Diversity and charm of Romania, through pictures (Germans, Romanians, features)
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You are conveniently ignoring that Ceausescu demolished a goodly portion of historic Bucharest.
Ceausescu also had plans to radically reform the traditional village culture of Romania by moving most of the village residents into fewer larger new cities or towns, and the old villages would be demolished. The process was called Systematization and here's a good description:
Ceausescu deeply disliked Transylvania for various reasons and ended up largely ignoring the region. A blessing, as it turned out, although there were still a handful of destruction in places like Sighisoara, where parts of the Victorian city center by the river was demolished for an ugly 1970s complex.
What really saved Romania's heritage was the sheer lack of money. Romania had built up a large foreign debt in the early days of the communist regime and Ceausescu crippled the economy in order to pay off the debt, so much of the original communist plans for destroying the heritage of Romania never came to fruition.
The restoration of Romania's architectural heritage since the collapse of communism has been very successful, especially in the Transylvanian region. The facilitation of trade and tourism between Transylvania and the western countries has introduced an influx of money, allowing places like Brasov to gentrify.
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Originally Posted by John-UK
Constantia on the Black Sea is one of Europe's largest container ports. Containers are off-loaded onto river ships and taken right into central European countries via the River Danube.
Romania is a beautiful country, I have been there. They have preserved the old town architecture very well, one good point of the old Communist regime. A capitalist system would have ripped it all out for profit as seen in western Europe and especially the UK.
I daresay it was post-war socialism in Western Europe and the UK that did far more damage to existing historic urban infrastructure than capitalism through large scale urban renewal schemes and "New Towns" and new town centers. But both ideologies are certainly not without their faults (or merits).
Anyway, Romania is indeed a fascinating country and we thoroughly loved our trip there and can't wait to return someday.
Romania is a beautiful country, I have been there. They have preserved the old town architecture very well, one good point of the old Communist regime. A capitalist system would have ripped it all out for profit as seen in western Europe and especially the UK.
There have been much destroyed during the communist period, most the old centers of the towns in Moldavia and Wallachia have been seriously affected or even demolished and a fifth of old Bucharest perished as well, but still enough old architecture remains in these towns and cities and much more in Transylvania, which is a Central Europe region, with big old urban cores.
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Constantia on the Black Sea is one of Europe's largest container ports. Containers are off-loaded onto river ships and taken right into central European countries via the River Danube.
From what I know, most of the traffic on Danube is from Central Europe toward Black Sea. Romania's export transports toward Central Europe, like Dacia cars e.g., are made by road and train.
Nevertheless, Danube is an important commercial route between Central and even Western Europe (through the canals in Germany which link the river with the northwestern regions) and Black Sea countries and further, with Near East through Bosphorus and Suez and there are plans to make it support a heavier traffic.
The Port of Rotterdam see Constanța (which is linked with Danube by the Danube - Black Sea Canal) as a potential competitioner as maritime gateway of Europe toward the East and the Dutch have expressed their will to have a stake in Romanian's port development. Constanța's volume of trade is growing continuously and the infrastructure is replaced with newer and better one.
Cozia National Park and Cozia Monastery
Cozia National Park has an area of 171 km², extending on both banks of Olt River, in the wildest sector of its 47 km long defile.
On the left bank is Cozia Massif, part of Făgăraș Range and on the right bank there are some massifs from Căpățânii and Lotru ranges. Cozia Massif is the most spectacular, with its pyramidal shape rising at 1668, but the entire park is amazing, being covered in prehistorical temperate jungle growing on the very abrupt slopes, with very iconic landscapes created by the cliffs rising above these forests and above the deep valleys from whose bottom the murmur of the rivers (tributaries of Olt) are heard.
From the top of the massif, the view go very far over the southern Subcarpathian hills and farther to the plain and toward the north over the meandrous defile of Olt, going between the "endless " forested mountains that stretch to the horizon. On top of the cliffs, or hanging from their side, grow pine trees, some of them burned by lighting, creating a scenery that resemble the one of Chinese Mountains (like Cerna Valley present previously too).
Cozia Monastery was built in 1388 as a fortified complex in Byzantine style, on Olt's bank. The walls used to enter in water before some modern regulations of the river to be made. The monastery is the mqin foundation and resting place of Mircea the Elder (1386–1418), one of Wallachia's most illustrous rulers.
The monastery is situated at the end of Olt's Defile, next to the small spa town of Căciulata.
The entire range extends on ~ 500 km² and the park has 111 km². Măcin are the only Romanian mountains not part of the Carpathians and are low, the highest point reaching 467 m. They are the oldest mountains in Romania, formed 370-270 million years ago. Different from Carpathians, Măcin have an arid climate and flora, which includes forests and steppes.
The area is important for the European and world biodiversity, from the 187 bird species, 112 being "vulnerable", " rare" or "possibly extinct" and the 11 reptile species found here living nowhere else in Europe.
Măcin host the largest number of raptors in Romania, ~ 10,000 individuals nestling here, belonging to various species.
From what I know, most of the traffic on Danube is from Central Europe toward Black Sea. Romania's export transports toward Central Europe, like Dacia cars e.g., are made by road and train.
Nevertheless, Danube is an important commercial route between Central and even Western Europe (through the canals in Germany which link the river with the northwestern regions) and Black Sea countries and further, with Near East through Bosphorus and Suez and there are plans to make it support a heavier traffic.
The Port of Rotterdam see Constanța (which is linked with Danube by the Danube - Black Sea Canal) as a potential competitioner as maritime gateway of Europe toward the East and the Dutch have expressed their will to have a stake in Romanian's port development. Constanța's volume of trade is growing continuously and the infrastructure is replaced with newer and better one.
Containers destined for Central Europe from say the Far East will offload at Constantia and move by river ships. Some go in via Rotterdam. The likes of Slovakia has sea going ships that navigate the Danube and the open seas. Yes, Slovakia has a sea port at Komárno that can take ships of 8,000 tons dead weight.
Only canal boats can navigate from Rotterdam to Constantia. Few boats will ever make the full trip, most only going to central Europe from either end.
The widening of the Panama Canal will change trading patterns. You may find that large post-Panamax ships will enter Rotterdam, offload onto small canal boats and go the whole way to Constantia or further into the Black Sea or to Greece - why the Dutch are interested. This saves the trip through the Mediterranean using large expensive to run post-Panamax ships. They only like sailing these ships when fully laden, 14,000 plus containers, as they are very expensive to run. They would not like to off-load half of the containers at Rotterdam or Liverpool and sail through the Med to the Black Sea. They are trans-ocean ships and like to docks only at one port either side of an ocean, or a very long trip say from China to Europe via Panama.
The opening of the artic passage from the Far East may mean Rotterdam is very important. Off load there and then via the Rhine and Danube to central Europe and beyond.
The park has a surface of 308 km² and protects both the geomorphological (landscape) and karst values and the rich Submediterranean biodiversity.
Nera Gorges are 20 km long and have a very sinuous course (you can see it on the lower part of the map), the river making big meanders going through the mountains with almost vertical walls, covered in dense jungle. Large portions of prehistorical (old-growth) forests are preserved.
The park is part of the only "Guatemala -like" jungle area in Europe - the Banat Mountains (th ranges of Locvei, Anina, Semenic, Almăj), extending on ~ 5,000 km², with very few villages scattered in the uninhabited, forested immensity. At each turn you meet a river, spring, canyon, centuries old tree or other wonder of nature, which you never will find in photos on Internet, as Romanians are not aware of the value and picturesqueness of these treasures and for that reason this country will still remain undiscovered some time.
Large parts of Romania are the way the entire Europe (and the world) used to be centuries ago, when nature was intact and people had a philosophy of living in harmony with it.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find free-license photos with Nera Gorges themselves, only with some rivers, waterfalls and lakes inside the forest, but you can see them in video, with one of the highly suspended foot bridges that cross the river:
This one, which I took yesterday, got into Flickr Explore Page where are selected each day 500 of the best photos uploaded worldwide in previous day, and such gets a lot of views:
Is a town (population 4,755) at over 1,000 m elevation, surrounded by the ranges of Bucegi and Baiului and by the massifs Postăvaru and Piatra Mare.
The thick and extensive woods around Predeal have a rich and diversified fauna, including a high number of wild boars, European pine martens, bears, foxes, gray wolves, deer, squirrels, rabbits, badgers, capercaillies etc. Paradoxally, Romania's number one touristic zone - Prahova Valley where Predeal is - though filled with tourists and cars is also one with richest wildlife, the complex relief with hundreds of deep smaller valleys offering endless protected places for the creatures of the forest.
While Poiana Brașov is Romania's most modern ski resort, Predeal is the most popular, with the most tourists during winter.
Is the most remarkable cave from Trascău Mountains, a range in Western Carpathians with a significant complex of karst phenomena.
Here live the biggest bat colony in Europe - 84,000 individuals from 9 species and is also the only cave in Europe where the bat population grows steadly.
The confortable temperature of 12 -20 °C made the cave prefered for the prehistoric man. The vestiges from the age of Neaderthals, 50,000 years ago are probably hidden in the layers of the mass of guano, which also started to form from deep prehistory. In Neolithic and Bronze Age, when the gold of Apuseni started to be seen as a value (the Balkans where the first to discover metallurgy, first of copper and then of gold), the humans started to use the cave, as proved by some 5,000 years old tumular graves next to the entrance. During the Dacian time, the cave was inhabited and used as cultic place, being not far (20 km) from Apulon, the most important Dacian city after the capital, Sarmisegetusa.
The cave is crossed by a river that collects the waters from an 150 km² basin, enter underground and comes out after 1.2 km through a monumental, 40 m tall portal. In a hall of 56 x92 m and 102 m tall (record in Romania) is the largest mass of guano in our country, equivalent of 60 railway wagons. Beside these, there are many other geological wonders along the total lenght of 5,2 km of galleries.
The place where the river enters underground, called "Vânătările Ponorului"
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