County Tulcea

In this Guide:  This County Tulcea Guide covers major towns and attractions in the county, including things to do, major sights to see, as well as lodging and tour agents.

One of the most diverse counties in Romania, County Tulcea has arid mountains near Măcin, steppe country, wineries, highland forests, inland lakes and the massive Danube Delta wetlands. See too our City of Tulcea Guide for great sights.  Click anywhere on the map for more great Rest Romania Guides for Tulcea! Image: © REST ROMÂNIA

County Tulcea In Dobrogea

The Many Lands of Tulcea

County Tulcea has the fewest people per square kilometre of any county in Romania, largely due to the majestic seemingly endless expanse of the Danube Delta, Europe's newest land. 

County Tulcea features the main city of Tulcea on the Danube, along with four smaller towns:   Babadag, Isaccea, Măcin and Sulina, along with 46 communes and almost countless villages in communes in the Danube Delta, the Delta Margins, and the Dobrogean Highlands.
 

 Romania's Most Varied County

One of the first things you realise once travelling around County Tulcea is that it's very hard to categorise.  

Whilst the Danube Delta is an easily identifiable aspect, the inner Dobrogean Highlands and the "other" river country along the Danube inland cannot be ignored.   You can even get a taste of the mountains in the big-enough Măcin hills region not far from the city of Tulcea.

 The Delta Towns

Sulina:  The Last Town on the Danube

The End of Europe and the last town on the Danube, Sulina offers a bit of civilisation in the middle of the Danube Delta lands.  Whilst we recommend that you pick up supplies in Tulcea first (see our Danube Delta Guide for more info), there are some stores at Sulina and in the larger towns like Murighiol, Sfântu Gheorghe and others. 

Crişan on the Sulina Arm of the Delta is a curious little town with an Ecology centre, several hotels and a single main road which extends south from the main river port area towards the forested haşmac island at Caraorman. 

Whilst the Chilia and Periprava areas on the northern Chilia Arm do get some tourist traffic, mostly for the Letea forest island areas and the rich biodiversity of the region. 

And to south along the St. George (Sfântu Gheorghe) Arm of the Danube River, you pass the resort of Uzlina across from Murighiol (half-way down the delta and yet still served by road), and then out to the community of St. George on the Black Sea, gateway to deserted beaches, Lippovan culture and plenty of back-canals with stunning wildlife, birds and inspirational sunrises!

The City of Tulcea

 Tulcea, Romania's Crescent City!

Tulcea really does enjoy it's own distinct look and flavour, lazily draped along a wide bend in the Tulcea arm of the Danube River, the first southern split of the River as it fans out to form it's famous delta.

If you can afford to spend a morning or afternoon in Tulcea, or even a few nights, Tulcea has enough great little streets, plazas and interesting museums and displays to keep your interest.  With most of the major attractions within two blocks of each other, it's not a problem to run through the most popular ones in an easy morning or afternoon.

 Walking Around Downtown

From the Plaza of the Republic (Piaţa Republicii) you are within blocks of the various museums, galleries and river and delta-related attractions that give Tulcea it's riparian zeal.

From the Saint Nicholas Cathedral to the Azizia Mosque and up to the Independence Monument, the long and rich history of Tulcea can be viewed at the Tulcea History and Archaeology Museum, again near the main Republican Plaza.

 Art in the River City

the Tulcea Museum of Art is sited in a beautiful spot on the cliffs overlooking the Danube with fine collections of art and is worth a visit just to view the river if not the great art inside!

Full of engravings and contemporary sculpture, you'll also find an exceptional (and surprising given this is, after all, just Tulcea) collection of interbellum avant garde, Surrealist, Expressionist and Impressionist artwork, including pieces by Romanians Gheorghe Petrascu, Nicolae Toniţa, Theodor Pallady, Nicolae Grigorescu, Frederic Storck, Ion Jalea, Oscar Han, and Victor Brauner, arguably one of the most important collections in the country in it's number of top artists.

Also worth a visit are the Folk Art Museum of Northern Dobrogea, with an ethnographic collection which displays over 6,400 pieces of local interest including traditional farm implements for rearing animals, for fishing, brass objects and the like.

 The Dobrogean Village Museum

If there is one type of ethnographic display which is generally well done in Romania, it is the village museum, displaying and preserving traditional peasant ways, wares and handicraft.

The Dobrogean Village Museum of Enisala (a community about 45 minutes south of Tulcea past the airport) features peasant households conserved as they were found, highlighting the traditions and daily ways of life of the Northern Dobrogean people of the land, including pens for the animals, traditional sheds, a peasant kitchen with the traditional summer oven, granary and water well.

#4, 9 Mai Street next to the Raiffeisen Bank. +40 (204) 516 204, Open daily except Mondays from 8am to 4pm

 Europe's Riparian Riches

The Delta hosts over 1,200 varieties of plants, 300 species of birds as well as 45 freshwater fish species in its numerous lakes and marshes.

The Danube Delta has been entered onto the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites (1991) and Biosphere reserves. Around 2,733 km˛ of it are strictly protected areas.

This is the place where millions of birds from different places of Earth (European, Asian, African, Mediterranean) come to rest and eat during the migration seasons. Many others hatch here.

The Wildlife Paradise of the Delta

The Danube Delta, "one of the last sanctuaries of nature" is often called the wild paradise. In an area with a surface of 4,200 sq. km, the presence of 3,400 species of the aquatic fauna has been recorded so far, amounting to 98 percent of the European species.

Out of the 280 bird species recorded in the Danube Delta, 177 nest here, some which protected by law: White Pelican, Dalmatian Pelican, Great White Egret, Little Egret, Mute Swan, Red Breasted Goose, Ferruginous Duck, Avocet and many other species.

Among the mammals of delta’s ecosystem feature otter, mink, little ermine, wild boar, wild cat, the black-bellied fox, hare, the raccoon dog, nutria, muskrats, and rarely, the grey wolf.

The little plauri, the floating islands of the Delta shelter rich fauna. As a result of efforts by Jacques Cousteau among others, and with UNESCO support, the importance of the Danube Delta as a "wild area" has been recognized in its consecration as a Biosphere Reservation.

The commune of Chilia Veche is draped along the southern bank of the 109km long Chilia Arm of the Danube Delta, which forms the border between Ukraine and Romania.

 The branch of the Danube running through Chilia is actually the strongest, with 60% of the river flow running through the Chilia Arm.  Several major secondary arms branch out from the Chilia Arm, including the Tătaru Stambulul Vechi and Musura

Bordered to the north by the river, the 2,800 residents of Chilia Veche are bordered by the communes of Pardin, Crişan and Maliuc, and C.A. Rosetti to the west, south and east respectively. 

Other villages in the region include Tatanir, Cişliţa and Ostrovu Tataru.  Chilia Veche does benefit from the only road which makes it that far into the Delta (66km).   All other communities are served only by water. 

 Old New Chilia and New Old Chilia

The Greek colony of Achilea was founded here on the river ait in 334 BC, giving Chilia it's modern-day name, after Achilles, hero of the Trojan wars.  The outpost was fortified by Alexander the Great soon afterwards, and was rediscovered by the Byzantine Empire, , it was given its name after the word for "granaries" recorded earliest in 1241 in the works of Persian chronicler Rashid al-Din. 

New Chilia is on the other side of the river, complete with castle built by the Genovese in league with the Byzantine empire.  

It was taken by the Moldovans under Radu III in 1465, and later occupied by the Moldovan prince Stephen the Great in 1476.   His bid to counteract the Ottoman Empire didn't really do much, as rule from Istanbul remained in Dobrogea until the Romanians and Russians allied to invade the province one last time in 1878. 

Chilia once held a strategic value to the umpteen invading forces sweeping back and forth through Dobrogea, being only four kilometres from the coast when Mircea the Old came through in the early 1400s.  Now however, the rich waters of the Danube have extended the delta another making Chilia not particularly useful for sea coast access.
 

 Touring the Chilia Arm

Passenger tours run at fixed times (which change according to season) through the Chilia Veche area of the Danube Delta include the #8 route from Tulcea through Mila 36, Şireasa, Sontea, Razoiniţa, Ştipoc, and Pardina to get to Chilia Veche

Once you have arrived in Chilia, you can also enjoy the Chilia loop tour (#9) going along the river arm out to the Cernovca secondary arm, down along the Sulimanca canal, to the Merhei lakes, along lakes Matiţa and Babina, back up the Rădăcinoaşele and Pardina canals to end up back in Chilia Veche.  You can also take the main service down river to Periprava. 

Both the Chilia arm, and the southern Saint Gheorghe arm is marked using kilometres, where as the international waterway of the central Sulina arm is marked in nautical miles (1.85 km or 1.15 miles).

The numbering system for both measuring systems starts with zero on the sea coast, and end when converging with another main branch, or in the case of the Sulina arm, the system extends inland all the way to Brăila south of Galaţi.

With the highest flow of water of all of the arms, cruising ships make the up-river trip in about 6 and half hours, and about an hour shorter going down-river, depending on craft type, load and time of year.

  Periprava

The little village of Periprava almost seems like it has more people than the 320 inhabitants on record, mostly due to it's compactness.  

Not having much of a tourist structure, Periprava's main claim to fame is being the end of the line for the boat services, stopping here just 20km from the coast.

For birdwatchers, just getting to Periprava is half the fun, with one of the richest areas for birding between Chilia and Periprava thanks to superb protected nesting habitat for pygmy cormorant, storks, geese and egrets at Lake Roşca.  Night fishing is great around here and you can hear the giant carp greedily swallowing frogs and even cormorant chicks.

Just south of Periprava is the forested haşmac island of Letea, a remnant steppic forest supporting the largest mammals found in the delta, from boar to foxes, otters, the bizam, racoon dogs and more.  

Read more about birds, mammals and birds in the Danube Delta here

Romania's first Free Port (no customs were paid) at the mouth of the Sulina branch of the Danube, the town is the easternmost point of Romania.   Its name is probably derived from Slavic word for "salt", sol with suffix -ina.

Once a prosperous port and important shipyard, from 1856 to 1937 the seat of the Danube Commission, Sulina has become a peaceful and remote location.

The population at Sulina has been surprisingly static, with 5,600 in 1900 and about 5,200 in 2000.   It has a high population of Lipovani people, who are ethnically more closely related to their relatives to the north in the Ukraine. 

Making up 11% of the Sulina township, the Lipoveni influence the 6% rate of Russian as a first language in the town, and the 5% rate of "Old Believer" religion there.  The Old Believers, adherents to a pre-schism form of Russian Orthodoxy, had fled Russia to Tulcea to escape persecution.   Today, they continue the liturgical practices of the Russian Orthodox Church common prior to reforms in the 1660s introduced by Patriarch Nikon.

 The Danube European Commission Lighthouse

The Danube European Commission Lighthouse was built in 1869 -1870. The building, 17,34m height, in the shape of a truncated cone, is made of bricks, the binding material is lime mortar and it is plastered up outside and inside.

The access to the top is ensured by a winding metallic staircase anchored into the masonry. The ground floor has a central hall and two big rooms which are exhibitions' spaces. One of them is hosting the work chamber of Eugeniu P. Botez which pen name is Jean Bart. He was commissary of Sulina harbor and in the First World War he was also military commander. The other room is dedicated to the Danube European Commission.

 The Maritime Cemetery

Another witness of the old times is The maritime cemetery, founded in 1864. It is the place where, especially the foreign citizens found their eternal rest.

Most of them were employees of the Danube's European Commission, but also sailors with the most diverse nationalities were buried here. Depending on the main religious faiths of those buried, the cemetery is delimitated in many compartments: the Christian cemetery (the cemetery of the Occidental European churches, the orthodox cemetery, and the old rite orthodox cemetery), the Moslem cemetery, the Jewish cemetery.

 Other Sulina Activities

Worth having a look in Sulina are the vestiges of Sulina's glory days as a truly international free port town.

	The former building of the Administrative Palace (presently the Lower Danube River Administration headquarters),
	The Orthodox Cathedral of St. Nicholas,
	The Greek church and the Anglican church,
	The Water Works and Power Station, the house where the novelist Jean Bart lived (today "Jean Bart" pension),
	The Old Camberi Hotel
	The library
	The workshops of the Danube's European Commission

Sulina History

 Turkish Outpost Town

By 950, Sulina was mentioned in Russian naval annals, remarking that "After going through the seven Nipper's cataracts, they can pass in the Danube Delta through Salinas."  

Italian maps in the 1300s showed the town as Selinas or Solina, and the town was fortified by the Turks after their occupation of Chillia in the late 1400s. 

Sulina was chosen as the natural headquarters for the local governor and military outpost to guard against the marauding Cossacks. The Turko-Russian wars did not bode well for Sulina and the constant skirmishing made the region unstable and the incidence of piracy in the region increased. By the mid 1800s, many of the 4000 or so inhabitants lived in reed huts and lean-tos from the carved trunks of trees, a motley mix from all over the Black Sea and Mediterranean. 

 The British Burn Sulina

The Pirates of the Danube Delta were a fierce lot, forever focused with controlling the river trade and the bounties they took from it. 

In the mid 1850s, they shot the son of Admiral Parker of the Royal Navy during his visit on the way to the Crimean battlefront.  The English responded by bombing Sulina to ashes. 

 The Danube European Commission

After the Crimean War in 1856, the Paris Peace Congress of  created the European Commission of the Danube to protect Danube River trade, and to tax activities as well. 

The Danube's European Commission activated in Sulina between 1856 and 1937 and determined the locality's transformation into an important town with a flourishing economy, based on commerce and navigation. Despite the fact that the Sulina arm of the river suffered more from silt build-up, it was nonetheless the shortest route. 

Engineer Charles Hartley planned out the Sulina channel with dredging and dykes assuring river traffic could proceed between the sea and the deeper river channels inland.  As a free port, cargo transiting Sulina paid no duties, and the warehousing trade boomed instantly. 

 The Cosmopolitan Port Town

Electricity and telegraph service followed in the 1920s, and the town became a cultural and international hub with representatives in contact with each other from most European nations. 

Social life was improved by the opening of a 300 seat theatre and a casino with ballroom and meeting halls for the diplomats (and others) to ply their trades.

Two Romanian schools, two Greek, one Jewish and a French academy for young ladies kept the youth current with European educations standards, and two greek churches, three Lipovan churches, two German churches (one protestant and one Catholic), an Anglican one, a Jewish temple and two mosques were functioning.

 Romanian Sulina

The Great War and the Depression were unkind to Sulina, and Romania moved in to take control of Sulina in 1937 when the Danube European Commission ceased.  International representatives left, and the town's pulse slowed considerably.

The second World War saw Sulina bombed and normal life was unsustainable with thousands fleeing the town which was now effectively on the front between Soviet, Nazi and Allied forces.  The Soviets won, and Sulina's previous hey-days as a free port and cosmopolitan centre were crushed forever.

 Sulina Today

In Romania's new republic, the Lower Danube River Administration takes the place of the old European Commission of the Danube, and trade still booms in this sleepy port town. 

The beaches and the natural extravagance of the surrounding Danube Delta marshes, reed beds, tributaries and little towns are the bread and butter of the town now.  About 3 out of 5 residents in Sulina work regularly, the rest preferring to fish and enjoy the lazy rhythm, blessed with birdlife and a milder climate than the rest of Romania in their own little corner of the world where the sun rises on the European Union. 

 Back into the Delta

In addition to being a major centre, Sulina also can make a reasonable base of operations if you want to do a few trips back into the Delta.

Localities Along the Sulina Arm: Sulina -  Crişan -  Gorgova -  Caraorman

Shining Blue Eyes The blue eFAST of this Lipovan woman tell the tale of over a century of culture in the Danbube Delta

Photo: Webshots

Accessible either by going back up the Sulina Arm towards Crişan, or by coastal boat up to the little village of Cardon (from where tracks lead to the villages), these unique Danube Delta communities congregate just south of the amazing forest island of Letea between the remnant steppe forests and the sea.

C.A. Rosetti features the Delta's last windmill, and is home to, of all things, a fair few heads of cattle tended by transplants from Wallachian families mostly.  

Of Lippovans and Letea

Letea itself is a sweet little village and some of the villagers will take in tourists -- the eco-tourist can indeed be found here in their native habitat,  complete with binoculars, notepads, digital cameras and a slightly overloaded backpack.   If you're not feeling particularly adventurous, do make reservations ahead of time with the Delta Danube Biosphere Reserve office in Tulcea before you head out inot the delta. 

The local Lippovan families love, love and fish as they have for centuries here, their blue eyes matching the delta skies rather beautifully.

  Check out the ranger station and the birdwatching platform for some super views.    Unfortunately, the Letea forest is pretty much off-limits.  Yes, you can possibly pay a fisherman for a forbidden foray into this area, but we recommend that you just be smart and get over to the Lippovan village of Sfistovca, where the forest is just as fun and wonderful, and can truly make some fabulous photos amongst the liana vines and towering oaks. 

If you're lucky, you'll catch a few critters in one of the sandy meadows surrounded by the forest!    Check out more about these forested island areas in our special guide to the Danube Delta flora and fauna.

 Along the Main Sulina Arm

Maliuc

is accessed by water along the central-western part of the Danube Delta on the Sulina Arm of the river.  

The port is and important departure point for sports fishing and hunting tours in particular into the Danube Delta.  With a population of over 10,000 townsfolk, it's larger than most delta communities and offers touring destinations for both nature lovers and fisherman to the beautiful surrounding lakes of Fortuna, Gorgova, Gârla Păpădia, Gârla Şontea, as well as the Litcov Canal. 

Crişan and Mila 13

It was a fairly big deal with Romania's first King, Carol I inaugurated the newly straightened canal in 1894, after years of dredging, installation of groins and construction delays.  The King unveiled the monument, still viewable today, celebrating the opening of an important waterway for Europe. 

Today this straightened section of the Sulina Arm of the Danube Delta still sees up to 7500 tonne vessels plying it's waters, as well as the daily hydrofoil services making Sulina now just under two hours from Tulcea.

Charming Crişan Guesthouse Packed with style and perfectly located, the B&Bs and Pensions in Crişan keep you in touch with the culture and beauty of the Danube Delta!

Photo:  webshots

How the Other Half Lives In fairly stark contrast, the comfortable new tourist accommodation at Crişan over looks a traditional back yard

Photo:  webshots

Basing Yourself at Crişan

As you can see from our Lodging Listings below that Crişan has a big appeal to travellers to the Danube Delta, due to the high number of guesthouses, B&Bs and even hotels in the main town.  A narrow north-south road serves the area south of the port on the Sulina Arm of the river, transferring tourists and their luggage from ferry services.

You can still hold on to a few touches of modern life at Crişan, the community supporting a few small stores, a bakery, campsite, several hotels and as many major pensions (see listings below).   If you're pressed to time in and out of the delta, Crişan will suffice in giving you a reasonable delta experience, although not quite as wild as points south and north.

 The Crişan Eco-Info Centre

One of the best reasons for stopping at Crişan is to take in the Danube Delta Information Centre, a well-done proposition showing off the natural wonders of the Delta across a series of displays.

Birdwatchers too will enjoy this area muchly, and an overnight stay at any of the villager's houses (most of which have a path on one side and pure nature on the other) is well worth the experience, if nothing else, just to sample some fish properly prepared in the local fashion. 

Around Crişan:  Mila 23

Mila 23 is where the old 23rd mile marker is coming in from the sea along the old twisty route.  Which really makes very little sense measuring from the seafront, especially since the Danube manages to deposit another half mile each decade. 

The little village now offers a couple of pensions and if you're not basing your central delta foray in Crişan, Mila 23 makes a great base for bird watching and getting to know true Danube Delta culture and customs.   If you have a translator-guide with you, it's a great spot to soak up what it means to be a villager surrounded by so much teeming riches in air and water.

 South to Caraorman

Whilst it's not strictly necessary to stay in Crişan, it does make a convenient spot to take side trips down to places like Caraorman, with it's protected forested island preserve.   Caraorman also has a few pensions, slightly more up-market than at Mila 23.  

NavRom offers ferry services both north to Mila 23, and south to Caraorman from Crişan, offering convenient service for you and your luggage on the way.  See the Transportation section below for more info on ferries and boats

Read more about the Sulina Arm of the Danube Delta here! 

This is the most twisty and winding of all the routes to get out to the Black Sea, but as with all of the Danube Delta canals, getting to the sea is hardly the goal!

You'll pass some of the most prime birding areas on the way to the Danube Delta community of Sf. Gheorghe, and if you can take a side trip or two off to the many lakes along the way, you'll find yourself in nature's paradise!

The Annual Film Festival in mid-late August each year brings hordes from all over Romania, Europe, and afficionados from Paris, London, New York and Hollywood to catch some Balkan moods on the shores of the Black Sea.  It's not a quite a Sundance, but for Romania, it's a coup of culture and international caché.

Delta Village Life

Sfântu-Gheorge, with barely 1000 inhabitants, is not quite large enough to call a town, and certainly bears the village life feel more than anything.  The brightly painted Lippovan houses are made from the traditional mud and daub method, with reed thatched roofs, surprisingly sturdy and certainly comfortable for it's residents throughout the decades.

  Sfântu Gheorghe does have a few stores, the requisite bar and restaurant, complete with very-Romanian style terasa, as well as a village hall.

 Setting Out Into the Delta

Sfântu-Gheorghe is a great place to rest, relax and dine in style after your daily trips into the rich delta reed beds, the endless golden beaches, or the long forested strips of land which have built up over the eons.

Three main "trails" make their way into the delta and up and down the coastline from Sf. Gheorge, part of the approved network of tourist routes which criss-cross the Delta. 

The Sfântu-Gheorghe Loop Trail

The first trail (#1) is a loop trail which explores the area and canals immediately to the south and west of Sfântu-Gheorghe, across the Zăton, Buhaz, Palade, and Crâsnicul canals, returning on the main Sfântu-Gheorghe canal and the Sfântu-Gheorghe Village.  It makes for a fun primer of how the more coastal areas of the delta look.  

Going up to Sulina

Two routes lead up to the much larger Sulina town on the main navigable arm of the delta there.   Trail 2 leads on a more direct route along the Tataru canal through and Buşurca to Sulina.  Trail 3 uses the Sfântu-Gheorghe canal, then heading up through Lake Erenciuc, into the Mocansca canal, across Lake Puiu to the Roşu Tourist Camp.  Then the trail crosses the little and big Roşu lakes to reach Imputiţa, continuing up the Roşu and Busurca waterways to arrive in Sulina town.

Sulina Sfântu Gheorghe Gura Portiţei Mamaia Constanţa Eforie Nord Techirghiol Eforie Sud Costineşti Olimp Neptun Jupiter Saturn Mangalia Doi Mai Vama Veche

Mahmudia

the delta margins

Tulcea considers itself the gateway to the Danube Delta, but the Delta Margin towns of Bălteni de Jos, Mahmudia, Murighiol and Uzlina offer proximity and cheaper access to boat and guide services.

The Delta Margin towns make competitive choices for travellers interested in experiencing the Danube Delta's riches whilst avoiding the more crowded scene at the city of Tulcea. 

Check out rental cars in Tulcea here, or you can catch one of the eight or so maxi-taxis making the trip along the road going south-east from Tulcea.  

Docking at Tulcea Awaiting passengers for the journey downriver to Murighiol and Sfântu Gheorghe (St. George)

Photo: webshots

Fishing the Margins Great fishing spots abound along any of the levee roads where the shallows support a range of great catches

Photo:  webshots

 Tulcea to Mahmuhdia along the Delta Margin

On the road south from Tulcea, you'll stop through Nufărul which features archaeological finds from the Genovese period (12th -13th centuries).

The community of Enisala further south nearer Babadag also has one of these rather impressive Genovese castles too.  Nufărul can give you a true taste of life along the Delta Margin, and has a pension and a few locals taking in guests.  The main road continues south-east past Bălteni de Jos, which is also the first ferry stop if you're coming from Tulcea by one of the daily ferries to Sfântu-Gheorghe.

Approaching Mahmudia from one of the ferry boats, it will be almost a surprise if you've been in the Danube Delta for any length of time, because Mahmudia is draped around the base of a rather large hill!

But as soon as the slopes of Beştepe Hill ends, the marshy land begins, soon yielding to full-fledged reed beds and open channels of water.  Mahmudia is indeed the transition zone between terra firm and the great expanse of the delta.   The daily boats to and from Saint Gheorghe stop here, and you can also drive to Mahmudia from Tulcea (about on 2-lane largely paved road). 

 Mahmudia and South

The section along the Sfântu-Gheorghe arm of the Danube is nicely built up at the Hotel Teo complex, with good paving and smooth concrete contours making for quite modern little riverfront area. 

Going towards Murighiol, Lake Dranov and the series of briny Sărătura lakes provide late autumn and early winter habitats for geese and pelicans, being the among the last in the area to freeze over.  

Black sapropropel muds here burp their gloppy siren calls to the faithful believing them to have therapeutic powers for a variety of gyneacological and joint complaints.  The third Sărătura lake, also known as Lake Sărat is part of the protected biosphere reserve, where nesting pairs of stilts and spoonbills feature.

 Rome's Northern Cities

The Roman Fortress of Salsovia

The "City of the Sun" is what Salsovia means in the limba franca of the day, common latin.   Today's sleepy Mahmudia had it's civilised beginnings here, with a walled fortress surrounding the nascent community on high ground with a commanding view over anyone approaching through the delta or inland.   Most of the town was overrun by the Visigoths and rebuilt under the Byzantine empire, lasting through the ninth century until the trade routes and ports in the area shifted.

The Roman City of Halmyris

Further south towards Murighiol, Halmyris was a Roman legionary base and naval port for 600 years, located at what was then one of the mouths the Danube.  Just east from Murighiol and south from the present day St. Gheorghe Arm, amazingly, the old city's location was actually right on the shore of a gulf of the Black Sea called the Halmyris gulf.

Halmyris was named Salmorus/Thalamonium in the Roman period, the Latin for Halmyris - salt water.

The region was inhabited during the Second Iron Age; nearby two Getic incineration necropolis were discovered, dating from 4th-2nd centuries BC. In the Roman period, on a 3rd-2nd century BC Getic settlement, the first stone castrum was built during the reign of the emperor Traian. The fortification was destroyed several times and had four phases of reconstruction, although with Istra to the south, it's importance waned as the sea migrated further east, and the Roman Empire melded into the Byzantine Empire.

The Late Roman fortification had a trapezoid shape, two gates, 15 towers and a defensive system fo three vallae and ditches. Inside the fortifications, the requisit baths, a large basilica in the early Byzantine era in 324, administrative buildings and dwelling places were discovered.

Halmyris functioned as a provisioning centre for the garrisons posted there, as well as to supply ships as they arrived. 

It was considered a "mariner's village" - vicus classicorum, and for the Late Roman period two units of the military fleet - Classis in Plateypegiis and Musculi Schytici (which had little ships, suited for the Danube Delta) might have been hosted by this city.

The original fort was made of timber and turf, but as the fort gained importance and a regular garrison was established along the Danube, the fort was rebuilt in stone.  Early in the fort's history, the Goths and Huns from the North crossed the Danube and conquered the fort.

The port city was later re-captured by the Romans and continued on into Byzantine times, with coins found bearing the visage of Constantine the Great.

On today's site, you can observe excavations happening under the auspices of Dr. Mihăil Zahariade and Dr. Myrna K. Phelps, with current areas of excavation including the barracks, towers on the north-western side of the fortifications, as well as and harbour installations.

The Halmyris Excavations , 2km south-east of Murighiol on the left going towards Dunavăţul de Jos   Ongoing digs during the summer months with operations in winter in under-cover only.  The LMI code is TL I s A 05844 +40 (240) 513 231, FAX: +40 (240) 513 231

 Murighiol

Murighiol is the Moş Eisley of Romania, having successfully collected a rich and varied community of Turk, Tatar, Lippovan, Ukrainian, Russian, and even a few Wallachians and Moldovans!

Nestled into the Tulcean Hills to the east, Murighiol is comfortably sited between the eastern shores of Lake Razim and the right banks of the Sfântu Gheorghe arm of the Danube river, served by the Lippovan and Dunavăţ canals.  

First known as Salmorus, Murighiol was the outer-most trading town in the Byzantine province of Scythia Minor. The word meaning "Violet Lake" in the native Turkish language of the area (they moved here first around 1270, taking control in 1419), this happy little town of 3,800 on the margins of the Danube Delta operates as a regional centre. 

 Delta Frontier Town 

In many ways, Murighiol is the type of town Ernest Hemingway would have enjoyed, with sport fishing, hunting, bird watching and great big fish dinners available to travellers with an appreciation for nature or at the very least, nature's bounty on the supper table. 

Today the local customs and cultures mingle together, with families having relatives out in the delta, as well as in nearby Jurilovca, Babadag, Sarighiol de Deal, Sarichioi, Slava Rusa, and Cercheza amongst others.  

As far as good eats goes, the appropriately named Halmiris Restaurant in Murighiol, +40 (740) 489 380, offers local fare and reasonable prices, catering to tour groups, so enquire ahead if they're booked out or not.

Pork is a big industry in Murighiol, with a major processing plant in the town, and you can count on the pig being supreme on most menus too.   Vegetarians can similarly delight in the tomatoes of the region each summer.   

With 230 campsites at the tourist village part of Murighiol, the town is a good bet if you're winging it, except in the very high season in the last week of July and through early-mid August.

Entering Lake Uzlina The reed curtain separates as you set out into the Delta, exploring your first open delta lake!

Photos:  webshots

The Lakes Around Uzlina See the full map of the Delta Margins region here

Satellite Background:  multimap Overlay Art:  REST ROMÂNIA

 Uzlina

Uzlina is a sleepy fishing village between Murighiol and the vast expanse of the Danube Delta.  Home to world-class scientific research facilities funded by the Cousteau foundation and an Ecological Information Centre for tourists in what was once yet another of the dumb dictator Ceausescu's lodges. 

The Cormoran Hotel at Uzlina runs boats between there and Murighiol for (or for a fast launch, 2 person minimum), with frequent services.  It's an additional 6E to enter the reserve zones, which are home to the largest nesting colonies of Ardeide anywhere in the delta.

Routes Into the Delta

Uzlina and nearby Murighiol benefit from having one of the official tourist routes starting here, the Trail 13, which departs from Uzlina along the Uzlina canal and then traverses the namesake Lake Uzlina and then through Lake Isac.  

The Isac 3 canal then opens onto Perivolovca Brook and into the wide Saint Gheorghe arm of the Danube River, the southernmost of the main arms.  Alternately, by following a series of canals, from Isac 2 to Litcov to Ceamurlia and Crişan, you get into the Sulina arm and the other Ecological Information centre at the delta town of Crişan.

On the Water

The Cormoran people also operate some good floating hotels, the Anastasias which offer a different way to enjoy the Danube Delta scenery.    If you'd like to fish, motor boats are for hire everywhere, with or without a boatman guide.   Check out their trips page for more info.

Head out to Lake Uzlina and Isac for pike fishing, as well as anywhere between Pojarnia, Onofrei, Chiril and Militarova, as well as Cuibeda Taranova, Dubcova and Perişor.   For zander, catfish and carp, anwhere upstream or downstream from Uzlina along the main channels usually sees respectable catches.  

Babadag, meaning "Mountain of the Father" in Turkish, is a great little cultural centre which spans centuries as well as making a nice little stopping off point in the forested highlands between Constanţa and Tulcea. 

The town of 10,000 is happily sited on a little lake made by the Taiţa river, with Lake Babadag to the east only separated from Lake Razim and the Black Sea by a thin strip of land.

The area was predominantly Turkish and Tatar for about 700 years from about 1220 until the 1920s, when a mass emigration saw numbers plummet to today's 13%.  See more in the History of Dobrogea here.

 Romania's Oldest Mosque

The splendour and majesty of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled this region for over 450 years can be felt in this fine old grand mosque at Babadag. 

The Gazi-Ali-Paşa was a regional "grand mosque" (in Romanian, a "Geamia"), complete with it's own Imam and larger than the smaller satellite mosques in the communities surrounding Babadag. 

Built by the Turks two centuries before Mircea the Elder finally lost to the Ottomans, the grand mosque at Babadag served the Turks, Tatars, and others in the area for about 650 years.  Luckily, the Turks came back to the table for major restoration works recently, cooperating with local officials to fund work on the stone funerary building where the namesake paşa was buried.

In the courtyard is the decorative Kalaigi Fountain and on Măcin street, the tomb of the 13th century dervish leader Baba-Sarı Saltuk Dede, who settled his Turcoman compatriots in the region.  Ibn Battuta mentioned this area as under the name Baba Saltuk, then a northern outpost for the Turks.

At 87 Republicii Street in Babadag

 The Oriental Art Exposition

If you want to understand the Turks and Tatars who lived in Ottoman Dobrogea for over 450 years, the Oriental Art Exposition at Panaghia House in Babadag is the place to peruse local history's finest, from embroidered Turkish robes to stunning traditional copperware. 

The museum holds a wide selection of Oriental art, copper artefacts, clothes, and decorative fabrics. Near the Ali-Gazi-Paşa grand mosque, the Panaghia house is a fine example of the Babadag Ottoman outpost architecture, combining local craftsman traditions with regimental style.

Most importantly, the Oriental Art Museum at Babadag features authentic traditional folk art of the Turks and Tartars in from the Dobrogea Region, including hand-made and later industrial pieces.  If you have a nice morning or afternoon in Babadag, you'll delight in the many fabrics, embroideries, costumes, and ornaments in the museum, which do a great job in preserving the Turkish and Tatar customs and art forms of the area. 

It should be noted that the ethnographic value of the Oriental Art Museum lies in the m`any pieces displayed which show precisely how Turkish and eastern motifs became melded, adopted and integrated into more Wallachian, Moldovan and Russian influences.  

You can trace how the more eastern motifs of the carnation, eastern fruits like the pomegranate, and trees like the cypress are pulled into more traditional regional patterns done with silver and gold embroidery.   The effect is truly stunning -- and you'll leave with some extra great photographs, and a much better idea about what Turkish Dobrogea was all about!

Str. Mihai Viteazu nr. 1  +40 (240) 516 204  

 Babadag History

Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Rule

Where the town is today, there was once a settlement from Roman days, then called Vicus Novus.  Finds revealed in the centre of Babadag have revealed that Vicus was once a fairly urbanised town, according to the advanced ceramics and masonry uncovered.  

By medieval times, the Byzantine and Dobrotician rule ceded to the consolidating Ottoman Empire, and the modern name of Babadag was given to the regional centre by 1393 when Sultan Bayezid I swept through the region on his campaign to the banks of the Danube.  Babadag even had it's own Ottoman fortress to bolster it's role as a garrison town during the reign of Murad IV.

Babadag, Capital of Dobrogea

The grand mosque was upgraded for the arrival of the regional governor (the paşa) and his considerable court which moved up from Silistra in Southern Dobrogea (ceded to Bulgaria under Nazi rule).  In this way, the importance of Babadag was greatly enhanced as capital of the Lower Danube province of the Ottoman Empire. The Grand Vizier wintered at Babadag during his many campaigns against the Russians (who finally pushed back the Turks in 1879)

There were recorded several communications between the regional governors at Babadag with the Wallachian and Moldovan rulers of the day, then also paying tribute to the Turks, although not really under direct rule.  Babadag was the most developed town in all of Dobrogea.

 The Americans at Babadag

At Babadag, the Romanian Army operate a military training facility. With a total surface area of 270 km˛, this is one of the biggest and most modern training firing ranges in Europe.

It was announced on December 6, 2006 that 1,500 U.S. troops stationed at Mihail Kogălniceanu will be using Babadag as a training base.

The locations of the Americans in County Tulcea and County Constanţa make up a triangle from the Smârdan woods on the Danube, to the staging area and instruction facilities at Babadag, and down to the "MK Air Base" near Constanţa.  Read more in our Military section 

 Thracian Ruins

About 5km north towards Tulcea, are the ruins of a Roman fortress stronghold from around 450BC.  In Babadag, traces of Tracian – Hallstattian’s culture were also identified (XI-VII centuries B.C.).

Does anyone know about these?  We can't really find much out about them.  Let us Know please.

Enisala

The little village of Enisala is an strikingly appropriate setting for a veritable monument to the rich peasant traditions and culture:  An actual peasant house preserved, complete with all the accoutrements of folk life.

The Peasant Hospitality House features interesting implements, wall hangings, furniture and daily living items collected from peasant households of the region.  Outside you can find painted carts, fishing gear and other essentials of village life in Northern Dobrogea.

The name Enisala is a simple contraction of Yeni Sala, meaning "new village" in Turkish.

 Open daily except Mondays from 10am to 4pm

 The Genoan Castle

Just north of Enisala, on the little circuit road about 8km from Babadag, the citadel of Heracleia (locally, Hercleea) is perched solidly on a rock-strewn hill (see banner above).

Enisala can be seen from the grounds, one of a series of Genovesean castles in the region (this one probably named Bambola or Stravrichi).   It was built towards the end of the 13th Century and was occupied by successive generations of Genovesans (Genovezi in Romanian) through the first half of the 14th century.

You may find it a bit strange to find people from near the French border in northern Italy.  The city-state republic of Genoa allied with the Byantine Empire, opening business opportunities for the Genovese merchants.

The Byzantine - Genoan alliance allowed the Genovese to build protective forts all up and down the Black Sea coast of Dobrogea, with the castle at Enisala being rules by their local overload, Prince Demetrius.  Some of the Genovesan forts extended as far north and east as the Crimea, where the merchants managed picked up the Black Death (the Plague, carried by fleas), and imported it to Europe, conceivably through Dobrogea on the way. 

Genoa's independence waned after a series of wars with Venice and was in turn ruled by the French and Milanese, thus allowing the Ottoman Empire to gain control of the Genoese territories  and colonies in the Black Sea theatre.

It was probably the main base for the local prince, Demetrius, and after a brief 20-year occupation by Wallachian forces, was captured and held by the Ottomans under Mehmet I in 1417, who renamed the castle Yeni Sale.   The Ottomans then held the castle and all of Dobrogea for the next 461 years.  Really, the castle gradually lost it's importance over the years of the 15th century, and was later abandoned as Babadag to the south became ascendant as a regional trade centre. 

Read more about the History of the Turkish in County Tulcea below!
Birding is great in this area -- see our Danube Delta guide section on Birds for more info!
 

 Jurilovca on the Lake

Jurilovca is a great little town of about 5,000 villagers featuring an interesting ethnographical museum and old Russian church.  

Including the villages of Vişina and Sălcioara, Jurilovca is the gateway to some great bird watching, and serves as a fairly major port on on Goloviţa Lake, with boats crossing the mini-resort of Gura Portiţei.

The old rite Russian Orthodox Pocrova Church was built in 1871, and features inscriptions in Cyrillic, not particularly common in other parts of Romania.

 Lippovans and Fish!

Jurilovca was settled by lippovans at the beginning of the 19th century and continues to this day as a major fishing centre with the biggest community of fishermen in Romania.  Jurilovca has one of the most modern fish processing facility in the Balkans (outside of Greece).

The community was  of prime importance to the latter Communist era economy, with almost all of the factories built under the regimes exporting product to earn hard currency.  

Rather perversely, Jurilovca during this period was re-named "Unirea", in a silly attempt to Romanianise this community which could hardly be called Wallachian in any notable way, with most established families sharing Lippovan, Turkish or Tatar heritage. 

Jurilovca today has a steady pulse and is one of those little sunny coastal villages seemingly in a world of it's own.  Even if you're just passing through on your way to the Delta or out to the beaches, spend a few hours in the sunshine, check out the little port, and see the older part of town up on the hill.   It's a great spot.

 Gura Portiţei (Portsmouth)

This sweet little resort is improbably perched on a lick of land between the Black Sea, the massive inland Lake Razim-Sinoe, and the adjoining Lake Goloviţa.  The 15km boat journey across Lake Goloviţa is the only access to the mini-resort of Gura Portiţei.

Roughly meaning "Portsmouth", Gura Portiţei is a fabulous spot primarily for anyone who enjoys steeping yourself in the authentic and inspiring nature of this heavenly piece of the European Union.    The natural long sand split will probably not be there in 200 years, but for now, it offers an amazingly ideal platform for great views, and forays into the Delta proper to the north and west. 

The beaches are indeed far less crowded than even those up at Sulina, and certainly far more pristine than the throbbing beats of the youth camps set up at Mamaia to the south. 

Fishing at Gura Portiţei is a minor joy, and it's vicinity to the beaches and canals of the adjacent Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve give it a natural advantage.

A little "Eden" resort has been meticulously built on the sand spit with the obligatory Danube Delta pension, a mini-hotel, as well as a few boats moored at the jetty which offer accommodation.   A camp site and bungalows round out the lodging options at Gura Portiţei, making the little vacation station a good option for almost anyone not bent on absolute luxury.  

Getting Across the Lake

Check in at the Piscicola Jurilovca office at the port building in Jurilovca to park your car (crime is not big here, just lock it and take valuables out) get your boat tickets for the one hour boat trip out to Gura Portiţei.  The town is on holiday time, so don't expect departures much earlier than 10am, and the last ones go out maybe as late as 8pm in summer months.

 You can also get a fast boat, a "salupa rapidă", on demand through most of the peak season, although this will set you back about at least.  

If you have a Romanian guide-translator with you, you can alternatively do a bit of local bargaining for a motor boat to take you across, although having a firm price and a determined gaze is generally essential for getting a good deal for this option.

A Very Suitable Resort

Everything around the little resort run by the Piscicola Jurilova society is quite clean, with the 80 or so little wooden cabins, four villa-style guesthouses, the main restaurant, day bars, a disco bar, Italian restaurant and pizzeria and a handful of outdoor terrace cafes, all recently constructed or renovated.   Call "La Nisip" bar on +40 (240) 561 429 if you have any questions about food, partying or entertainment.

A typical ciorba comes at a thrifty with a good local fish dinner running depending on the size of the local catch! All look out onto the fine golden sands a few hundred metres from where Lake Goloviţa melds into the deep Black Sea.

For Romanians, Gura Portiţei is sadly a bit too pricey, compared with the bargain holiday offerings of elsewhere on the Romanian Black Sea coast. 

However, for the stunning views, the delicious isolation coupled with good facilities, and prices not terrible for an American, this makes Portiţei the perfect little Martha's Vineyard of Romania! 

Cabins, Beach Huts and Villas

You can find a great little cabin which sleeps two for around and English-speakers should be rather pleased with the beach-hut level of amenities.  A more up-market option in one of the villas will set you back or so, but for the three star service in such a great place, it's not a big ask.  

As with most Romanian beach resorts, there is a little area for camping at either end of the main built-up areas of the beach, although getting your tent stakes down is daunting in the least.   There's a shower and toilet block in the dunes which rather remarkably even have hot water and are free for campers.

Trips to the north and south are often done in people-carrier wagons pulled by little 4WD quad bikes or tractors and make for alot of fun!

The Real Reason to Stay

Beyond the odd tent or two come the beaches without end.   To north you have the Delta Danube Biosphere Reserve and the beach going up to Saint Gheorghe.  Then to the south, after a little canal between the sea and the lake, towards Năvodari the scenery is absolutely enchanting, with wonderfully wild vistas untouched by the hand of man. 

After a day out enjoying the remarkable seascapes, birding, floating on the inland lakes or just enjoying the sunset, you'll find yourself at one of the terrace cafes wishing you had more time at Gura Portiţei!

 Istria and Histria

For those who enjoy a good romp around the ruins, south a half hour from Jurilovca are the more substantial ruins of Histria (near Istria, also on a wide inland lake). 

A good part of the walls and other edifices have been reconstituted, and an archaeological museum, run out of the main national history museum in Constanţa shows off the world-class treasures from the Greek and Roman layers.  See more here about the old Roman city of Histria

The Niculiţel Basilica Ancient Tombs and an airy glowing feel to this chamber make for an ethereal experience!

Photo:  webshots

Tour with the Best! Get a great guide and explore Western County Tulcea with someone who knows the terrain!

Photo:  rucksack

Almost everyone is surprised to hear how the western Tulcean landscape is so different when compared with the wet and green lands of the Danube Delta!

Indeed, the most arid and oldest mountains in Romania loom high on the horizon, home to a unique blend of animals and plants, looking more like somewhere in Utah than the better known parts of Romania.

The most northern major centre in Western Tulcea is Isaccea, home to the Roman castle of Noviodunum, is located at an ideal spot to cross the Danube River, long defended and attacked throughout it's wild border town history.

As a tourist, Western County Tulcea can be a deeply rewarding region to explore, precisely because it is seldom travelled by those from outside Romania, despite being so close to the mega-destination of the Danube Delta. 

The most amusing part about this area is that it holds no particular snob-appeal to Romanians, and hence is off their holiday maps for the most part as well.

But you will be deeply rewarded by the stunning views from the Măcin mountain crests, the unique and rare wildflowers, and the cultural riches of old mosques mixed with inspirational monasteries.  

 The Wineries of Tulcea

Indeed where you have open plains, a Mediterranean climate and colourful monasteries left and right, why not a few grape vines to make the day perfect?

The clever vintner of County Tulcea realised the soil was great in 1954 and stuck some vines in the ground, now producing white wines for the booming export market such as Aligoté, Italian style Riesling, and White Fetească.

Read More about the Northern Dobrogea Wineries 
 

 The Monasteries of Northern Dobrogea

Forming a triangle on the map which some consider to be religiously significant, the Monasteries of northern Dobrogea are great examples of the early 19th century building techniques.

The Ottoman Empire tolerated the Orthodox faith in it's northern-most province of Dobrogea, although this came with a height restriction to ensure the Christian churches did not reach parity with the grand mosques throughout the region. 

Read More about the Monasteries of Northern Dobrogea

Western Tulcea See Măcin Mountains National Park, Wineries,  & Monasteries

Read More about the Măcin Mountains National Park and Western Tulcea

Listed below are some local agents who can help you with bookings and organize local tours in Sulina.

Europolis, Str. IA,nr.190 in Sulina

 +40 (240) 543128  FAX: +40 (240) 543092 

Click on the map for details of each location shown,

or Click Here for a Larger Version with more detail

Netting at Luncaviţa A gentle way of catching dinner on the channels north of Luncaviţa

Photo:  webshots

 Geography

County Tulcea is bordered by the Black Sea in the east, County Brăila in the Muntenia region to the west, County Galaţi in the Moldova region to the north-west, and across the northern arm of the Danube Delta, the Ukraine's Odessa Oblast.   The other half of the Dobrogea region, County Constanţa, borders County Tulcea on it's southern border. 

With an area of 8,499 km˛, the most spectacular part of County Tulcea is the Danube Delta, which occupies about a third of the entire surface to the north and east of the county.  It has three main branches - the Sulina branch (the only one navigable by large ships) in the middle, the Chilia branch in the North (the border with Ukraine) and the Sfântu Gheorghe (Saint George) branch in the South. 

In the South-East of the county there are the lagoons of Razelm-Sinoe, home to Dalmatian Pelican colonies.  In the Danube Delta and in the South, in the area between the Sfântu Gheorghe Channel and the Razelm Lake there are countless channels and small lakes the entire area being included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites and Biosphere reserves. 

The Danube flows around the county in the West and North side.  In the West there is the Măcin Branch which flows on the East side of the Great Brăila Island. 

From Smârdan (on the opposite side from Brăila) until Pătlăgeanca (close to Tulcea) the Danube has only one big flow of water, around which there are an immense number of lakes and small channels. 

On the centre of the county there is the Casincea Plateau and the Măcin Mountains - the remains of a prehistoric mountain range (having more than 400 million years) with the greatest height at about 400 m. 

The Danube Delta Amazing Plants & Animals, Fishing, Floating Hotels and Tours

Economy

Pigs Ahoy! Murighiol is home to some serious pork processing.  Check out the products here

Image:  CarniProd Tulcea

The Sweet Baby of Babadag Little chap of Turkish descent ponders the neighbours' washing at Babadag

Photo:  Govt of Romania

Proud Lippovan at Sulina This Lipoveanca woman prepares to hoist the Romanian flag at the old Danube Commission lighthouse

The photo immediately preceding this notice is Copyright (c)2005 - 2008 Rest Romania SRL, All rights reserved. Photo: © REST ROMÂNIA

 The County Tulcea Economy

Agriculture and fishing are the main occupations - about 48% of the population. 

Industry is concentrated in the large towns only.  As such, the predominant industries in the county include the food and textiles, ship-building, metallurgy (aluminium), chemicals and construction materials.   Ship-building on a smaller scale than upstream at Galaţi and Brăila also takes place.

Most of the food processing centred on the local fish of course, with some meats, milk, wine, vegetable and fruit processing plants, mostly in the city of Tulcea area, but also in location where good water supply and labour forces coincide.  Murighiol, for example, has a large pork processing industry.

 Demographics

In 2000, County Tulcea had a population of 265,349, with a population density of 31/km˛, the lowest of any of the counties of Romania. 

With a majority ethnic Romanian population (90%), there are also important communities of Russians and Lippovans in the Danube Delta  region (about 7% of the county's population). 

In the south of the county there are still vestigial populations of the Turks and Tartars which once dominated the Dobrogea region, now making up just 2% of the county's population.  Otherwise, Rromas make up almost 1% of the reported inhabitants. 

The Turks

The oldest house of worship in Dobrogea is not even Christian, but actually Muslim, the old 1263 mosque at Babadag.   For over 450 years, County Tulcea and all of the Dobrogea Region were ruled from the south, as part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire.   But, when the Romanians and Russians invaded the Tulcea area in 1878, the Turks were beaten back and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire was swift. 

The Lippovans

Out in the Delta, the density of Russian and Lipovani people increases dramatically, up to half of the population generally in the small communities.  The Lippovans which are descendants of the Old Rite Followers who left Russia in 1772 to avoid religious persecutions.

The Lippovans were originally Russian by nationality and by faith, called "Old Believers", but basically Orthodox. In 1652, Nikon, the Patriarch of Russian Orthodox Church, initiated doctrinal reforms which divided Russian society.  The Nikonians accepted the reforms, bu the Old Believers were persecuted and emigrated from Russia into the Moldova region and into northern Dobrogea, mostly around the Danube Delta area.

The main center of Lippovan community in the Ukrainian part of Danube Delta is Vilkovo. Most of the Lippovan men are expert fishermen, sons of three generations of exiles now, who continue to practice their own conservative flavour of Orthodox Christianity.  Their communities have few roads and daily transportation is only by boat. 

Read more about Lippovan History and Culture Here!

Towns

County Tulcea features the main city of Tulcea on the Danube, along with four smaller towns:   Babadag, Isaccea, Măcin and Sulina, along with 46 communes.

  Transportation

 Boats:  Slow, Fast and Really Fast

Hydrofoils run up and down the main Sulina Arm of the Danube Delta daily, making the run between Tulcea and Sulina just under two hours on a good day. 

Due to the relatively large number of users on the Saint Gheorghe arm of the Danube Delta, fast boat services on Mondays and Thursdays are served by classic boats with hourly departures, but the rest of the program remains unchanged.   In the late summer and early autumn months, passenger and goods services on the Danube Delta have days alternating between the fast boats and the classic vessels.

You'll need to plan fairly carefully for your arrival date and time if you want to catch a boat downriver.  Saturdays is the "off" day for the boats, with only a lone hydrofoil running between Tulcea and Sulina. 

The NAVROM Delta company runs the major routes from Tulcea to Sulina, Tulcea to Mahmudia and St. Gheorge, and the northern Chilia Veche and Periprava route from Tulcea.   Their two fast boats hold 200 passengers and limited cargo, with the half dozen slower boats holding more cargo and between 130 and 300 people depending on the loads and model. 

If you know the name of the boat running, you'll know how big it is.  Boats named Banat, Mehedinţi, Moldova and Vrâncea all hold up to 300 passengers, the Maramureş and Mirceşti 150 each, and the wee Cotnari just 64.  NavRom also runs small boats and pontoons in Tulcea and in major centres in the delta, along with their flagship catamaran style Delta Expres I & II craft.

26 Portului Street, +40 (240) 511 553, Fax.: +40 (240) 511 528  Website   or E-mail NAVROM-Delta Here 

 Late Summer / Autumn 2007 Schedule

The boat schedules vary by season, and you should always contact NavRom (details above) prior to travel.

Fast boats from Tulcea along the northern arm to Chilia, or the central arm to Sulina are with a discount for pensioners and disabled.  It's a bit more, going out the longer southern arm to Sfântu-Gheorghe and a bit cheaper if you start out from Mahmudia, just and subsidised.

Get your Romanian friend or guide to make sure about weight limits if you're on a fast boat or hydrofoil in particular and are travelling with a fair amount of luggage -- usually is allowable, but the per-kg fee for subsequent kilograms is pretty light. 
 

*The Saint Gheorghe line in particular tends to be a bit crowded in the mid-summer months from June onwards, and whenever loads increase to a certain level, NavRom will substitute one of the larger, slower vessels on the route. 

Going out to the Saint Gheorghe community, the main stops are at Mahmudia and Murighiol, at and by road from Tulcea.  You may wish to drive or even overnight in one of these interesting communities and then set out for the two hour slow boat ferry ride from there to Sfântu Gheorghe.

  Communications

 Dialling Tulcea

All of the phone numbers in Tulcea start with (267) or (367), depending on whether the service is through the old state-run operator RomTelecom, or from one of the newer entrants into the market in Romania.

Dialling into anywhere in County Tulcea, you must remove any leading zero from the county code portion of the phone number, so that (0267) becomes (267).   Dialling a mobile number (Vodaphone, Zapp, Orange, Cosmote, etc), you do the same, dropping the zero from the (07XX) part of the number, to make it (7XX).   Both landlines and mobiles have 6 digits following the initial county code. 

 For full dialling information and a chart of county codes, see our Dialling Romania section here

Tulcea HotSpots

For a supposedly sleepy Danube Delta lands, where life should flow as slowly as the water, Tulcea has a rather surprising list of HotSpots in the capital city!

Deep 2, 40 Portului Street in Tulcea  On the road down to the port.  +40 (745) 075 813

Old Times Pub, 118 Pogoriilor Street in Tulcea  A Romanian take on a classic English pub  +40 (743) 035 285

Pizzeria Datino, 34 Pogoriilor Street in Tulcea  In the ground floor area, down the road from the Old Times Pub

Hotel Delta, 2 Isaccei Street in Tulcea  A rock-solid favourite hotel with good wi-fi. +40 (240) 514 720

Hotel Rex, 1 Toamnei Street in Tulcea  A modern megalith with equally big amenities in the central financial district, with wireless too!  +40 (240) 511 354

Turkish Provinces, 1726 Extending as far north as Moldova, County Tulcea was well within the Ottoman sphere

Image: Wikipedia

Dobrogea's Sultan KÖPRÜLÜ MEHMET PAŞA (1575-1661)

Photo:  Govt of Turkiye

County Tulcea, the 1878 War Russia moved troops into Romania and declared war on the Ottoman Empire, winning after a year.  Here, the famous Nicolae Grigorescu painting depicts a battle at Smârdan, near Măcin in County Tulcea.

Image:  Gov't of Romania

 Ottoman County Tulcea

By the 1860s, Dobrogea had 196 functioning mosques in towns, villages and markets, with a dozen seminary schools, 8 gymnasiums, a health system and 56 primary schools.

 In County Tulcea, a new railroad was being built from the northern-most Turkish city of Tulcea through to the town of Măcin, which sat on a bluff across from the Kingdom of Romania at Brăila on the other side of the Danube River. 

The Ottoman Empire out of Istanbul made sure that their Dobrogean province was well connected, with the Tulcea area connected with the rest of the Turkish world and beyond by telegraph, as were seven other Dobrogean cities. 

 Turkish Arrivals, 9th - 11th Centuries

After centuries of migrations through what is now the County Tulcea region of Northern Dobrogea, the 9th Century saw settlement in the area of Pechenegs, Cumans, Tatars and Turks, followed by Ottoman Turks. 

The Cumans, who had passed through in important numbers around the 11th Century in Moldova, Muntenia, Oltenia and Transilvania, mostly settled in the lower Danube region, known widely as "those at the side of the ocean". 

Part of the Cuman population in Dobrogea had entered after the Ottoman had arrived from the lower Balkan region.  The establishment of quite a few Turks in 1263 at Babadag had constituted the prelude for the settlement of Osman Turks, coming to Dobrogea from Anatolia and the Balkans.

 Dobrogea is Ottomanised

Islam began to have a profound influence on the Turkish tribes settled in Dobrogea in the 10th Century, and by the 13th Century, the vast majority of Turks in Dobrogea were Mohammedans.

The colonisation of the Balkans, begun by Murad I (1360-1389) was extended through County Tulcea and into the Danube Delta.  Understanding the strategic and military importance of his Dobrogean province, the Ottoman Sultans fortified and strengthened the castles at Yeni-Sala (see Enisala above), and the castle of Isaccea.

Turkish troops who had occupied Dobrogea were later followed by rural elements.  The Sultans accorded vast tracts of good pastureland to local rulers and those willing to resettle up to the Balkans in a quest to stabilise the province.  So, keeping with the Ottoman customs, between the years 1543 and 1667, the Turks belonging to the Kogeagik tribe were relocated across 64 villages in Dobrogea.

Commerce blossomed in Dobrogea along the caravan routes which criss-crossed the empire, although the wars with the Russians to the north had a negative effect on the Dobrogean population.

Towns were ruined in the wars which started in 1711, flared dramatically in the 1770s, and was rekindled in the late 1820s, with the populations wildly fluctuating with the fortunes of the wars between 40,000 and 100,000 in 1834.   Turks were expelled from the Black Sea area of Russia in the 1860s, with 10,000 moving south to settle in Dobrogea.  

 Romania Awarded Dobrogea

In the wake of the decisions of the Berlin Congress in 1878, Romania was granted Dobrogea and the Danube Delta. 

As soon as the new Romanian administration was installed, the economic and social landscape of the province became grim.  A multitude of Turkish and Tatar families, now refugees having had to leave their homes during the wars, waited for weeks for the Romanians to get a functioning government going.  

The people wanted only to reunite in their home villages and get back to their friends, family and jobs, many of whom had been working on the railroads before the Romanians invaded.  But things slowly improved, and the Dobrogean families who had fled the war had up to three years to go back and claim their family homes. 

 The Kingdom's New Culture

The Romanian authorities respected the Dobrogean traditions, and even in the Romanian army, the local Dobrogean units, largely Islamic, were fully integrated and formed into their own companies and squadrons, complete with fez and turbans intact.  

It made sense this way, and the new Romanian administration under King Carol I was remarkably sensitive to the culture of their new province, as the dietary, ceremonial and religious requirements of these companies was clearly different from their Moldovan and Wallachian counterparts.

Similarly, the Romanians set up courts and judges sensitive to the traditions of each community, and the positions of Mufti in both Tulcea and Constanţa had continuing significant in the lives of their Dobrogean flocks.

Law guaranteed the freedom to teach in the local Turkish language, and at Babadag, a new Madrasa was founded which taught courses in Romanian.  

Within 10 years of Dobrogea being melded with the Kingdom of Romania, the majority of schools taught in both languages, and the "Dobruca Gazetesi" (the Dobrogean Gazette) newspaper was printing it's headlines in Turkish, with back sections in Romanian.

  Despite these freedoms and a real attempt to integrate and support the Turkish culture, a part of the Mohammadan population in Dobrogea moved further south, back into the Ottoman empire. 

 Turks and Tatars Leave

Whilst the system set up was generally good and generous by Western standards, there was also fairly endemic corruption, and many of the new laws and ways of structuring government and public services were simply foreign to the native Dobrogeans. 

Turkish and Tatar populations plumetted through the early 1900s and further still in the 1920s when the new Republic of Turkey under Ataturk launched a targeted campaign to bring back to Turkey the Turkish populations throughout Dobrogea.

 Turco-Tatar Dobrogea Today

Today, the Dobrogean Turkish language and culture is supported by such recent events at the Turkish Language Olympiad at Medgidia's Kemal Ataturk national College.

 In April 2007, the 40 or so Turkish schoolkids representing their communities from all over Dobrogea cried out their motto:  "On this day, across all the land, we will speak nothing but our language!".  

In previous years, the Turkish Language Day ceremonies were held at Eforie Sud and Constanţa.   The events are supported by Romania's political party representing the Turk and Tatar communities still remnant in Dobrogea, the Democratic Union of Turco-Tatar Muslims in Romania, as well as the local mufti and the Turkish consul in Constanţa.

The Tatars community today in Romania, decendants from Crimean Tartars, live more towards central and southern Dobrogea around Biulbiul, Topraisar, Azaplar, Murfatlar, Castelu, Osmancea, Bairamdede. Their Nogai Tatar brethren live mainly in the town of Mihail Kogălniceanu (Karamurat); and villages of Lumina (Kocali), the ironically names Valea Dacilor ("Valley of the Dacians", or Hendekkarakuyusu to the locals) and Cobadin (Kubadin).  The "home" communities remain in Russia north of Grozny and the River Terek.

Read more in the History of Dobrogea for a wider view

Gull Feeding near Crişan

Photo:  webshots

Listed below are some local hotels, guesthouses (B&Bs) and other accommodation in the The Danube Delta area.

Hotel Wels, Sat Băltenii de Sus in Bestepe

The hotel is placed in a rustic area, but zou will have all the comfort and the great services of an excellent hotel.

740 210214  FAX: 740 716041 

Pensiunea Chirilov, Sat Băltenii de Jos in Bestepe

The pension is placed in a dreamlike area, in the heart of Danube Delta.

722 858987  

Pensiunea Millennium, Isaccea in Isaccea

The hosts will surely make you return to these superb places.

240 540894  

Pensiunea Carpo, Mahmudia in Mahmudia

The pension offers accommodation in 4 double rooms.

744 364218  

Hotel Teo, Mahmudia in Mahmudia

The hotel is recently built, with the latest endowments.

240 545550  

Hotel Mon Jardin, Mahmudia in Mahmudia

The hotel offers quality services and the clients are always very satisfied.

240 545511  FAX: 240 545512 

Pensiunea Insula Nada Apelor, Maliuc in Maliuc

Here you can spend memorable times of relaxation, harmony and rest.

239 616149  FAX: 239 613570 

Pensiunea Deltaclub, Maliuc in Maliuc

The pension is known for the extraordinary dishes they serve to its clients.

727 201444  

Hotel Salcia, Maliuc in Maliuc

The hotel is placed in the heart of the Delta, close to the Fortuna Lake National Reservation.

240 546539  

Pensiunea Soliana, Sat Gorgova in Maliuc

The pension is placed in the middle of the nature, surrouned by lots of greenery.

745 817486  

Pensiunea Olimpia, Sat Vulturu in Maliuc

The pension offers a lot of ways for entertaining and spending the free time.

744 391391  

Pensiunea Maria, Sat Gorgova in Maliuc

You will be delighted by Europe's newest land.

744 574185  

Pensiunea La Călin, Sat Gorgova in Maliuc

This is the place where you will marvel at Delta's wealth.

721 525320  

Pensiunea Andreea, Sat Gorgova in Maliuc

This is the place where the memorable vacation stories take birth.

744 574185  

Pensiunea Păpădia, Mila 23 in Mila 23

Some might consider this the perfect place to spend the vacation.

723 193212  

Pensiunea Cris, Mila 23 in Mila 23

The pension is placed in the Old Danube area, a truly wonderful place.

240 546446  

Pensiunea Markov, Mila 23 in Mila 23

The pension is built in traditional style.

240 546452  

Pensiunea Valodea, Mila 23 in Mila 23

The pension offers quality services for the lovers of Danube Delta.

740 233367  

Complex Delta Nature Resorts, Sat Parcheş in Somova

The little lodging houses offers a lot of comfort and intimacy.

741 113307  

Other County Tulcea Accommodation

Listed below are some local hotels, guesthouses (B&Bs) and other accommodation in the Tulcea area.

Popasul Doi Iepuraşi, DN 22, Km 47 in Babadag

The stopover is a good way to rest and relax.

The County Tulcea Website

The Babadag Mayor's Office