Transylvania-ethnic groups
Several big ethic groups populate Transylvania: Hungarians, Saxons, Romanians and Roma, who have come to settle there in different periods of time. According to the modern moral values in the world, considering the right of living, it’s not important which nation has been the first to settle in Romania. They have lived side by side with each other, sometimes in friendship, sometimes in antagonism.
After Transylvania separated from Hungary in year 1918, in some areas the westerns European image of the country started to change. In many parts gigantic Byzantine- orthodox monasteries were built, although there were not many orthodox people living there, so they seemed strange and somehow out of place. By now they have come to be a symbol of Romanian nationalism. Nowhere else in Europe, the Greek-orthodox church related to the communist rulers the way it did in Romania. A tragic, unchristian role played some of the members of the orthodox clergy when it came to the persecution of minorities and it’s officially acquainted that they belonged to the Securitate. Chaplains and priests of other churches mostly offered passive, but sometimes even active resistance. Many of them had to suffer martyrdoms. Though, the resistance of the non-orthodox churches played a considerable role within the overthrow of Ceausescu in year 1989.
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