20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

Romanian schools in the Balkan Peninsuladuring the 20 th centuryAdina Berciu-DrăghicescuFaculty of Letters,University of Bucharest – BucharestThe Balkan Peninsula reunites peoples of different descents, languagesand religions, forming an extraordinary ethnical and linguistic variety.This cohabitation, which is, in itself, quite unique, took place ongeographical grounds that favored the movement of the people and thecultural information on both sides of the mountain ranges that crossed it, aswell as on both sides of the Danube.To the north it is wide-opened to Central Europe; through Dobrogeaarea and the Black Sea it is opened towards southern Russia; Adriatic Sealinks it to Italy; the islands of the Aegean Sea connects it to Asia Minor 1 .Thus over the Balkan Peninsula civilizations met in three areas: theEastern, Western and Northern parts. They met and were mixed on its soilby influencing further on the Romanian civilization from the Carpathian-Danubian-Pontic and South-Eastern Europe areas.The relief of the Balkan Peninsula is predominantly mountainous,sometimes favoring the isolation of ethnic groups. It can be groupedinto three major areas: first is that of the Dinaric Alps, the second is theRhodope massif and the last one is the mountain region of Albania, Greeceand Serbia 2 . Mountains are covered with forests, but in many places theylack vegetation, which made human settlements remain enough isolated,but they were not an obstacle for Romanian movement of population andideas... The region is crossed in the north by a very complex river systemconsisting of: the Danube and its tributaries: Drava, Sava, Morava and1Victor Papacostea 1983, Romanian and Balcanic Civilization, Bucharest, 17.2Marin Popescu Spineni 1941, Romanians from Balkans, Bucharest, 80.