Tulcea County
Archaeology attests human traces in northern Dobruja since the Neolithic
(approx. 5500-2799 BC) in the area of Baia commune (the Hamangia culture),
in the Danube Meadow (Jijila, Garvan, Vacareni, Somova, Tulcea). The
end of the 7th century BC, when Greek colonisation of the western
shore of the Black Sea began, also left numerous vestiges of the blend
between the autochthonous Geto-Dacian population and the Greek settlers.
Towards the close of the first century BC, the Greek citadels on the
coast of the Black Sea got united and joined the Pontic kingdom. The
Romans became active south of the Danube. The incessant inroads north
of the Danube by the Celts, Scythians, Sarmati, and Bastarni, the
insecurity, and dangers spelled by the harsh winters, all this rounds
off a general picture of northern Dobruja in that period. In
the year 44 BC Burebista united Dobruja to the Dacian state for a
brief time. The first century BC marked the beginning of Roman rule
in Dobruja that was to last seven centuries, within the province of
Lower Moesia. The invasions of the Slavs, and the Bulgarians (Asparuh,
679) destroyed the Roman limes, and the Balkan Peninsula remained
under the authority of the Byzantine Empire whose fleet protected
the mouths of the Danube. In the 12th-14th centuries, Genovese
merchants built strong fortifications at Chilia, Enisala and Visina.
At the turn of the 14th century, Prince Mircea the Old extended his
rule over Dobruja. In 1485, after the fall of Chilia, the region came
under Ottoman rule. In the 16th century it played a new strategic
role of advanced bridgehead in the conquest of other territories,
like at the time of the Romans. Northern Dobruja was again fortified.
Part of the population ran across the Danube. The land was colonised
by the Turks brought over from Anatolia, and by Tartars from the steppes
of the Black Sea. During the Russo-Turkish wars in the 18th century
and the early 19th century, Dobruja became the principal theatre of
war, being ravaged and depeopled (it was called then, in good justice,
The Route of the Tartars or the Route of Wars). The Ottomans accepted
the settlement of Lippovans, Ukrainians and then Bulgarians coming
from northern Crimea, as well as of the Germans from southern Russia,
alongside the Greeks, Jews, and Armenians drawn here by the flourishing
trade. The Independence War (1877-1878) ended five
centuries of Ottoman rule that influenced the ethnography, toponyms
and cultural life of the place. On November 14, 1878, the Romanian
army entered the region of Dobruja that came thus under the authority
of the Romanian state. In 1879 the county of Tulcea was established
as an administrative unit (including approximately its present-day
territory), with the county seat at Tulcea, the most populated locality
in Dobruja at that time. (In 1860, it was the capital of Dobruja,
and the location of several consulates: Romanian, French, Turkish,
Austrian, German.) On the background of the flailing Ottoman authority
and the increase of the interest shown by the great powers in the
mouths of the Danube, the European Commission of the Danube was set
up in 1853 with the headquarters at Sulina. This played an important
role in the development of trade on the Danube. Thus, the Sulina arm
was developed to become a navigable canal. The town of Sulina witnessed
a blossoming period: the port was modernised, it became a free port,
extremely active until 1930. In 1977 the free zone of Sulina was re-established,
but the enthusiasm of yore was missing.
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Geographical
Outline
Tulcea county is situated in south-eastern Romania, namely in the
north of Dobruja. It is crossed by parallel 45°. To the west and the
north it is bounded by the river Danube and to the east by the Black
Sea. The surface of the county is 8,498 sq km (3.6 per cent of Romania’s
territory) of which agricultural land – 42.5 per cent, water and marshes
– 41.6 per cent, woods – 11.2 per cent. The county seat is Tulcea
situated on the right arm of the Danube at mile 40, with a population
of 97,417 inhabitants (on July 1, 1996), the most important economic
centre of the county. The major localities are the towns of Macin,
Babadag, Isaccea, Sulina and the communes of Niculitel, Mahmudia,
Jurilovca, Cerna, Baia. The county’s total population amounts to 266,
897 inhabitants of whom 130,799 urban and 136,098 rural; active population
– 111,924 persons of whom in the industry 12,907 persons, and in agriculture
41,300 people. The ethnic picture is as follows: Romanians – 88.7
per cent, Russians (including Lippovans) – 7.5 per cent, Ukrainians
– 1.4 per cent, Turks and Tartars – 1.3 per cent, Gypsies – 0.5 per
cent, Greeks, Armenians, Jews, Italians, Germans – 0.4 per cent.
The religious structure is as follows: Romanian Orthodox – 91.1 per
cent, Old Rite Christians – 6 per cent, Muslims – 1.3 per cent. The
climate is temperate continental. The closeness of the Russian continental
zone accounts for the frozen air that advances to the north-east and
south-west, resulting in a wind called crivat, that brings frosty
winters that sometimes freeze the Danube and the Delta for two or
three months. In summer, frequent and powerful winds bring warm and
dry air that scorches the earth, leaving the soil dusty. Temperatures
are lower in the west, in the hill area, while on the shore (Sulina)
the sea breeze whiffs in a warmer and more humid air, and sometimes
the highest winter temperatures in the country. Owing to its geographic
position, Tulcea county contains almost all the relief contours in
Romania. There are two basic geographic units: the north-Dobruja Horst,
the remains of the Hercinian Range (the oldest mountains in Romania),
and the Danube Delta, a silt formation still on the make, together
with the lake complex Razelm-Sinoe that covers a surface
of 4,470 sq km. The most important river is the Danube that crosses
the territory of the county, divided into three arms: Chilia, Sulina
(a maritime, navigable arm), Sfantul Gheorghe, making up the Danube
Delta, a wet natural area, declared, in 1990, a preserve of the Biosphere
under the protection of UNESCO.
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Touristic
Information
Tulcea,
the capital city of this county is also named "the Gate
of the Danube Delta". Here the Danube River divides in
three branches creating the magic land of a delta. Tulcea is
a port with a long history, built on the ruins of the Roman
fortress of Aegisus. The town borders the right bank of the
Danube as an amphitheater. Its name of Tulcea is used since
the XVII-th century. Now it is a modern town, with a fine downtown
and an elegant promenade on the bank of the Danube. Parks and
rich flora give to the town and its surroundings a wonderful
look visibly from the Hora Killock. It is a developed industrial
center, but its main role is concerning the Danube Delta, and
its Delta Museum. Tourist routes go to Macin, Garvan, and Isaccea,
the region being known for its picturesque landscapes. But the
main important routes are the ones of the Delta, a large kingdom
of water and land, floating islands, a real paradise for fishers
and hunters, a paradise of birds and flora, and an unique landscape.
"The Danube Delta for us and posterity!" - under this
motto it works in the Danube Delta Reservation of Biosphere.
Of the over 300 reservations of biosphere in the world, this
one isn't among the oldest. It isn't the largest in the world,
even its surface of 5,800 sq.km is about 2.5 per cent of Romania's
territory and places it as the fifth moist zone in the world
and the second one in Europe. But of the over 300 reservations
in the world (o.n. - in Romania there are two more, but in mountain
zones of Retezat and Pietrosul), the Danube Delta Reservation
of Biosphere, with its headquarters in Tulcea, is the third
one of ecological importance in the world. In this sanctuary
of the nature consisting in streams and lakes (over 400), floating
reed islets (19.5 sq.km), "reed forests" (over 1800,000
ha, the biggest compact reed thicket in the world) and willow
forests it was built since the world a real paradise of migratory
birds arrived here from all over Europe and other continents:
over 300 species of which 176 nestle in the Danube Delta, and
184 being strictly protected by the Convention from Berne. Also
in the Danube Delta, in the hundreds of lakes, streams, channels
(20.25 sq.km of water surface) live a number of 64 species of
fish, some of them in a permanent expansion (crucian carp, bream);
some of them in a permanent diminution (pike, tench, sheat fish,
pike perchnot so resisting to pollution). To protect and to
save this temple of nature the Law no 8211993 was promulgated.
The Romanian Government and world organizations started to give
a special attention to preservation of this patrimony, the Danube
Delta Reservation of Biosphere being included in some national
and international programmers to preserve it. In all, in only
last five years, over 22 billionaires were given for the recovery
of this delta. The Programme of the European Bank was materialized
by different contracts between Romanian and foreign specialists,
including an unrepayable credit of 720, 000 ECU used here. Also,
the Programme of the World Bank - which is working - is an unrepayable
credit of $ 4.5 million for this project. The efforts of the
Danube Delta Reservation of Biosphere were awarded by the great
"Eurosite" Prize by the UNESCO in 1995, the highest
European environmental Prize. Recently in March this year it
was done at the World Environmental Conference of the countries
which signed the "Ramsar" Convention (Brisbane, Australia)
in which over 1,600 delegates from 93 countries members of this
convention and 23 observer countries.
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Economy
Profile
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