DOBROGEA HISTORY

:: MILLENARY HISTORY ::

In the heart of Dobrogea, at Baia (Hamangia), diggings brought forth an exceptional archeological inventory, the base of the Hamangia Neolithic Material Culture (4th-2nd millennia BC), with evidences all over the region (Gura Dobrogei, Cernavoda, Agigea etc.); in the northern part of the zone, at Tulcea, there was a Halstatt settlement where iron working was known (11th-7th centuries BC); on the bank of the ancient gulf Babadag, at Enisala, there lived the Thraco-Getae in the 9th-7th centuries BC; from the princely tumulus at Agighiol, excavators dug out objects of gilded silver (5th century BC); the fortifications of Aegyssus (Tulcea), Troesmis (Turcoaia), Argamum (Jurilovca), Axiopolis (Cernavoda), Histria - the oldest town in the country's territory; museum - Tomis (Constanta), Callatis (Mangalia) are only a few of the foundations by the Greek colonists come from Milet (7th-6th centuries BC), intent to keep relations with the local Thraco-Getae. The Romans, who pushed them aside (1st century BC - 4th century AD), trying to protect their empire at the northern frontier, created there one of the most grandiose constructions of the ancient world - LIMES SCYTHICUS, a chain of fortresses on the Danube banks, often on the sites of earlier structures, a genuine "Chinese Wall" of the Balkans, that stood until around the year 600. Since the 2nd-3rd centuries, were added the fortifications of Altina (Oltina), Sacidava (Dunareni), Capidava, Carsium (Harsova), Civs (Garliciu), Beroe (Piatra-Frecatei), Arubium (Macin), Dinogetia (Garvan), Noviodunum (Isaccea). we should also record here, as singular in the epoch the settlement of Adamclisi, which was equally a Roman stronghold, part of the Limes (2nd century AD), and the site where Tropaeum Traiani (106 AD) was built, the most impressive triumphal memorial built in Roman provinces (40 meters high, 54 metopae; museum). Followed the years when Dobrogea embraced the Christian faith promoted by Saint Andrew; and the first victims too, were recorded (at Niculitel, the Martyricon of of the 4th century was restored).

:: THE MIDDLE AGES ::

Upon Roman matrix, at Dinogetia (Garvan) appeared after the year 968 the elements "...fo the oldest medieval town archeologically documented in our country's territory", whereas at Basarabi, still insufficiently identified local people were carving in chalk a compound singular in the country: churches, living rooms, funerary chambers, corridors, galleries with drawings and inscriptions. In the 10th-13th centuries, Genoese sailors used the ports of Dobrogea, they were building fortifications (Enisala), while autochthonous political-administrative formations were run by Balica, by Dobrotici (hence, probably also the name of Dobrogea), and after 1390 by Mircea the Old, Prince of Wallachia "...and master of either parts all over the Danube and down to the big Sea and the city of Darstor". A quite particular presence is the fortification at Pacuiul lui Soare, on a Danube isle: a naval base after 970, overlapped by settlements of the 9th-14-th centuries. Selgiucide Turks, then Ottomans appeared in Dobrogea around 1260 and continued to coexist with the Romanians as well as with the Tartars and Lipovans colonized in the Dobrogean space along the years. The museum in the town of Babadag is the repository of numerous evidences of the medieval oriental culture.

:: historical places in Dobrogea region ::