A short history of the city
Tulcea is one of the oldest attested cities in Romania. The cultural-historical load is particularly valuable and can be seen with the naked eye at every street corner, on the facades of all heritage buildings and at every statue made in honor of those who have left their mark on the development of the city over time. In this article we invite you to go through a short history together, practically walking in the footsteps from the Aegyssus Citadel to the present-day Tulcea Municipality. Have a nice trip!
Back to prehistory
The current territory of the city has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Traces from the Neolithic era, belonging to the Gumelniţa culture, were discovered to the NW and NE of the town, respectively on the Taberei hill and on the south shore of Lake Zaghen. From the century VII-VI BC dates back to the Hallstatian horizon, to which belong two settlements located on Taberei hill and SE of Colnicul Hora.
Greek colonization and the Roman rule
In the NE part of the municipality of Tulcea, at the foot of the rocky promontory with the appearance of a peninsula, the Ancient City of Aegyssus was formed, which had an uninterrupted evolution starting from the c. VII-VI BC until the century VII AD The continuity of living in this settlement for over 14 centuries was the consequence of the transit trade that took place at the mouths of the Danube.
We find the first written information about the Aegyssus fortress, considered a vetus-urbs, in two epistles of Ovid, from the 12th and 15th years AD, from which we quote: "Near the banks of the Ister lies an old fortress with two names / At which can hardly be penetrated due to the fortifications and the place where it is placed / If we are to believe its inhabitants / Caspyus-Aegyssos is the one who would have founded it and would have called it after his name...".
The discovery of a funerary stela, approximately 2.5 km SW of the fortress, proves that the city held in the century II AD a territory where there were Roman-type villages (viei) and rural farms (villae rusticae), being the center of a pagus (quasi-urban commune). In the second half of the 3rd century AD the cohort of the II Flavia Brittonum worked here. And in the 5th century, Aegyssus is the seat of a cavalry unit and the residence of the military commander of the border of Legio I Jovia.
Apart from Ovid's epistles, the city is also mentioned in other written sources, such as in the works: "De aedificis", written between 553-555 by Procopius, in which the cities renovated by Justinian are mentioned, "Notitia EpiscopatumC (8th century d. BC) and "De Thematibus" (10th century).
We find the first written information about the Aegyssus fortress, considered a vetus-urbs, in two epistles of Ovid, from the 12th and 15th years AD, from which we quote: "Near the banks of the Ister lies an old fortress with two names / At which can hardly be penetrated due to the fortifications and the place where it is placed / If we are to believe its inhabitants / Caspyus-Aegyssos is the one who would have founded it and would have called it after his name...".
The discovery of a funerary stela, approximately 2.5 km SW of the fortress, proves that the city held in the century II AD a territory where there were Roman-type villages (viei) and rural farms (villae rusticae), being the center of a pagus (quasi-urban commune). In the second half of the 3rd century AD the cohort of the II Flavia Brittonum worked here. And in the 5th century, Aegyssus is the seat of a cavalry unit and the residence of the military commander of the border of Legio I Jovia.
Apart from Ovid's epistles, the city is also mentioned in other written sources, such as in the works: "De aedificis", written between 553-555 by Procopius, in which the cities renovated by Justinian are mentioned, "Notitia EpiscopatumC (8th century d. BC) and "De Thematibus" (10th century).
The beginnings of the Ottoman occupation
Destroyed successively by Pechenegs, Uzis and Tatars, the settlement was rebuilt in the century. the 14th century on a larger area than the old fortified area, and in the 15th century it was occupied by the Turks.
With the name of Tulcea, the city appears for the first time in a customs register from 1514, then in the registers that held the records of the military tasks that belonged to the colonized Muslim population from 1543 and 1584. Also with the name of Tulcea, the locality is mentioned by Paolo Giorgii, in 1595, and in 1650 by the Turkish traveler Evlya Celebi. Later, Dimitrie Cantemir in the work "Descriptio Moldaviae", describing the Isaccea citadel, specifies that it is similar to the one in Tulcea. The name derives, it seems, from the Turkish word "tuia", which means brick, or from the Celtic "tul" which translates as "fortress", the settlement being a fortified point for a long time.
The medieval town developed at the foot of the Monument Hill, and the old harbor was located between two rocky promontories, the ones on which the Old Lighthouse and the Fishermen's Harbor were located, later called the Sacagiilor ford. From this ford, the Danube formed a harbor to the south to the site of the current church "Shimbarea la faat" on Gavrilov Corneliu Street, a harbor guarded by Mahmudieu Hill and Babadagului Hill. Strada Isaccei was still covered by the waters of the Danube, which, beyond the hills of Babadagului and Comorofca, created yet another port. Between the first Danube harbor and Lake Zaghen, a peninsula had formed whose northern end was rocky, high and steep, a real natural fortification near the port. Thus, the city developed along the peninsula whose main artery was Gloriei Street, branching off to the north towards the citadel and the port, and to the south on the hill where Nicolae Bălcescu Street is located.
With the name of Tulcea, the city appears for the first time in a customs register from 1514, then in the registers that held the records of the military tasks that belonged to the colonized Muslim population from 1543 and 1584. Also with the name of Tulcea, the locality is mentioned by Paolo Giorgii, in 1595, and in 1650 by the Turkish traveler Evlya Celebi. Later, Dimitrie Cantemir in the work "Descriptio Moldaviae", describing the Isaccea citadel, specifies that it is similar to the one in Tulcea. The name derives, it seems, from the Turkish word "tuia", which means brick, or from the Celtic "tul" which translates as "fortress", the settlement being a fortified point for a long time.
The medieval town developed at the foot of the Monument Hill, and the old harbor was located between two rocky promontories, the ones on which the Old Lighthouse and the Fishermen's Harbor were located, later called the Sacagiilor ford. From this ford, the Danube formed a harbor to the south to the site of the current church "Shimbarea la faat" on Gavrilov Corneliu Street, a harbor guarded by Mahmudieu Hill and Babadagului Hill. Strada Isaccei was still covered by the waters of the Danube, which, beyond the hills of Babadagului and Comorofca, created yet another port. Between the first Danube harbor and Lake Zaghen, a peninsula had formed whose northern end was rocky, high and steep, a real natural fortification near the port. Thus, the city developed along the peninsula whose main artery was Gloriei Street, branching off to the north towards the citadel and the port, and to the south on the hill where Nicolae Bălcescu Street is located.
XVIII-XIX Centuries
There are several accounts of the settlement from the beginning of the 18th century. Mihail Bay and Gaaspar Papai sent in the delegation by Br. Rakoczi II at the Crimean Tatar Inn, in 1706, notes: "...this Tulcea is a small fortress, built on a rock on the bank of the Danube and guards an arm of the Danube, so that ships without news from the Danube cannot pass Black Sea".
Coin collector La Mottraye describes the city as follows, after a trip to the area in 1711: "Leaving the Isaccei road to the left, we passed to Tulcea, a village located on a hill at the foot of which is a small fort with seven towers, right on an arm of the Danube, which surrounds in this part one of the largest islands, formed by this river before it flows into the Black Sea." These accounts fix Tulcea, at that time, on the place from Dealul Monumentului.
There is also information about the settlement in several princely documents of the ruler of Moldavia, Moruzzi. For example, in the act of 1778 reference is made to the sultan's order that the părcălabi of Galaţi should send timber to Tulcea, and in the act of 1799 the ruler's order to exile to Tulcea the son of the poet Ienăchiţă Văcărescu, Alecu Văcărescu, who dies in the prison here.
The Russian-Turkish military confrontations, which lasted from the middle of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century, caused great destruction (years 1771, 1773, 1750-1791, 1812 and 1829), so that in this interval for a long time the city was impoverished. After the year 1830, there follows a period of repopulation and restoration of the locality, as a result of the Adrianople treaty which determined the evacuation of the population between the Danube and the Razim lake, on the Tulcea-Babadag line.
The overpopulation of the city had consequences on the urban structure by breaking the perimeter and moving the commercial center. This was also favored by the changes of a topographical nature, namely by the gradual clogging of the two harbors of the Danube and their transformation into dry land, after the damming works of the river by the European Commission of the Danube, around 1850.
We invite you to find out more details about the next period and about the transformation of Tulcea into a truly cosmopolitan city from this article.
Source: Aurora Corhan (Tulcea County Library)
Coin collector La Mottraye describes the city as follows, after a trip to the area in 1711: "Leaving the Isaccei road to the left, we passed to Tulcea, a village located on a hill at the foot of which is a small fort with seven towers, right on an arm of the Danube, which surrounds in this part one of the largest islands, formed by this river before it flows into the Black Sea." These accounts fix Tulcea, at that time, on the place from Dealul Monumentului.
There is also information about the settlement in several princely documents of the ruler of Moldavia, Moruzzi. For example, in the act of 1778 reference is made to the sultan's order that the părcălabi of Galaţi should send timber to Tulcea, and in the act of 1799 the ruler's order to exile to Tulcea the son of the poet Ienăchiţă Văcărescu, Alecu Văcărescu, who dies in the prison here.
The Russian-Turkish military confrontations, which lasted from the middle of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century, caused great destruction (years 1771, 1773, 1750-1791, 1812 and 1829), so that in this interval for a long time the city was impoverished. After the year 1830, there follows a period of repopulation and restoration of the locality, as a result of the Adrianople treaty which determined the evacuation of the population between the Danube and the Razim lake, on the Tulcea-Babadag line.
The overpopulation of the city had consequences on the urban structure by breaking the perimeter and moving the commercial center. This was also favored by the changes of a topographical nature, namely by the gradual clogging of the two harbors of the Danube and their transformation into dry land, after the damming works of the river by the European Commission of the Danube, around 1850.
We invite you to find out more details about the next period and about the transformation of Tulcea into a truly cosmopolitan city from this article.
Source: Aurora Corhan (Tulcea County Library)
