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Romania
Location of Romania
LocationAt the confluence of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to the east, and the Black Sea to the southeast. It has a mainly continental climate, and an area of 238,397 km2 (92,046 sq mi) with a population of 19 million people (2023). Romania is the twelfth-largest country in Europe and the sixth-most populous member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest, followed by Cluj-Napoca, Iași, Timișoara, Constanța, Craiova, Brașov, and Galați. Europe's second-longest river, the Danube, empties into the Danube Delta in the southwest of the country. The Carpathian Mountains cross Romania from the north to the southwest and include Moldoveanu Peak, at an altitude of 2,544 m (8,346 ft).

Romania is a high-income country, and a highly complex economy, that is beginning to be a middle power in international affairs. Romania ranked 47th in the Global Innovation Index in 2023. Its economy ranks among the fastest growing in the European Union, being the world's 41st largest by nominal GDP, and the 35th largest by PPP, being based predominantly on services. Romanian citizens enjoy one of the fastest and cheapest internet speeds in the world. It is a producer and net exporter of cars and electric energy through companies like Automobile Dacia and OMV Petrom. The majority of Romania's population are ethnic Romanians and religiously identify themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christians, speaking Romanian, a Romance language (more specifically Eastern Romance). Romania is a member of the United Nations, the European Union, the Schengen Area, NATO, the Council of Europe, BSEC, and WTO. (Full article...)

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Chimera, ink drawing by Dimitrie Paciurea

The Symbolist movement in Romania, active during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, marked the development of Romanian culture in both literature and visual arts. Bringing the assimilation of France's Symbolism, Decadence and Parnassianism, it promoted a distinctly urban culture, characterized by cosmopolitanism, Francophilia and endorsement of Westernization, and was generally opposed to either rural themes or patriotic displays in art. Like its Western European counterparts, the movement stood for idealism, sentimentalism or exoticism, alongside a noted interest in spirituality and esotericism, covering on its own the ground between local Romanticism and the emerging modernism of the fin de siècle. Despite such unifying traits, Romanian Symbolism was an eclectic, factionalized and often self-contradictory current.

Originally presided upon by poet and novelist Alexandru Macedonski, founder of Literatorul magazine, the movement sparked much controversy with its stated disregard for established convention. The original circle of Symbolists made adversaries among the conservative Junimea club, as well as among the traditionalist writers affiliated with Sămănătorul review and the left-wing Poporanists. However, Romanian Symbolism also radiated within these venues: sympathetic to Junimea's art for art's sake principles, it also communicated to neoromantic sensibilities within the traditionalist clubs, and comprised a socialist wing of its own. In parallel, the notoriety of Macedonski's circle contributed to the development of other influential Symbolist and post-Symbolist venues, including Ovid Densusianu's Vieața Nouă and Ion Minulescu's Revista Celor L'alți, as well as to the birth of artists' clubs such as Tinerimea Artistică. The latter category of Symbolist venues helped introduce and promote the aesthetics of Art Nouveau, Vienna Secession, post-Impressionism and related schools. (Full article...)
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Ana Bogdan (born 25 November 1992) is a Romanian professional tennis player. Having made her tour debut in 2009, she peaked at No. 39 in the WTA rankings in July 2023.

Bogdan had a successful junior career, reaching world No. 2 on 5 January 2008. (Full article...)
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Lightning over Oradea, Romania

Did you know (auto generated)

  • ... that Romanian actress Mitzura Arghezi was once told by her father that her career path held "few satisfactions [...] if you're not a director's wife, a manager's wife, this and that man's girlfriend"?
  • ... that Dimitrie Ralet, a pioneer Romanian orientalist, commended Ottoman reformers for not "blindly adopting what we in Europe take to mean civilization"?
  • ... that at age 15, Lilia Cosman moved from the United States to Romania to compete for Romania's Olympic gymnastics team?
  • ... that writer Fănuș Neagu claimed to have spent the Romanian floods of May 1970 stranded with a feral wolf on the roof of a cannery?
  • ... that following the ban of its labour unions in 1934, the Romanian United Socialist Party would rely on its youth and women's wings for political action?
  • ... that educational writer Ștefan Tita gave Romanian students impractical advice on mending damaged bark with bandages of dirt?

More did you know

  • ...that Romania's Palace of Parliament, despite the building process not being completely finished, is the biggest building in Europe and the second-largest building in the world?

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