Mircea Eliade was a famous Romanian historian of religions, fiction writer, philosopher and professor at the University of Chicago. His theory of the eternal return has become one of the most influential contributions to religious studies.

Angela Gheorghiu is a Romanian opera singer and one of the most famous contemporary sopranos. Often compared to Maria Callas, she is known for her powerful and flexible voice, stage presence and the way she brings to life very different opera characters.

The renowned Romanian musician George Enescu was equally remarkable as a violinist, composer, conductor, pianist and violin teacher. He is best known for bringing the sound of the Romanian traditional folk songs into classical music.

Romanian language lesson number nine - learn words you could use in a trip to the mountains

Ilie Nastase was the first famous Romanian tennis player. His colorful personality and the spectacular playing style earned him nicknames like "Nasty", or “Bucharest Buffoon”. In 1973, he made sports history when he was ranked as the world’s No.1 player in professional tennis.

15 years ago, Kingsley Nwabia chose art - or, as he likes to say, was chosen by art. More than 200 paintings and a book after, he finds himself in Romania, where he settled in 2005. One hot summer afternoon, Romania Insider has talked to Kingsley- a natural born story teller too- in his Bucharest apartment, surrounded by an ad-hoc exhibition of his paintings.

Orthodox and catholic churches celebrate St. Mary today (in Romania, it is called Sfanta Maria). This is the name day of around 2 million Romanians, according to statistics. Besides Maria, other derivatives for the name are Marin, Marian, Marina, Marilena.

Romanians have long ago started to play songs with English lyrics- and sometimes even went for more exotic languages: Portuguese, Brasilian. The sound is sometimes so good that you can't tell from a first audition whether it is a Romanian or a foreign song. There are several Romanian-born songs which became top of the list this summer on radio shows and in clubs. Here are the first three of them.

he Muddy Volcanoes in Buzau county are not the volcanoes you would expect. They're not the big, real volcanoes that scare off people and clog the European airspace with volcanic ash. Not by far. But they're a pretty amazing thing, hidden somewhere in the Buzau mountains.

Eugen Ionescu is a famous Romanian playwright who has developed a wide variety of surrealistic techniques in dramatics. His works initially labeled as avant-garde, helped him become one of the main playwrights of what is known as the Theater of the Absurd.

Mircea Eliade was a famous Romanian historian of religions, fiction writer, philosopher and professor at the University of Chicago. His theory of the eternal return has become one of the most influential contributions to religious studies.

Angela Gheorghiu is a Romanian opera singer and one of the most famous contemporary sopranos. Often compared to Maria Callas, she is known for her powerful and flexible voice, stage presence and the way she brings to life very different opera characters.

The renowned Romanian musician George Enescu was equally remarkable as a violinist, composer, conductor, pianist and violin teacher. He is best known for bringing the sound of the Romanian traditional folk songs into classical music.

Romanian language lesson number nine - learn words you could use in a trip to the mountains

Ilie Nastase was the first famous Romanian tennis player. His colorful personality and the spectacular playing style earned him nicknames like "Nasty", or “Bucharest Buffoon”. In 1973, he made sports history when he was ranked as the world’s No.1 player in professional tennis.

15 years ago, Kingsley Nwabia chose art - or, as he likes to say, was chosen by art. More than 200 paintings and a book after, he finds himself in Romania, where he settled in 2005. One hot summer afternoon, Romania Insider has talked to Kingsley- a natural born story teller too- in his Bucharest apartment, surrounded by an ad-hoc exhibition of his paintings.

Orthodox and catholic churches celebrate St. Mary today (in Romania, it is called Sfanta Maria). This is the name day of around 2 million Romanians, according to statistics. Besides Maria, other derivatives for the name are Marin, Marian, Marina, Marilena.

Romanians have long ago started to play songs with English lyrics- and sometimes even went for more exotic languages: Portuguese, Brasilian. The sound is sometimes so good that you can't tell from a first audition whether it is a Romanian or a foreign song. There are several Romanian-born songs which became top of the list this summer on radio shows and in clubs. Here are the first three of them.

he Muddy Volcanoes in Buzau county are not the volcanoes you would expect. They're not the big, real volcanoes that scare off people and clog the European airspace with volcanic ash. Not by far. But they're a pretty amazing thing, hidden somewhere in the Buzau mountains.

Eugen Ionescu is a famous Romanian playwright who has developed a wide variety of surrealistic techniques in dramatics. His works initially labeled as avant-garde, helped him become one of the main playwrights of what is known as the Theater of the Absurd.