The largest of the Balkan states, Romania has seen several empires come and go, from the Roman, to the Ottoman to the Austro-Hungarian.
After World War II, the Communists gradually established their political hegemony within the government: in 1947 the monarchy was deposed and the government declared the Romanian People's Republic. Nicolae Ceausescu assumed the post of First Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party (RCP) in 1965 and held power in the country until the dramatic, bloody and largely unpredicted revolution during Christmas 1989.
After Ceausescu's death, the new government, under the provisional leadership of Ion Iliescu (the former Communist Central Committee Secretary) was faced with a number of acute problems: the pacification of the country; the disbanding of the Securitate; the restoration of the economy; and the need to prepare Romania for peaceful multi-party elections. In the following years, economic progress has been patchy while Romania has not advanced as far as its east European counterparts towards its twin principal goals: membership of NATO and of the European Union. Nevertheless, in 2004 Romania was officially welcomed as a new member of NATO. Membership of the EU will take somewhat longer. This will be a difficult process, involving radical and painful reform of parts of the Romanian economy, but the country is on track to join the EU in 2007/8.
Romania has dramatic mountain scenery including the Carpathian Mountains and Transylvania. The beautiful and densely forested Carpathian Mountains area lends itself to many sporting and leisure activities such as skiing, bobsleighing, horseriding and tennis. Situated in picturesque valleys and on mountain slopes are many health and winter resorts. Since Roman times, the Romanian spas of Transylvania have been known for their miraculous healing powers. The Black Sea Coast, ideal for family holidays with 70km (43 miles) of fine white sandy beaches, boasts many resorts. Transylvania also contains the famous Bran Castle, said to be one of the original abodes of the medieval king known as Vlad the Impaler, who helped inspire Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula.
Legend says that Bucharest, the Romanian capital, was founded by a shepherd called Bucur, whose name is recognisable in the Romanian version of the name Bucharesti. Located midway between the Carpathian Mountains and the Black Sea, Bucharest has not earned the nickname 'Paris of the Balkans' by accident. Its astonishing range of architecture – from Wallachian wooden and bell-towered mansions to Byzantine-style chapels, neo-classical buildings, striking 1930s modernism and even the post-Stalinist absurdities of Ceaucescu's megalomaniac regime – cannot help but leave the visitor in awe at the varieties of vision that have taken place in this city over the centuries. But Bucharest has also been the epicentre of the country's many upheavals, with the stages of the country's history like vivid tattoos etched across the city's surface, each telling a different chapter of the story.
