Transylvania

Inspired by the legend of Dracula, the fictional vampire from Bram Stoker's horror story, organisers of the Untold music festival in Transylvania have launched a campaign to encourage blood donation in Romania.

Music Festival Encourages People to Donate Blood|Photo by Untold Festival 

The former home of the great warrior king Matthias Corvinus in Hunedoara in southern Transylvania is hosting one of the largest open-air opera festivals in Europe.

The heir to the British throne on Tuesday launched the Romanian branch of his "Prince of Wales's Charitable Foundation", aiming to support agriculture, responsible enterprise and to better protect the patrimony and the environment in the Balkan country.

The Transylvania International Film Festival TIFF offers concerts, debates with special guests and thematic films in several sections - HBO Day, EcoTIFF, Hungarian Day, plus '25 Years After', a new programme dedicated to the major change in 1989.

After the revolution in 1989, most Transylvanian Saxons left for Germany - and some of those who stayed are plagued by a feeling that they made the wrong decision.

A project for the stereoscopic reconstruction of the capital city of ancient Roman Dacia Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa using state-of-the-art devices is currently being conducted by Romanian specialists of the National Museum of Transylvanian History (MNIT) of Cluj-Napoca assisted by a team of the National Research Centre of Rome.

Photo credit (c): SORIN BLADA / AGERPRES FILES

Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) chairman Kelemen Hunor in Miercurea Ciuc on Friday said that the Union cannot agree with the statement that "Romania is the EU's Islamic State" and that the problems the Hungarian community has must be solved in Romania.

Photo credit: (c) Alex MICSIK / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The grandson of Romania's former King, Prince Nicolae, plans to cross the whole of his grandfather's former domain by bike in order to raise funds for charity.

The Prince will be two-wheeling it from Sighetu Marmatiei in the north of Transylvania to the Black Sea port of Constanta in the southeast, covering over 1,000 km only in 11 days, between April 23 and May 3.

"In the historic Land of Maramures, the hills are alive with ways long forgotten elsewhere in Europe," says the latest issue of US-based travel magazine National Geographic Traveler.

Szilagyi Zsolt, running for president of Romania in Sunday's polls under the banner of the Hungarian People's Party of Transylvania (PPMT), said after exercising his voting right in Oradea (north-western Romania) that he had voted "for turning Romania Transylvania-like".