Constanta – between myth and history

" TOMIS town origins interwove in the past until legends mystery of the Greek antiquity. This myth town took part, thus, in the fantastic life of the heroes and deities, when poetry embellished with wonders people deeds."

The legend says that 2500 years ago, coming back from an adventurous journey, the Greeks from Millet discovered, in a quiet gulf,  named  “Pontos Euxeinos”, a hospitable fortress, named Histria. They decided to land here for resting.

Established on this area at the beginning of the 7^th century, the Greeks founded the first colonies: Histria, Tomis and Callatis. Gradually, due to the dynamic  trade exchanges between the Greek colonists and the Gets leaders, the colonies proved to be an outstanding economic and commercial hub..

“Tomis” changed  to “Constanta”  between the 6^th  – 7^th centuries.

Tomis met with the greatest development under the yoke of the Roman Empire. In the park close to Ferdinand Avenue a visitor can admire even today a great part of the city enclosures, and a real out-door gallery with amphora's and columns .

In the early 8^th  century BC. the Latin poet Publius Ovidius Naso was exiled from the Roman court by Augustus emperor. The city has kept a nice memory of this poet, highly adulated in Rome sometime ago. The poet’s statue, built  by the sculptor Ettore Ferrari in 1887, is the homage paid by the city to the said “ poet of the sea”.

Between 4^th  and 6^th centuries  BC. the city became an archiepiscopal center, fact proved by numerous Christian inscriptions and monuments. Between 6^th and 7^th centuries, Tomis was often attacked by the barbarians.

The 9^th century has brought about reorganizing of the city under the Byzantine Empire domination. The history says that, the emperor Constantin the Great has renamed  Tomis city as Constantia, as the honor paid to his sister.

The Independence war (1877-1878) removed the Turkish yoke from the city of  Constanta, which regained the former name and became the residence of the region.  An intense process of the town’s modernizing has begun:  building of  Bucharest - Cernavoda railway (1860), modernizing of the old maritime port (1896-1909) and building of the grain elevator (1899-1909),  building of the bridge over the Danube river (1890-1895), all that turning Constanta in a main commercial hub and European port. Constanta, the third city of Romania, by the number of inhabitants was counting 339,250 inhabitants on 31st December 1999.

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