Facts about Romania you won’t ever believe
Romania is a wonderful country just waiting to be discovered but also a country surrounded by controversy and prejudice. So here are some interesting facts about Romania that you’ve probably never heard before!
Romania has one of the happiest cemeteries in the world; in fact, it is called the Merry Cemetery (Cimitirul Vesel) and you can find it in Sapanta, a small village in Maramures. This is not only a unique cemetery but also an actual open-air museum and a tourist attraction. Here hundreds of colorful wooden crosses reveal life stories but also dirty details. The crosses are covered in bright, cheerful images and annotated with sometimes hilarious limericks about the deceased. One might say this is dark humor at its finest.
Romania is also the place of birth of extraordinary scientists, engineers and sportsmen. For example, Nicolae Constantin Paulescu is the discoverer of insulin, Petrache Poenaru is the inventor of fountain pen, Eugen Pavel invented the Hyper CD-ROM and Anastase Dragomir invented the parachuted chair. At the same time, Henri Coanda, Traian Vuia and Aurel Vlaicu all played an essential role in the history of aerodynamics and aviation. It was also 19-year-old Romanian student Ionut Budisteanu who designed a self-driving car AI system. Also, did you know that Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci was the first gymnast ever to get a perfect 10 in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal? History was made that day and no one ever achieved the same level of excellence again.
Some things in Romania are absurdly cheap, especially if you come here from Western Europe. Everything from food, taxis (they can cost as low as 1,39 lei per km which is like a third of a Euro), luxury apartments for rent in the heart of Bucharest, the Internet or public means of transportation are all extremely affordable even if you are travelling on a tight budget.
The Palace of Parliament is the most impressive building in Bucharest, the capital city of Romania, but did you know that it is also the largest, heaviest and most expensive civil administration building on the planet and the second-largest building in the world after the Pentagon?
There is a lot of confusion surrounding the real Dracula, nicknamed Vlad the Impaler. Many people think that Count Dracula – the Vampire in Bram Stoker’s novel is in fact the same as the Romanian prince and medieval military leader but the truth is that the connections between the real Dracula and the novel character are pretty thin. Still, people believe what they want to believe and that’s why the Bran Castle is such a popular tourist attraction in Romania.
Many people think that Romanian language is very similar to Russian but very few know that it is in fact the only Romance language in Eastern Europe and that it sounds much more similar to Italian, French or Spanish.
Romania also has 7 UNESCO world heritage sites that include the Churches of Moldavia, the Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains, the Historic Centre of Sighisoara, the Monastery of Horezu, the Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania, the Wooden Churches of Maramures and the Danube Delta.
In case you were thinking Romania has a lot more developing to do, you are probably right. Still, you should also know that Timisoara, a city in western Romania was the first city in Europe to have electric street-lighting and it was also the first European city to introduce horse-drawn trams.
These are just a few of the most interesting facts about Romania but they are proof enough that this country deserves your attention. So the next time you hear a bad thing about Romania remember this is a country of extraordinary places and people!
About the Author
Andrea Guerriero Hi, I'm Andrea, a travel blogger, web programmer, seo apprentice and amateur photographer based in Milan. I love reading, I love music. I love to travel but only if I leave on a mission! I've been traveling through most of Europe and I love writing about it. I love photography, especially as a way to document experiences, places, events. My Nikon D300 camera is always with me, and it helps me in sharing my life with the rest of the world. Getting in touch with new people, different life styles and foreign traditions, and write about it, is all I can ask for.
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