Timișoara in the context of "Romanian revolution"

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to the east, and the Black Sea to the southeast. It has a mainly continental climate, and an area of 238,397 km (92,046 sq mi) with a population of 19 million people. Romania is the twelfth-largest country in Europe and the sixth-most populous member state of the European Union. Europe's second-longest river, the Danube, empties into the Danube Delta in the southeast of the country. The Carpathian Mountains cross Romania from the north to the southwest and include Moldoveanu Peak, at an altitude of 2,544 m (8,346 ft). Bucharest is the country's capital, largest urban area, and financial centre. Other major urban areas include Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Iași, Constanța and Brașov.

Settlement in the territory of modern Romania began in the Lower Paleolithic, later becoming the Dacian Kingdom before Roman conquest and Romanisation. The modern Romanian state was formed in 1859 with the unification of Moldavia and Wallachia under Alexandru Ioan Cuza, becoming the Kingdom of Romania in 1881 under Carol I of Romania. Romania gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877, formalised by the Treaty of Berlin. After World War I, Transylvania, Banat, Bukovina, and Bessarabia joined the Old Kingdom, forming Greater Romania, which reached its largest territorial extent. In 1940, under Axis pressure, Romania lost territories to Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union. Following the 1944 Romanian coup d'état, Romania switched sides to join the Allies. After World War II, it regained Northern Transylvania through the Paris Peace Treaties. Under Soviet occupation, King Michael I was forced to abdicate, and Romania became a socialist republic and Warsaw Pact member. After the uniquely violent Romanian revolution in December 1989, Romania began a transition to liberal democracy and a market economy.

Christianity is the main religion in Romania, with Romanian Orthodoxy being its largest denomination.

The Orthodox Cathedral (Romanian: Catedrala Ortodoxă), also known as the Metropolitan Cathedral (Romanian: Catedrala Mitropolitană), is a Romanian Orthodox church in Timișoara. The cathedral is the seat of the Archbishopric of Timișoara and the Metropolis of Banat. It is dedicated to the Three Holy Hierarchs, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom.

Built on an area of 1,542 m, it has 11 towers, of which the central one has a height of 90.5 m, making it the second tallest church in Romania, after the People's Salvation Cathedral in Bucharest. The cathedral is listed in the National Register of Historic Monuments.

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.

The Timișoara metropolitan area is a metropolitan area in Timiș County, which includes Timișoara and 14 surrounding communes. It was legally established in 2008 as an inter-community development association and is a member of the Federation of Metropolitan Areas and Urban Agglomerations in Romania (FZMAUR).

The Timișoara Times is a Romanian daily newspaper published in Romanian and German, founded and published in Timișoara since 1771, as Temeswarer Nachrichten. It is one of the most popular local newspapers from Romania, read by hundreds of thousands people annually. The Timișoara Times is owned by Times Network Romania.

The trial and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were held on 25 December 1989 in Târgoviște, Romania. The trial was conducted by an Extraordinary Military Tribunal, a drumhead court-martial created at the request of a newly formed group called the National Salvation Front. Its outcome was predetermined, and it resulted in guilty verdicts and death sentences for former Romanian President and General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party Nicolae Ceaușescu, and his wife, Elena Ceaușescu. The main charge was genocide. Romanian state television announced that Nicolae Ceaușescu had been responsible for the deaths of 60,000 people; the announcement did not make clear whether this was the number killed during the Romanian revolution in Timișoara or throughout the 24 years of Ceaușescu's rule.

Nevertheless, the charges did not affect the trial. General Victor Stănculescu had brought with him a specially selected team of paratroopers, handpicked earlier in the morning to act as a firing squad. Before the legal proceedings began, Stănculescu had already selected the spot where the execution would take place: along one side of the wall in the barracks' square.