Romanian communities in the Carpathian arch are a living paradox. They are located in the geographic center of the country, flanked by high mountains from two sides, but are a struggling minority in that lower western part of Transylvania. That larger province, famous worldwide due to Hollywood, is overwhelmingly Romanian. But in three of its […]

A large crowd of many thousands of people accompanied the late singer Ion Dolănescu in Bucharest in a cortege to the church and cemetery. Ion Dolănescu was the most famous singer of folkloric music, a genre that is still immensely popular in the country. One might say that this type of music is the European […]

One of the five pillars of Islamic faith, required to all believers is the Hajj, the pilgrimage to the sacred places of Mecca. For those who don’t attend the spectacular procession around the Kaaba, there are of course festivities in honor of that event in almost every country. The Arabic name of this holiday is […]

Not long ago, in the last century, you could positively identify the geographic area of origin of a Romanian by looking at his clothes. The costumes were entirely home-made and it was a matter of great pride to preserve the exact decorations with vegetal, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic motifs. Even today there are several regions of […]

The region Oltenia is the south-eastern part of Romania, situated on the banks of rivers Danube, Jiu and Olt. It is famous for its witty and active people, as well as for its folk traditions. The capital of the region is Craiova, with other major cities as Slatina, Drobeta Turnu Severin or Targu Jiu (where […]

The Balkans is a region with very old history, including the Greek peninsula and the mountain chain that stretches from the Eastern coast of Adriatic Sea to Istanbul, where Europe meets Asia. Its past is marked especially by the ancient Greek heritage and the history of the Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great. The part […]

Found near the fortress of king Stephen The Great, the Village Museum of Suceava holds a remarkable patrimony of vestiges of Moldavian peasant lifestyle from the area of Bukovina. On the alleys of this village museum you can stroll as if you were in a place untouched by modern technology, with wooden houses that have […]