Wine was first introduced 3,000 years ago in Dacia (present-day Romania) by the Greeks, who arrived from the Black Sea. Due to the hot dry summers, the location proved to be successful and the grape vineyards thrived. Since the medieval times, wine has been the traditional alcoholic beverage of the Romanians.

Later on, during the medieval ages, Saxons emigrated to Romania, bringing along with them different variations of Germanic grape vines. However, by the 1800s, most of these grape vines were replaced by grapes from Western Europe. In the 1880s, phylloxera (a pale yellow sap-sucking insect that attacks the roots of vines) arrived in Romania from North America. In 2003, Romania was the twelfth largest wine producing country in the world.

România is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, north of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory. Romania shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova to the northeast, and Bulgaria to the south.

Romania emerged as principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia united under prince Alexandru John Cuza in 1859 and as the Kingdom of Romania under the Hohenzollern monarchy, it gained recognition of independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1878. Romanian Independence Day is May 9th 1877. In 1918, at the end of the World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the Kingdom of Romania. At the end of World War II, parts of its territories (roughly the present day Republic of Moldova and the southern half of Odessa oblast (today in Ukraine) were occupied by the Soviet Union and Romania became a socialist republic, member of the Warsaw Pact.

With the fall of the Iron Curtain and the 1989 Revolution, Romania started a series of political and economic reforms. After a decade of post-revolution economic problems, Romania made economic reforms such as low flat tax rates in 2005 and joined the European Union on January 1, 2007. Romania is now an upper-middle income country with high human development, although within the European Union, Romania's income level remains one of the lowest. Romania has the 9th largest territory and the 7th largest population (with 21.5 million people) among the European Union member states. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest (Romanian: Bucureşti), the 6th largest city in the EU with 1.9 million people. In 2007 the city of Sibiu was chosen as a European Capital of Culture. Romania also joined NATO on March 29, 2004, and is also a member of the Latin Union, of the Francophonie, of the OSCE and of the United Nations, as well as an associate member of the CPLP. Romania is a semi-presidential unitary state.

Culture
Romania has a unique culture, which is the product of its geography and of its distinct historical evolution. Like Romanians themselves, it is fundamentally defined as the meeting point of three regions: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, but cannot be truly included in any of them. The Romanian identity formed on a substratum of mixed Roman and quite possibly Dacian elements, with many other influences.

During late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the major influences came from the Slavic peoples who migrated and settled in near Romania, from medieval Greeks, and the Byzantine Empire, from a long domination by the Ottoman Empire, from the Hungarians, and from the Germans living in Transylvania. Modern Romanian culture emerged and developed over roughly the last 250 years under a strong influence from Western culture, particularly French, and German culture.

Monuments
The UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites includes Romanian sites such as the Saxon villages with fortified churches in Transylvania, the Painted churches of northern Moldavia with their fine exterior and interior frescoes, the Wooden Churches of Maramures unique examples that combine Gothic style with traditional timber construction, the Monastery of Horezu, the citadel of Sighişoara, and the Dacian Fortresses of the Orăştie Mountains.

Romania's contribution to the World Heritage List stands out because it consists of some groups of monuments scattered around the country, rather than one or two special landmarks. Also, in 2007, the city of Sibiu famous for its Brukenthal National Museum is the European Capital of Culture alongside the city of Luxembourg.

Text: wikipedia.org