment of a national-communist dictatorship, the introduction of personality cult, and intensified censorship and communist propaganda… The economic policies pursued by the comrade proved to be a failure, ushering the Romanians to the brink of famine. In the ‘80s, food and numerous consumer goods (including water and heating) were rationed to pay off the external debt, and severe measures were introduced to restrict freedom and human rights. At the same time, the Palace of the Parliament was being built, constructed with the tears and tragedy that marked the lives of Romanians.
“Nicolae Ceauşecu was always accompanied by his wife, Elena… Elena was seen as an authoritarian figure, and some accused her of corruption and abuse of power. Additionally, the extravagant and privileged lifestyle of the Ceauşecu couple was criticized at a time when the majority of Romanians lived in poverty. Ultimately, their relationship ended tragically as they were arrested and sentenced to death together on Christmas Day in 1989.
“On December 21, 1989, a significant rally took place in Bucharest [see photo above]. Nicolae Ceauşecu… called for the gathering and addressed the workers, discussing the ongoing protests in Timişoara. The entire event was broadcasted on radio and television. However, during Ceauşecu’s speech, an explosion erupted from the crowd, leading to a wave of whistling and booing. The participants began to break through the police cardons, disrupting the order. Ceauşecu and his wife unsuccessfully tried to calm the revolutionaries from the balcony of the Central Committee building of the Romanian Communist Party. The atmosphere quickly turned chaotic, and the dictatorial couple was forced to leave the balcony where the rally was being televised. The radio and television transmission of the conference was abruptly interrupted. This marked the first time in Ceauşecu’s 24-year reign that he was met with such public disdain during a speech.
[Here is a related report: https://youtube.com/shorts/FWFdrOBhBT4?feature=shared]
“On the morning of December 22nd, after the concluding session of the Council of the Executive Political Committee (CPEx), Nicolae Ceauşecu issued a nationwide declaration of a state of emergency through a decree. The government implemented a temporary restriction on public gatherings, limiting the number of people to five or fewer per group. However, despite the imposed restrictions, the revolutionaries grew even more determined. In response to the orders from the new army general, soldiers retreated to their barracks, leading to the famous chant of ‘the army is with us!’ Confronted with the inevitable as the revolutionaries stormed the building, Nicolae and Elena Ceauşecu fled in a helicopter that landed on the rooftop of the Central Committee buildings. They landed near Târgoviste and were subsequently arrested and taken to a military facility in the city, where they remained as prisoners until December 25th.
“On December 25th, in Târgoviste, the Romanian state held a trial against Nicolae Ceauşecu in front of an Extraordinary Military Tribunal, self-proclaimed as the ‘people’s tribunal’, which had been established the day before.
“The charges leveled against him were:
- genocide
- undermining state power through the organization of armed actions against the people and the state
- destruction of public property
- undermining the national economy
- attempting to flee the country with over one billion dollars
“The Ceauşecu couple refused to recognize the legitimacy of the tribunal. The verdict was pronounced at 14:45, and just 5 minutes later, the dictatorial couple was executed by gunfire in the courtyard of the military facility.”
* * *
One of Ceauşecu’s key goals was to increase the population of Romania. To do so, in 1967 he signed the infamous Decree 770, forbidding most abortions (which had been legalized in 1957) and contraception. The many babies born as a result were known as “decreți” (“little decrees”). The policy backfired with many overwhelmed families consigning children to orphanages, where many suffered from neglect. The decree was abolished on December 26, 1989, just four days after the revolution.
Ceauşecu also set about “Romanizing” Transylvania by facilitating the immigration of Romanians into Transylvania, and by selling exit visas – paid for by the receiving states – for Saxons to emigrate to West Germany and for Jews to emigrate to Israel.
In March 1987, Ceauşecu began the “Systemization” of rural Romania, which would have caused the demolition of 8,000 villages, mainly in Transylvania, and the resettlement of their mainly Hungarian inhabitants into apartment blocks.
After 1989, most Saxons left Transylvania for Germany. According to our guide Edith in Braşov, there were around 900,000one million Saxons in Transylvania in 1900 and there are only 2639,000 today.
* * *
Romania was the only Eastern-bloc country to overthrow its Communist regime through violent conflicts and to execute its head of state.
Public protests against the Ceauşecu regime started in the provincial city of Timişoara on December 16, 1989, and continued in Bucharest. But unlike in Poland and Czechoslovakia, for example, where opposition leaders Lech Waleşa and Vàclav Havel were poised to take power, there was no effective opposition in Romania.
The day after Ceauşecu’s catastrophic speech on December 21, the newly formed National Salvation Party (FSN) led by Ion Iliescu, a Communist Party member who had been sidelined by Ceauşecu in the early 1980s, seized power. Many Romanians believed that the FSN was just the Communist Party by another name and that the “revolution” was really a coup d’état, and they continued to protest. Sometimes the army and police sided with the protesters, sometimes they crushed them.
More thanOfficially, 1,18000 people were killed in Timişoara and Bucharest in the lead-up to the overthrow of Ceauşecu and its aftermath.
After the 1989 Revolution
The FSN and its candidate Ion Iliescu comfortably won the first legislative and presidential elections on May 20, 1990.
Iliescu served as President from 1989 to 1996 (representing the FSN), and again from 2000 to 2004 (this time representing the Social Democracy Party that he had founded). Not until 2004 did Romania have a president who was not a former high-ranking member of the Communist Party.
Romania joined NATO in 2004 and the European Union (along with Bulgaria) in 2007, but accusations of corruption continue to dog the Romanian government.
In May 2025, Nicusor Dan, the former mayor of Bucharest, won a runoff election to become president for a five-year term, decisively beating his far-right opponent George Simion. The election was held months after the Constitutional Court voided the previous election in which the far-right outsider Calin Georgescu led the first round, following allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference.
TRIP REPORT
Our trip started and ended in Bucharest. Once outside the capital, the trip was all about the fortified towns and churches of Transylvania, wooden churches of Maramureş, and painted monasteries of Bukovina – and the natural beauty of the Carpathian Mountains. We didn’t make it to the Danube Delta (whose main city is Constanța) or the Banat and Crişana (whose main city is Timişoara). Next time.
Bucharest
We took a walking tour of Bucharest, the capital of both Wallachia and Romania, along the north-south axis of Calea Victoriei (Victory Avenue), the city’s most fashionable street, from the Plața Revoluției (Revolution Place/Square), where the Romanian Athenaeum (built in 1888) and the old Royal Palace (completed in 1944, home to the National Art Museum since 1950) are located, past the balcony of the former Communist Party headquarters where Ceauşecu made his last speech on December 21, 1989. We continued south to the “scruffy but atmospheric” Old Town, or “Lipscani”, whose narrow streets are jammed with tourist joints, but also include the modest but interesting Museum of Communism, and the charming Biserica Curtea Veche (Old Court Church), built between 1546 and 1548. Just across from the church is a great place for a traditional meal in a spacious courtyard: Hanul lui Manuc (Manuc’s Inn), which was built as a caravanserai in 1808.
In the afternoon, we took an hour-long tour of the gigantic Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest’s premier tourist attraction (get your hotel to book tickets in advance, and be sure to bring your passport).
Of all the cities in Romania, Bucharest was the most transformed during the Communist period. Following the devastation caused by the 1977 earthquake, Ceauşecu decided to rebuild the city entirely according to the socialist model, replacing single-family houses with large apartment blocks. But by far his most ambitious project was the construction of the House of the People, now known as the Palace of the Parliament. To make room for the new government center – which was destined to house the offices of the government ministries and the parliament and is the second largest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon — 9,000 19th century houses were demolished and 40,000 residents displaced.
The Palace of the Parliament has 12 floors above ground, four floors underground, 1,100 rooms, and 4,500 chandeliers. Its enormous reception rooms were lavishly decorated by local artisans and are undeniably impressive without being garish.
Transylvania
From Bucharest, most tourists head north to Transylvania (“across the forest”). The first stop is the town of Braşov, which is roughly a three-hour drive or train ride from Bucharest, on the far side of the southern range of the Carpathian Mountains. We stayed at the Shuster Boarding House in the Old Town.
Panoramic view of Brașov from Tâmpa Mountain
Braşov was the most important town in medieval Transylvania. It is a model Saxon town located just below the Carpathian foothills, with a 12-meter-high, 3-km-long wall built around the town, which is centered on the large Council Square. Near the square is the Black Church, so named because of its once soot-covered walls as a result of a fire set by the Austrian army that occupied Braşov in 1689. The church was constructed between 1383 and 1477 and is reportedly the largest Gothic church between Vienna and Istanbul.
We took a walking tour with our excellent guide Edith who explained how Braşov was a city of German craftsmen governed by guilds that had rules for every aspect of life within the city walls – professional, religious and personal. As explained in the Braşov Historical Museum, in the 15th century Braşov had guilds for furriers, locksmiths, bootmakers, tailors, cordwainers, girdlers, blacksmiths, barrel and cask makers, and weavers and glovers. In the 16th century, new guilds were established for archers, goldsmiths, crossbowmen, butchers, turners, coppersmiths, and barbers. By 1798, Braşov had 43 guilds with a total of 1,227 workshops. Different guilds were responsible for building and defending specific sections of the city wall and maintaining the churches.
Bran Castle
When in Braşov, most tourists make day trips to Bran Castle, which was built by the Saxons in 1377-82, is billed as Dracula’s Castle, and attracts a crowd; the ruined Râşnov Fortress, founded by the Teutonic Knights in 1225 on the site of a Dacian fort; and Peleş Castle, a Bavarian-style Schloss built by King Carl I in 1875-83. All three are within around a 30-minute drive from Braşov, but it was raining cats and dogs when we planned to go, so we passed on them all.
After Braşov, we stayed one night in a guesthouse in Viscri, one night in a modern hotel in downtown Cluj, and three nights in a “small luxury hotel” with a gourmet restaurant in the tiny village of Criş.
Another charming walled town on the tourist trail in Transylvania is Sibiu, about an hour’s drive west of Braşov, with three charming squares next to two churches.
Rounding out the Big Three fortified citadels of Saxon Transylvania is Sighişoara, an hour and a half’s drive northeast of Sibiu or a two-hour drive north of Braşov. Sighişoara’s citadel has a dramatic situation on a rocky outcropping overlooking the new town.
Outside the walled towns, the Saxon villagers built fortifications around their churches for protection against invaders. Of the original 300 Saxon villages, 150 still remain. UNESCO has designated seven fortified churches in Transylvania as World Heritage Sites. We visited three of them – all worth the trip – in:
- Prejmer, outside Braşov.
Prejmer’s fortified church
Prejmer is the most fortified of all the fortified churches in Transylvania, surrounded by a 12-meter-high, 400-meter-long wall, the inside of which is lined with four levels with over 270 rooms for storage of provisions and refuge for the villagers.
The Ottomans invaded Transylvania innumerable times between 1395 and 1778. They tried and failed to take Prejmer 50 times.
- Viscri, the scenic village where King Charles III has a house and which as a result has a few tourist-oriented guesthouses and restaurants (unusual for villages anywhere in Romania).
Viscri’s fortified church.
The fortification around the beautifully restored church (built in 1724) includes the Lard Tower: “Until the early nineties, when villagers did not have refrigerators or freezers, each family would keep their lard in this tower, which maintained a constant temperature throughout the year. The owner’s house number was written all over the skin of the lard, for the following purpose: Each Sunday at 7 o’clock the gate of the tower was opened by two designated people, so that each villager could take a piece of lard that the family would need for the following week. When exiting the tower, everybody had to show the lard to the designated people who were responsible to verify that the lard was taken from the respective villager’s own supply and not from another. This piece or lard or ham had to be sufficient for the whole week, since nobody could access the towers until the following Sunday”.
The Saxons also had an original way to counsel couples who were considering divorce. The couple would be locked together in a cell, where they would have to share a bed, eat from the same plate with the same spoon, and drink from the same cup, until they were reconciled. No comment.
As previously mentioned, the Saxons had rules for everything.
- Biertan, a half-hour’s drive from Sighişoara, where the church (built between 1493 and 1522) sits high on a hill overlooking a village that is not at all tourist-oriented and all the better for it.
Biertan’s fortified church
In the northern part of the Transylvanian Plateau are Cluj-Napoca (better known simply as Cluj), Romania’s second most populous city, with a large university, and Târgu Mureş, with a small university and a huge citadel dating from 1492. Both cities have impressive buildings dating from the late 19th/early 20th centuries with a strong Hungarian influence (especially Târgu Mureş’s wonderful Palace of Culture built in the Art Nouveau style in 1913), and even today have substantial Hungarian-speaking populations. Târgu Mureş also has a large Gypsy population living in a shanty town to the south of the city. We particularly enjoyed Cluj, which was the only city we visited outside Bucharest with the look and feel of a big European city, not least because its Old Town has some delightful pedestrian areas – especially Wolf Street – away from the big-city traffic. Interestingly, the Unitarian Church was founded in Cluj in 1556.
Maramureş
A four-hour drive north of Cluj is Sighet Marmației, the big city in the northern part of the remote Maramureş region, which is renowned for its villages with their wooden churches (“biserici de lemn”) and its mountains covered with forests of oak and beech trees. We stayed an hour away in the Pensiuna Caša Traditiilor (Traditional House) in the tidy village of Ieud (“Yeh-ood”), run by the charming Claudia, who did indeed stress traditional fashion and fare in her establishment.
Greater Maramureş was dominated first by the Hungarians (14th-16th centuries) and then by the Hapsburgs (18th century), both Catholic regimes that forbade the construction of Orthodox churches in stone, perhaps in the hope that structures made of wood and the religions that went with them would not last. So the locals built 93 churches of wood, which was in plentiful supply in the surrounding mountains. Most date from the 17th and 18th centuries and were hybrid Greco-Catholic churches (Byzantine churches but under the Pope), reflecting the religious compromise during Hapsburg era. Sixty-five wooden churches have survived in Maramureş, and eight were designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1999.
The Church on the Hill in Ieud
We confined our visit to the four valleys in the north of the region that comprise Historic Maramureş. With our guide Ioana, we visited the wooden churches in Ieud (Hill Church 1364, rebuilt 1620; Lower Church 1718), Burdeşti (1643), and Bârsan (1720). The churches were all constructed with squared-off logs laid horizontally, somewhat resembling the log cabins in the United States, with steep, shingled roofs with wide eaves, and high steeples. The churches were all rustic and small, with only three rooms: first the women’s room, then the men’s room, and finally the altar room behind the iconostasis (for priests only). The interior walls were usually painted by local artists, and were often decorated with icons painted on glass.
Bârsana Monastery complex, with its church on the left
We also visited the impressive Bârsana Monastery, with its complex of large wooden buildings all constructed on the site of a previous monastery in the traditional style after the 1989 Revolution. With its steeple reaching 57 meters above the ground, the church is the second highest wooden structure in Europe.
We drove to the town of Sǎpânta, famous for its Merry Cemetery with its colorfully painted wooden grave markers with more or less amusing inscriptions, dating since 1935. Perhaps the best known has a painting of a mother-in-law wagging her finger at her son-in-law, with an inscription by the latter something along the lines of: “If she had lived three days longer, it would be me in this grave.” (Not really worth the trip.)
Finally, we drove to the city of Sighet Marmatiei (mercifully shortened to Sighet), which means “island” in Hungarian, so-called because of its location between two rivers – and only one kilometer from the Ukrainian border. We went to Sighet to visit the Elie Wiesel Heritage Museum located in the home where Elie Wiesel grew up before he and his family were among the 38,000 Maramureş Jews rounded up by Hungarian gendarmes and deported to Auschwitz in 1944. Another 50,000 to 300,000 Jews (estimates vary widely) were deported to Auschwitz from other parts of Hungarian-controlled Northern Transylvania. (The Jews in Bukovina and Moldavia, on the other hand, were deported by the Romanian government to concentration camps in Transnistria.)
Moldavia and Bukovina
The main reason tourists venture to southern Bukovina in the northern part of the region of Moldavia is to see its painted monasteries, all Orthodox Christian, tucked away in secluded valleys near the Ukrainian border. The walls of the monastery churches, both interior and exterior, are covered in colorful frescoes, and the monasteries themselves are surrounded by defensive walls.
From our base at the Pensiunea La Roatǎ (The Wheel) in Gura Humoruliu (unfortunately not shortened to Guru), where we stayed in one of six rustic houses relocated to the property, we visited three of the Big Four painted monasteries with our guide Sebastian (www.axatravel.ro):
- Voroneț Monastery
“The Last Judgment” with the “Voroneț blue”. The red funnel at the top center leads to hell on the bottom right
Built in 1488, the church at Voroneț is famous for its frescoes which were painted between 1547 and 1550, featuring the color now known as “Voroneț blue”, and earned the church the sobriquet “the Sistine Chapel of the Orient”. There are well known frescoes of the “Tree of Jesse” on the interior of the west wall and of the “Last Judgment” on the exterior of the west wall, where all churches portray the Last Judgment because it faces east towards the setting sun, representing death.
- Moldovița Monastery
The Moldovița (meaning small Moldova) Monastery, with its church, was founded in 1532 and painted in 1537, featuring the color red. It is best known for its exterior fresco of the “Siege of Constantinople” in 626, which rewrites history by depicting the Christians routing the infidels. Interior frescoes in the pro-narthex and narthex (anterooms) represent the 366 days of the calendar.
- Sucevița Monastery
The “green” church was constructed in 1588 and painted in 1596. It was the last and biggest of the 22 painted churches in Moldavia. It is known for the fresco of the “Ladder of Virtues” with its 32 steps to heaven covering its northern façade. Its iconostasis dates from the 18th century.
Iconostasis at the Humor Monastery
We went to the church at the Humor Monastery (built in 1530) – the last of the Big Four – which was otherwise closed to the public because it is undergoing restoration, to attend the Sunday service. We were impressed by how many faithful attended, both young and old, often in traditional dress. All the women covered their hair with scarves. Most people stood or kneeled throughout the service, but there were seats for the elderly at the rear of the church. There was a choir, but no musical accompaniment. The service started at 10 am and ended around noon, and it seemed to us that worshippers could wander in and out at any time. (We arrived late and left early.)
There were many other churches in Bukovina’s towns, many with shiny tin roofs that date from the Communist era.
To round out our visit to Bukovina, we checked out the Egg Museum in Vama (with 16,000 meticulously painted eggs of all types on display) and took a short walk in the woods around the modest Lake Lezer (which was more like a pond). Fortunately, we saw no bears, although most of Europe’s brown bears can be found in Romania.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
Language
Romanian is a Romance language derived from Latin, but with a Slavic influence.
Between the 1830s and the 1920s, Romania switched from the Cyrillic alphabet to the Latin alphabet.
Each syllable in Romanian words is pronounced except for the terminal “—i”. The stress is usually on the penultimate syllable.
The Romanian alphabet consists of 31 letters, five of which (ǎ, â, î, ş and ț) have been modified from their Latin originals for the phonetic requirements of the language. By way of example:
- “ț” is pronounced like “zz” in “pizza”. So “piața” (Square) is pronounced “peeATza”.
- “ş” at the end of a word is pronounced “esh”. So “Maramureş” is pronounced “MaraMUResh”.
Romanian seemed to us to have more Italian cognates than French:
- Bunǎ dimineața = Good morning
- Bunǎ ziua = Good day
- Bunǎ searǎ = Good evening
- La revedere = Goodbye
- Ce faci? (“Chey fatch”) = How are you doing? (colloquial)
- Bine (“beeneh”) = Well
- Forte bine = Very well
The only Romanian words I learned were “mulțumesc” (when thanking one person) and “mulțumim” (when thanking more than one person). “Merci” also works. “Bere fǎrǎ alcool” (beer without alcohol) also came in handy.
Eating in Romania
A friend of a friend famously said, “I know of only one vegetarian in Romania.”
Breakfast looks a lot like a picnic lunch, with a variety of cold cuts, smoked fish and cheeses. Also with eggs, bread, butter and jam. Fresh apple juice is offered instead of orange juice. The coffee is weak.
A traditional meal starts with a hearty soup (a favorite is bean and bacon soup), with a main course of meat (often a stew) or sausage, usually served with polenta (there are a lot of cornfields in Romania), and for dessert a “doughnut” of fried dough stuffed with curd cheese and smothered in cream and jam. As an alternative to meat, trout is always on the menu, and it is very tasty.
Another specialty is sarmale (cabbage leaves stuffed with meat, rice or herbs, usually served with sour cream). A particular delicacy is lard.
Salată de vinete
Our go-to dish was eggplant (purée) salad, served with tomatoes, onions and bread (see photo above). It is a starter and is a good dish to share. The portions were generous, so there was not much room left for a main course.
Traditional snacks include “mici” (skinless sausages) served with a mild mustard, and “donuts” (lots of dough, no hole) or dumplings with various sweet fillings.
Snacks of a more industrial kind can be purchased at the ubiquitous Profi shops (similar to 7-Eleven stores in other countries), or at the well-stocked shops next to large, new gas stations.
The local wine and beer was tasty. When we stayed at the “traditional” inn in Maramureş, there was a bottle of “palincǎ”, the local schnapps made from double-distilled prune juice, on the table for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
If you need a break from the local fare, pizzas and hamburgers are widely available.
Such a caloric diet was necessary in the old days when Romanians spent their days in the fields stacking hay and tending their flocks. But the diet did not change when lifestyles became sedentary. As a result of their traditional diet of comfort food, Romanian men sport some impressive pot bellies. The women can be pretty robust, too. In Maramureş, we were told, it passes for a compliment for a woman to be called sturdy and hardworking.
Driving in Romania
Driving is really the only way to get around Romania if you want to get beyond the cities.
It is straightforward to rent a car in Romania but BEWARE: Driving licenses from U.S. states are not recognized in Romania. You need to have an International Driving Permit issued by the AAA in the United States to be able to rent a car and drive in Romania. A digital International Driving Permit will not be accepted.
Valid driving licenses from EU countries and the UK are, on the other hand, recognized in Romania.
“The roads are good, the drivers are bad”. So we were told. Indeed the roads were generally good, although you sometimes have to share them with long-haul trucks on the one hand, and horse-drawn carts stacked with hay on the other. There are many two-lane roads which can get jammed with traffic, especially going up and down mountains. Also, the roads rarely have shoulders and are often flanked by deep culverts, so be careful when pulling off the road. The signage for turns can be tricky, so using the Waze app (see below) was essential. Stop signs are placed at oblique angles, so you might think they are for you when they are for a perpendicular road. Getting in and out of cities is a hassle, as it is everywhere.
The drivers drive very fast, with little regard for the speed limit, so we were overtaken a lot by the high-powered German cars that are favored by Romanians.
Beware speed traps when entering cities, towns and villages, where the speed limit drops from 90 kpm to 50 kpm. We were quickly advised to use the Waze app to get around, not only because its interactive features were able to warn us about potholes on the road, but especially because they could warn us about police radars ahead. Since we saw quite a few cars pulled over for speeding, I assume all the cars that passed us were using Waze and saw no police on the road ahead.
Our mobile phone batteries kept running out when we were using Waze, so make sure you bring a cable with the latest universal prong to plug into your rental car to charge your phones. Also, buy a good road map of Romania before you arrive.
There is zero tolerance for alcohol when driving (“bere fǎrǎ alcool”).
There are plenty of modern gas stations where you pay for gas inside after filling up.
You have to pay to park in all cities and towns of any size, often using a parking app such as TPARK, which was very efficient.
When driving through the countryside, we saw lots of cornfields and haystacks.
When driving through the villages, we saw lots of stork nests on top of utility poles (apparently the storks migrate from North Africa in March to lay their eggs, and return in August.)
Most villages had a main street through the center with houses right up to the culverts along either side of the road. Few villages had sidewalks, so people had to walk in the road. The houses were connected with walls, so all you can see from the road is a continuous line of (generally unlovely) walls. When we climbed hills to visit fortified churches in Transylvania, we could look down and see that the houses had gardens behind them.
Outside many towns and villages in Transylvania were abandoned factories dating from the Ceauşecu era.
Money
Romania is not in the Eurozone. Its currency is the leu (plural, lei), which means “lion”. $1 equals a little less than 5 lei (sometimes expressed as RON). 1 euro equals a little more than 5 lei.
When making any purchase, you will always be asked, “By cash or by card?” We paid for almost everything with a Visa card. (Amex is not generally accepted.) You will only need cash for public toilets (2 lei) and random tips (restaurant bills always include an option to add a tip of 10%, 12% or 15%). ATMs are available in cities, but the exchange rates and commissions can vary widely, so the guidebooks recommend changing money in banks instead. Be sure to convert any lei you have left over at the end of your trip to dollars or euros before you leave the country, or better yet, use them to pay your last hotel bill.
Next Time
We would have liked to have walked along part of the Via Transilvanica long-distance hiking path that stretches 1,400 km/870 miles from north to south through the Carpathian Mountains with markers ever kilometer along the way (https://www.viatransilvanica.com/en/), and to have driven on the scenic Transfǎgǎrǎşan Highway, which winds 90 km/56 miles up and down the Southern Carpathian Mountains, reaching an altitude of 2,042 meters/6,700 feet.
FINAL THROUGHTS
The Romanians we met were almost without exception incredibly open, friendly and helpful. The rare exceptions were the unsmiling older women who (wo)manned the ticket counters in museums and tourist sights and apparently went to charm school during the Communist era.
One of the pleasures of visiting Romania is that there are almost no international chains outside Bucharest. KFC and Starbucks were the most visible international brands, and we saw only a handful of McDonald’s restaurants. The only Western gas station we saw was ÖMV, the Austrian oil company. The rest were Romanian or Russian (Lukoil).
What we enjoyed most about visiting Romania was learning a different history with a different cast of characters from what we are used to in Western Europe. Gregor von Rezzori described Bukovina as a place with “many minorities” and “no majority”, but we did not catch sight of the “hodgepodge of Swabian Germans, Romanians, Poles, Jews, Prussians, Slovaks and Armenians” he so colorfully described in The Snows of Yesteryear. Transylvania was similarly once made up of Saxons, Hungarians, Austrians, Jews and Roma, along with Romanians. We were struck by the fact that those minorities are now almost all gone, with only 10% of the population of Romania now made up of minorities, down from 28% before World War II. The largest minorities are now Hungarian (6%) and Roma (3%). The Saxons and Jews have all but disappeared from the stage. Nowadays, 86% of Romanians are Eastern Orthodox Christian, 7% are Protestant, and 5% are Catholic.
As von Rezzori concluded after returning to Czernowitz in 1989 for the first time since he had left it in 1936 when he was 22 years-old, “You must never undertake the search for time lost in the spirit of nostalgic tourism.”
Despite the dramatic – and relatively recent – shift in the demographics of Romania, the rich history of this complex country lives on in the old towns of the former Wallachian, Moldovian and Hungarian cities, and especially in the Saxon fortified towns and churches of Transylvania, the wooden churches of Maramureş, and the painted monasteries of Bukovina.
Drum bun!
