DANUBE DELTA CYCLING AND BOATING TOUR

Grindul Lupilor (Wolf Sandbank)

Is a protected area, located in the south of the Danube Delta reserve.

Gura Portitei

Gura Portitei is a piece of sand that separates Golovita lake from the Black Sea. Its name comes from the fact that until 40 years ago there was a link between the lagoon and the sea. Nowadays in the area there is a turistical complex a canton of ARBDD a meteo station and a sea signaling lighthouse.

Dolosman Cape

The Dolosman Cape is a rocky promontory placed on the confluence of the Razim and Golovita lakes. The limestone Shore is the only one of this kind from around the romania’s seaside area. It is 3 km long and has a hight of 29m. The abrupt continues till Dolosman hill at 63 m high. The watching turret place here affers a spectacular view over the entire lagoon.

Orgame/Argamum

Orgame Stronghold/Argamum situated at 6 km east from the Jurilovca village, in the place called “Dolojman” or “La Cetate” (“at the Stronghold”). Archeological researches that took place here between 1926 and 1932 and from 1965 continuously permitted the discovery of some important monuments and the drawing of the stronghold’s history for more than 12 centuries of existence. The stronghold, the first settlement on nowadays Romania’s territory mention in a antique writing ( Hecataios Periegesis) was founded in the middle of the VIIth century BC by the Greeks from Asia Minor with at least one generation before the Istros stronghold/Histria in an area with trace of inhabitance since the Bronze Era and the firs Iron Era. Inside the stronghold there were researched and partly restaurated a series of public and private buildings from the V-VII centuries: “the preatory”, the basilica with three vessels and a chapel (conventionally called the Number 3 basilica) basilica from the central sector (basilica 2) the biggest from the argamense basilicas, basilica with only one vessel (basilica 1) houses and parts of the streets’ system. A forth basilica, of short dimensions, with only one vessel was discovered at aprox 1.3 km from the West Gate

Iancina Cape

Nature reserve covers an area of 130 ha and is located on the territory of Jurilovca. The scientific value of the reserve is that it conserves fossil coast of the Black Sea coastal lagoons before closing, with an original look with the rugged coast eroded into spectacular shapes Razim Lake waters, where several small caves.

Salcioara village

The village is placed on the south western part of the Razim lake in an area limited by the Iancina head In north and Dolosman head In south. The relief is a contact area between low hills (Ceardac, Dolosman Iancina) with 50-60m highs and the piece of plane that outsides the lake. In the village’s perimetre were identified traces of a roman fortress unexplored yet Ad Salices (at salcii) the village was inhabited in the XIXth century by bulgarians romanians and turks with a secnificant growth in population after 1840 when the cityhall and the church (1845) were built, the school being built later (1884). In the Lahovari dictionary there were mentioned 387 bulgarian families 3 jewish 2 romanian and one tatar-gipsy. At the village’s school where there was only one teacher there were registered 73 bulgarian pupils and only 3 romanian ones. Its old name Caramanchioi is surelly of turkish origins but translated differently by diffrerent authors. In principiu It would mean „the village of the black man” but M.D. Ionescu translated it as „the sunrise village” and Gr. Danescu thinks that it came from Caramanlau

Jurilovca village

The village is placed on the embankment of the Golovita lake. The village’s connection with the lake is made by a 800m long canal. The parish of Jurilovca was founded by lippovans at the beginning of the XIXth century first document about it dating from 1826. Although at the beginning it was just a sshorel hamlet the village developed at the end of the XIXth century into an important fishing centre of the Delta. Lippovans are ethnically russians but in what concerns thier denomination they are Old Style Ortodox (starovers). This denomination is the result of the nikoniene reform in 1654 Nikon the Russian Ortodox Church’s Patriarch initiated a religious reform that sought the alignement of russian rite to the rest of the Ortodox world. The outcome was the division of russian society into nikoniens (the ones that accepted the reform) and Starovers ( of Old Faith, that rejected the reform). The last ones because of the persecution migrated outside russia some of them in romania (the north of Moldavia and Danube Delta).

Calugara Cape

Nature reserve covers an area of 130 ha and is located on the territory of Jurilovca. The scientific value of the reserve is that it conserves fossil coast of the Black Sea coastal lagoons before closing, with an original look with the rugged coast eroded into spectacular shapes Razim Lake waters, where several small caves.

Museum of Peasantry Household

The museum of Peasantry Household from Enisala represents a synthesis of traditional household from Northern Dobrogea, the area of Razim Lake, from the beginning of the XXth century. The architectural assembly contains the house with chiller and some annex typical for this area: the kitchen and the summer cooker, the anishores’ stable, the cote lean-tos the fountain. There can be seen: agricultural instruments, dobrogenian painted cart, fishing tools, cooperage tools and products, smithy, culture of bees, pottery, instruments for house making textiles’ industry. The inside of the house reveals the beauty and the wealth of the traditional fabrics being organized in its traditional variant.

Enisala village

The village is placed in a outside region of Babadag highland With hills that end up abruptly into Babadag lake and that can reach 110m in Eracleea. The archeological traces state the existence of a traco-getic settlement fro the first Iron Age. In 1330 it is mentioned under the Fenikah name (probably derived from turkish Enikale) in the writting of an arab geograph and pilgrim Ibn Batutah. In the village’s surroundings there is a byzantine stronghold from the XIIIth century called Eracleea (Heracleea) probably built by the genovian merchandizers that controled the comerts on the Black Sea. The village most surelly developed in the same time with the stronghold the last being a refuge place in case of danger. About the village’s inhabitants the teacher I. Chircea shows that the villagers,exclusively romanians are coming partly from Transilvania the village of Sercaia others from Moldavia (after the Principates’ Union) others from Bessarabia and partly locals from Dobrogea

Heracleea stronghold

Heracleea Stronghold placed on the hill that dominates the surroundings of Enisala village, at the crossroads of some important water and land roads. The stronghold was built by the Byzantine Imperial power and by the Genovian commercial one at the end of the XIIIth and the beginning of the XIVth century. During Mircea cel Batran’s ruling the stronghold was owned by Tara Romaneasca and at the end of his ruling when Dobrogea was conquered by the Turks, an ottoman military guard house established in the stronghold. As an architectural element the main gate’s bastion is imposing, with a double arcade followed by a blind one. In the 90’s the stronghold was the object of an ample restoration process.

Sarichioi village

The village is placed in the north-west of the Razim lake on a plane that outsides the lake’s shore at the end of some low hills (Movila Zebil 93m) that lengthen in south the Pietros Hill and in thee ast Movila Mare. The name of the village is of turkish origins (sari=yellow, chioi=village) and it is due tot he village’s aspect during the turkish occupation when the houses were built out of ceamur And covered with reed Yellow color being predominant. The village was founded on the nowadays place in the XVIth century or maybe even earlier being mentioned in 1575 in a turkish document with its actual name. In the first phasesof its inhabitence it ius possible that the turks were majoritarian although other testimonies show that lippovan russians are the ones that founded the villlage.

Boarding point

Dunavatul de Jos village

The village is placed in the eastern extremity of the old Dunavat peninsula. Because of this the acces in the Danube Delta is easier through the Lipoveni and Dunavat channals. It is said to be founded around 1700 by Russian and Romanian fishermen the last ones leaving and returning for several times. From the Austrian Franz Mihalovici’s (1873) information we found out that “If it takes to the left the biggest of this branches Hiderlias Bogaz (Sf. Gheorghe n.n.) then the flow will continue another 3 hours on several very short crooks Until a Cossacks village will be met, Dunavat on the right shore, a high and bumpy Shore, village which because of the length and big distance between groups of houses seems to constitute 4 villages generally called Dunavat.” It is confirmed the foundation of Dunavat village by the zaporojeni Cossacks. Later information the one from Gr. Danescu (1896) show that the whole population of the village (280 persons) was Russian. Russians founded the first school (1891) as well as two churches (1881 and 1890). Population: in 2002 there were 710 inhabitants out of which 53% Romanians 46.8% Ukrainians and the rest of 0.2% lippovan-russians.

Sfantu Gheorghe village

First mentioned in 1318, the fishing village of Sfantu Gheorghe is well-known for its traditional cooking, including the famous black caviar (icre negre). A 30-minute walk will take you to one of the longest strips of beach on the Romanian Black Sea coast.

The Maritime Cemetery Of Sulina

In the 19th century, in Sulina free port, were living a few thousand people of almost 30 nationalities. While reading the inscriptions from the crosses or funerary stones in the Maritime Cemetery that mark their dwelling in the free port, one can better realize that Sulina was a welcoming home for all nations. The crosses and the funerary stones hide novel stories: the pirate and the princess, the two sisters that drowned together or the love-story between an English sailor and a cabaret dancer from Sulina, a love that ended tragically during a storm on the sea.

Sulina Lighthouse of the European Commission of the Danube

The building of this lighthouse was decided on 2 November 1865 at Galati, after the establishment of the European Commission of the Danube. The plans and the building of this objective were realized by the English engineers Ch. Hartley and M. Engelhardt who also helped create the plans of the digging and maintenance of the Sulina branch of the Danube. The lighthouse was built in two stages and was finalized in 1870, being the property of the European Commission of the Danube. The only monument of this kind in Romania, The Big lighthouse from Sulina was transformed into a museum. Located in the central hall, the floor of the lighthouse has two large rooms, areas used for the exhibitions.

Commissions of the Danube River headquarters

The Commissions of the Danube River were authorized by the Treaty of Paris (1856) after the close of the Crimean War. One of these international commissions, the most successful, was the European Commission of the Danube, or, in French, Commission Européenne du Danube, the CED, which had authority over the three mouths of the river — the Chilia in the north, the Sulina in the middle, and the St. George in the south and which was originally designed to last for only two years. Instead, it lasted eighty-two years.

Sulina city

During the mid-Byzantine period Sulina was a small cove and in the 14th century a Genoese port inhabited by a handful of sailors, pirates and fishermen. In 18th century the Ottomans built a lighthouse there in order to accommodate communication between Constantinople (Istanbul) and the Danubian Principalities, the main breadbaskets for the Ottoman capital. Thanks to the signing of the Treaty of Adrianoupolis (Edirne), September 2, 1829, that unfettered the Danube grain trade, Sulina, by then under Russian control, became important. Great sailing boats could not sail fully loaded to Brăila and Galaţi, which were the main export centres of Wallachia and Moldavia, because of the shallow waters of the river; therefore, they had to tranship at least part of their cargoes to smaller riverboats (shleps). The owners and crew of these sleps were almost always Greek. Even greater development, however, would occur after the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1856), which ended the Crimean War. One of the treaty’s terms determined the establishment of a certain committee, the Danube European Committee(C.E.D.), which would conduct infrastructure works on the mouth of the river in order to make it floatable for larger ships as well. The technical works allowed entrance to the Danube for a great number of “foreign”, i.e. non-Greek ships, leading to a higher level of competition. River faring, however, largely remained in Greek hands. Moreover, the declaration by the Ottoman administration of Sulina as a free port in 1870 also boosted its development. The Russo-Ottoman war of 1877-1878 led to many changes as well. The city was initially put under Russian control and after the signing of the Berlin Treaty was annexed to Romania, as was the whole Dobrudja area.

C. A. Rosetti village

Letea village

The village is mentioned on a French map of 1800 as Lete, indicating a dwelling older, population consisting then of Lippovan Russian. Even in 1896, all 334 people belonging to this ethnic group. They are those who have high church in 1865 and school in 1880.

Letea forest

Letea Forest is the oldest natural reservation in Romania. It was established in 1938, when the Romanian Council of Ministers passed Decision No. 645 declaring the forest a nature reserve. It is located between the Sulina and Chilia branches of Danube in the Danube Delta. It covers an area of approximately 2,825 ha (6,980 acres). This forest was the initial foundation of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, which has been declared a World Heritage Site. It was internationally recognized as a Biosphere Reserve under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme in 1992. It has a subtropical aspect, due to the presence of the tropical creeper named Periploca graeca. This is a Mediterranean plant which finds its most northern refuge in the Danube Delta. Along with this, types of liana and other climbing plants are woven on the branches of the trees, such as the wild vine, the hop plant and the ivy. Letea Forest is formed mainly from trees like white poplar, black poplar, elm tree, English oak, silver lime, narrow-leafed ash and common alder. Along with these ones above, it is completed by a rich scale of sub-shrub species. It is also home for a rich fauna like the red-footed falcon, the white-tailed eagle, the roller, the hoopoe, the Vipera ursinii and the Danube Delta horse. There are approximately 1600 insect species identified.

Crisan village

The village is located on the right Sulina branch, at the nautical mile number 13 of the spill (between 10-14 miles) on a narrow river grind, resulting in silt dug when it corrects the old route of the Danube. It is one of the youngest settlements in the county, arising from the merging of smaller fish villages, around 1900.

Tulcea city

Tulcea was founded in the 7th century B.C. under the name of Aegyssus, mentioned in the documents of Diodorus of Sicily (3rd century BC). In his Ex Ponto, Ovid recorded a local tradition that ascribed its name to a mythical founder, Aegisos the Caspian. After the fights from 12-15 A.D. the Romans conquered the town. They rebuilt it after their plans, their technique and architectural vision, reorganizing it. The fortified town was mentioned as late as the 10th century, in documents such as Notitia Episcopatuum or De Thematibus. Under Byzantine rule beginning with the 5th century A.D. the town was abandoned by the first half of the 7th century due to the Barbarian invasions. The former settlement's territory fell under the rule of the Bulgarian Empire (681-c.1000; 1185-14th century). Inhabitation was restored in the second half of the 10th century, as the Byzantines built a fortress on the spot after reconquering the region. The fortress was soon destroyed in 1064 by an attack of the Uzes, however some inhabitation continued. A settlement, larger than the one in the 11th century, is archaeologically attested beginning with the 14th century. The Ottoman rule was imposed around 1420, and would last for the following four centuries. The town was first documented under its modern name in 1506, in the Ottoman customs records. On that occasion it was described as an "important centre for the transit trade". Around 1848, it was still a small shipyard city, being awarded city status in 1860, when it became a province capital. It became a sanjak centre in Silistre Eyaleti in 1860 and Tuna Vilayeti in 1864. In 1853, The Times of London noted that "Toultcha" was "the last fortified place held by the Turks on the Danube, and which has a garrison of 1,200 men." In 1878 Tulcea was eventually awarded to Romania, together with the Northern Dobruja. Tulcea was occupied by the Central Powers between 1916-1918 during World War I and part of their condominium following the Treaty of Bucharest in May 1918 (until November 1918).

Sulina Branch

The Sulina Branch, shortest of the three branches, stretches 42 miles from Tulcea to Sulina. Although it carries only 18% of the Delta's total water flow, Sulina is the main navigation route for passenger and commercial traffic. A canal was dug between 1880 and 1902 to facilitate river traffic, shortening the natural course of the Sulina Branch and allowing for easier access to villages in the Delta.