Thousands of people gathered in Union Square in Iasi, eastern Romania, to celebrate the Unification of the Romanian Principalities.
In 1859, the unification of the Romanian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia into a single national state marked the first step towards the merging of all provinces where Romanians were the majority population.
Also known as "Little Union", the unification of the two principalities was achieved under the reign of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the initiator of reforms that laid the foundations of modern Romania.
