The historical regions of Romania are located in Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe. Romania came into being through the unification of two principalities, Wallachia and Moldova in 1862. The new unitary state extended over further regions at various times during the late 19th and 20th centuries, including Dobruja in 1878, and Transylvania in 1918.
These regions are part of Romania today:
The Middle Ages in Romania began shortly after the withdrawal of the Roman legions from the former Roman province of Dacia in the late 3rd century and with the start of the Early Middle Ages and the Migration Period that followed afterwards respectively. It subsequently came to an end with the reign of Domn Michael the Brave (1593–1601) who managed, for a short time between 1599 and 1600, to rule Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania together, the three principalities whose territories were to be united some three centuries later to form modern and contemporary Romania.
Over most of this period, Banat, Crișana, Maramureș, and Transylvania – now regions in Romania to the west of the Carpathian Mountains – were part of the Kingdom of Hungary. They were divided into several types of administrative units, such as "counties" and "seats". The heads of the Transylvanian counties or "counts" were subordinated to a special royal official called voivode, but the province was seldom treated as a single unit, since the Székely and Saxon seats were administered separately. In the kingdom, Romanian peasants, being Orthodox, were exempt from the tithe, an ecclesiastical tax payable by all Roman Catholic commoners. However, Romanian noblemen slowly lost the ability to participate in political life, as the 14th-century monarchs pursued a zealous pro-Catholic policy. Their position became even worse after 1437 when the so-called "Union of Three Nations", an alliance of the Hungarian noblemen, the Székelys, and the Saxons, was formed in order to crush the Bobâlna peasant uprising.
Constanța (UK: /kɒnˈstæntsə/, US: /kənˈstɑːn(t)sə/, Romanian: [konˈstantsa] ) is a city in the Dobruja historical region of Romania. A port city, it is the capital of Constanța County and the country's fourth largest city and principal port on the Black Sea coast. It is also the oldest continuously inhabited city in Romania, founded around 600 BC, and among the oldest in Europe.
As of the 2021 census, Constanța has a population of 263,688. The Constanța metropolitan area includes 14 localities within 30 km (19 mi) of the city. It is one of the largest metropolitan areas in Romania. Ethnic Romanians became a majority in the city in the early 20th century. The city still has small Tatar and Greek communities, which were substantial in previous centuries, as well as Turkish and Romani residents, among others. Constanța has a rich multicultural heritage, as, throughout history, it has been part of different cultures, including Roman, Byzantine, Bulgarian, and Ottoman. Following the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), Constanța became part of Romania, and the city, which at the time had a population of just over 5,000 inhabitants, grew significantly throughout the 20th century.
Cluj-Napoca (/ˈkluːʒnæˌpoʊkə/ KLOOZH-na-POH-kə; Romanian: [ˈkluʒ naˈpoka] ), or simply Cluj (Hungarian: Kolozsvár [ˈkoloʒvaːr] , German: Klausenburg), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (445 km; 277 mi), Budapest (461 km; 286 mi) and Belgrade (483 km; 300 mi). Located in the Someșul Mic river valley, the city is considered the unofficial capital of the historical province of Transylvania. For some decades prior to the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, it was the official capital of the Grand Principality of Transylvania.
As of 2021, 286,598 inhabitants live in the city. The Cluj-Napoca metropolitan area had a population of 411,379 people, while the population of the peri-urban area is approximately 420,000. According to a 2007 estimate, the city hosted an average population of over 20,000 students and other non-residents each year from 2004 to 2007. The city spreads out from St. Michael's Church in Unirii Square, built in the 14th century and named after the Archangel Michael, Cluj's patron saint. The municipality covers an area of 179.52 square kilometres (69.31 sq mi).
Timiș (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈtimiʃ]) is a county (județ) of western Romania on the border with Hungary and Serbia, in the historical region of Banat, with the county seat at Timișoara. It is the westernmost and the largest county in Romania in terms of land area. The county is also part of the Danube–Criș–Mureș–Tisa Euroregion.
In Romanian historiography, the Great Union (Romanian: Marea Unire) or Great Union of 1918 (Marea Unire din 1918) was the series of political unifications the Kingdom of Romania had with several of the Romanian historical regions, starting with Bessarabia on 27 March 1918, continuing with Bukovina on 28 November 1918 and finalizing with Transylvania (on its broad meaning) on 1 December 1918 with the declaration of the union of this region with Romania during an assembly at the city of Alba Iulia. Romanians also consider several other events as preludes to the Great Union, such as the unification of Moldavia and Wallachia (also known as the Little Union, Mica Unire) in 1859 or the independence of the country and the annexation of Northern Dobruja in 1878, and also the occupation of Transylvania and Moldavia by the Prince of Wallachia, Michael the Brave, in 1600.
Today, the Great Union has an important meaning in Romania, and it is commemorated in the Great Union Day, the national day of the country, every 1 December. The centenary of the Great Union on 1 December 2018 was widely celebrated in Romania, with military parades at cities like Alba Iulia and Bucharest to which many people (up to 550,000, 100,000 of them in Alba Iulia alone), including the President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, attended. The centenary was also celebrated in Moldova, where more than 100 localities and 3 districts declared unification with Romania.
Crișana (Romanian: Crișana, Hungarian: Körösvidék, German: Kreischgebiet) is a geographical and historical region of Romania named after the Criș (Körös) River and its three tributaries: the Crișul Alb, Crișul Negru, and Crișul Repede. In Romania, the term is sometimes extended to include areas beyond the border, in Hungary; in this interpretation, the region is bounded to the east by the Apuseni Mountains, to the south by the Mureș River, to the north by the Someș River, and to the west by the Tisza River, the Romanian-Hungarian border cutting it in two. However, in Hungary, the area between the Tisza River and the Romanian border is usually known as Tiszántúl.
Suceava County (Romanian pronunciation: [suˈtʃe̯ava]) is a county (Romanian: județ) of Romania. Most of its territory lies in the southern part of the historical region of Bukovina, while the remainder forms part of Western Moldavia proper. The county seat and the most populous urban settlement of the county is Suceava.
Caraș-Severin (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈkaraʃ seveˈrin] ) is a county (județ) of Romania on the border with Serbia. The majority of its territory lies within the historical region of Banat, with a few northeastern villages considered part of Transylvania. The county seat is Reșița. The Caraș-Severin county is part of the Danube–Criș–Mureș–Tisa Euroregion.
The Romanian Plain (Romanian: Câmpia Română) is located in southern Romania and the easternmost tip of Serbia, where it is known as the Wallachian Plain (Serbian: Влашка низија, romanized: Vlaška nizija). It is part of the larger Eurasian Steppe. It is located in the historical region of Wallachia, and bordered by the Danube River in the east, south, and west and by the Getic Plateau in the north. Bucharest, the capital of Romania, is located in the central part of the Romanian Plain. It is contiguous to the south with the Danubian Plain (Bulgarian: Дунавска равнина, romanized: Dunavska ravnina) in Bulgaria. The Romanian Plain is also sometimes referred to as the Danubian Plain (Câmpia Dunării) in the Romanian language, though this designation is not specific, because the Danube flows through a number of plains along its course, including the Hungarian Plain (which is called the Danubian Plain in Slovakia and Serbia), as well as the Bavarian Lowland, which is also sometimes called the Danubian Plain.