Childrens Illustrated Encyclopedia

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486

A Romanian gypsy

makes a living by

selling berries.

roses

Vast fields of roses are

grown in Bulgaria. Petals

are picked at dawn to produce

attar, the essential oil of roses.

TransylVania

The romanian region of Transylvania is a

high plateau, surrounded by the Carpathian

Mountains. To the east and south the

mountains form an impassable barrier.

The region, a place of rugged scenery and

dramatic castles, has had a colorful history,

passing from Hungarian, to ottoman

Turkish, to Habsburg (austrian) rule. among

its tyrannical rulers was the 15th-century

prince, Vlad the impaler, notorious for his

cruelty. When the author Bram stoker wrote

Dracula in 1897, he borrowed from slavic

and Hungarian legends. His blood-sucking

vampire is based on Vlad the impaler.

rural MoldoVa

once a part of romania, Moldova became a

soviet state in 1940. in 1991, with the breakup of

the soviet union, Moldova became independent.

This small country is dominated by fertile rolling

steppes. Most of the population works in agriculture.

Warm summers and even rainfall provide ideal conditions

for growing vegetables, fruit, and grapes, and Moldova is

internationally famous for its wines. although the soviets

mechanized state-owned farms, there are now many small-scale

farmers, who cultivate their land using traditional methods.

THe noBle danuBe riVer cuts central

southeast europe in half, providing fertile

farmland along its lower course, in the heart

of the region. This area of flatland, called the

danubian Plain, is surrounded by mighty

mountain systems, including the

Carpathians to the north and the Balkans

and rhodope mountains in the south.

Following World War ii, the countries of

central southeast europe were governed

for more than 50 years by strict Communist

regimes, until the collapse of the soviet

union in the early 1990s. serbia was once

part of federal yugoslavia. The collapse of the

federation led to civil war in 1991, after which five

separate states emerged. Kosovo, an area in

southern serbia inhabited by Muslim

albanian-speakers, declared itself

an independent country in 2008.

southeast europe

lying to the south of the alps, the

west of the region is mountainous,

with deep wooded valleys. The

rocky coast of the adriatic sea

lies to the southeast of the region.

To the east lie the flat plains of

the danube, which drains into the

Black sea, and rolling steppelands.

gyPsies

romania has the largest gypsy

(or romany) population in

europe. gypsies, who have a distinct

language and culture, are thought to

have originated in india and moved

to europe via the Middle east.

Traditionally, they wandered from

place to place, selling goods, repairing

metal utensils, and dealing in horses

and livestock. They have suffered many

centuries of persecution from the countries

in which they settled, where

some people found it difficult

to understand their different

customs and ways of life.

Bulgarian ToBaCCo

Bulgaria has fertile soils and a mild climate,

and a wide range of crops is grown there,

including cereals, sunflower seeds, grapes,

and tomatoes. High-quality red wine, made

from grapes grown on the danubian Plain,

is exported. in the south of the country,

Turkish-style tobacco is grown; it is

processed in factories around the town of

Plovdiv. Here, women can be seen stringing

the harvested tobacco leaves together. They

are then left to cure in the heat of the sun

before being graded by size and color.

central

Find out more

Communism

dance

europe

Flowers and herbs

Mountains

US_486_Cen_SE_Europe_1.indd 486 09/02/16 5:28 pm