Romania

The Danube Delta, most of which lies in Romania, is Europe’s second-largest river delta and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991.

Bucharest has one of the largest public transport networks in Europe.

Transylvania served as a setting for two novels: Jules Verne’s The Castle of the Carpathians (1892) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897).

In 1884, Timisoara became the first city in mainland Europe to introduce electric street lighting.

The Black Church in Brasov is the largest religious building in Romania and is regarded as the largest hall church east of Vienna.

Peles Castle in Sinaia was fitted with an electrical network and its own generator in 1884, making it an early example of electrified royal architecture in Europe.

The Scarisoara Ice Cave in the Apuseni (Bihor) Mountains contains Europe’s second-largest underground glacier.

In 1921, Romanian physiologist Nicolae Paulescu published research on a pancreatic extract he named “pancreine,” a precursor of insulin.

The church of the Sapanta-Peri Monastery in Maramures is the tallest wooden church in the world, at 78 m.

The rock sculpture of the Dacian king Decebalus, carved into the bank of the Danube River near Orsova between 1994 and 2004, is the tallest rock relief in Europe.

On 1 July 2005, Romania redenominated its currency at a rate of 10,000 old lei to 1 new leu. The National Bank of Romania began issuing polymer banknotes in 1999, and all banknotes have been polymer since 2005.

Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci received the first perfect score of 10 in Olympic gymnastics history, on the uneven bars at the 1976 Montreal Games, and went on to earn seven perfect scores at those Games.