TARA ROMÂNEASCĂ / WALLACHIA

The term Wallachia is known in Germany. However, not as the Romanian territory between the Southern Carpathians and the Danube, which is called in this way by foreign travellers and historians since the Middle Ages, but as a synonym for a foreign region where someone got lost, a place full of desolation, boredom and isolation from the world.

 

Less well known is in Germany the big city that lies in Wallachia: the Romanian capital Bucharest. Many Romanians like to see it as a “Paris of the East”, but outside the country’s borders this fact is hardly noted by anyone. Instead, for phonetic reasons, Bucharest is often mistaken with the Hungarian capital Budapest, and moreover, the title “Little Paris” is also claimed by the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

 

The pulse of the daily politics beats in Romania particularly in the government buildings and on the streets of the capital. The biggest city, with two million inhabitants, is also the administrative centre, as well as the cultural and economic centre of an area that the locals refer to as the most Romanian region of their country: Wallachia, in Romanian “Tara Românească”, means “the Romanian Land”.

 

Culturally unique sites, like the Horezu Monastery, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the sculptures of the famous Constantin Brancusi in Târgu Jiu, can be found in Wallachia, along with scenic highlights, such as the mighty Southern Carpathians and the Bucegi National Park in the north. The capital attracts with the vibrant vitality of a European metropolis.