Romania
The Carpathian arc, the Danube delta, and a Latin island in a Slavic sea
Romania curves around the great arc of the Carpathian Mountains, a country where the Danube ends its journey in a vast wetland delta on the Black Sea. A Latin-speaking nation surrounded by Slavic and Hungarian neighbors, it traces its language and identity to Roman Dacia. With roughly 19 million people and Bucharest as its sprawling capital, Romania is a land of painted monasteries, fortified Saxon villages, the castles of Transylvania, and brown-bear forests that hold one of Europe's largest carnivore populations.
The Carpathians sweep through the center of the country, dividing the Transylvanian plateau from the plains of Wallachia and Moldavia, while Moldoveanu Peak in the Făgăraș range tops out at 2,544 meters. The Danube traces the southern border before fanning into the Danube Delta, a UNESCO biosphere reserve teeming with pelicans and migratory birds. The fertile plains grow grain and sunflowers, while the Black Sea coast and the Carpathian forests anchor a growing tourism and a substantial energy and tech economy.
Roman colonists in ancient Dacia left a Latin language that survived centuries of migration and Ottoman pressure. The principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia united in 1859, and full independence followed in 1877. Bound up with the legends of Vlad the Impaler and Bram Stoker's Dracula, Transylvania remains the country's most romanticized region. After the violent 1989 fall of the Ceaușescu regime, Romania turned west, joining NATO and the European Union in 2007, while preserving rich Orthodox and rural folk traditions.