Romania

People

Famous People

Romanians have played an important role in the arts, sciences and engineering.

• Traian Vuia built the first self-propelling heavier-than-air aircraft.
• Henri Coanda built the first aircraft powered by a jet engine.
• Victor Babes discovered more than 50 germs and a cure for a disease named after him, Babesia.
• Nicolae Paulescu, biologist,  discovered insulin.
• Emil Palade received the Nobel Prize for his contributions to cell biology.
• Stefan Odobleja, mathematician,  is considered to be the ideological father behind Cybernetics.

In the arts and culture, important figures were:

• George Enescu (music composer),
• Constantin Brâncusi (sculptor)
• Eugène Ionesco (playwright)
• Mircea Eliade (historian of religion and novelist)
• Emile Cioran (essayist).

Religion

• Most Romanians (86.8%) are Orthodox Christians.
• Romanians have no official date for adoption of Christianity.
• It appears that Christianization occurred gradually, starting during the Roman era and then continuing while the Romanian people and language emerged.
• Until the 17th century, the official language of the liturgy was Old Church Slavonic. Then, it gradually changed to Romanian.

Language

• Romanian (limba română) is the fifth of the Romance languages in terms of number of speakers.
• It is spoken as a first language by somewhere around 24 to 26 million people.
• Enjoys official status in Romania, Moldova and the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (Serbia and Montenegro).

Foods and Drinks