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Constanţa: From Tomis to Modern Port

Tomis was founded in the 7th century BC as a Greek colony and trading post. It later came under Roman rule and was renamed Constantiana. The city changed hands between the Byzantine Empire and Bulgarian Empire before falling under Ottoman control in the 15th century as Kustendje. Kustendje grew as an important port with the development of grain trading on the Danube in the 19th century. In 1878, it became part of Romania and was renamed Constanţa, developing into the country's largest and most important port city in the 20th century. Today, Constanţa remains one of Romania's main industrial and commercial centers centered around its large port facilities.

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85 views2 pages

Constanţa: From Tomis to Modern Port

Tomis was founded in the 7th century BC as a Greek colony and trading post. It later came under Roman rule and was renamed Constantiana. The city changed hands between the Byzantine Empire and Bulgarian Empire before falling under Ottoman control in the 15th century as Kustendje. Kustendje grew as an important port with the development of grain trading on the Danube in the 19th century. In 1878, it became part of Romania and was renamed Constanţa, developing into the country's largest and most important port city in the 20th century. Today, Constanţa remains one of Romania's main industrial and commercial centers centered around its large port facilities.

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ardcons
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CONSTANA

Tomis in Greek and Roman times


The Greek colony of Tomis was founded in the seventh century BC for commercial exchanges with
the local Getic population. It was a thriving settlement, a veritable relay between the Danubian area and the
Mediterranean markets. In 29 BC the Romans conquered the region from the local tribes and annexed it
under the name of Limes Scythicus. Tomis became now famous as the exile place of Ovid who lamented his
banishment from Rome in his famous poems Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto. The city was later the
metropolis of the Roman provinces of Moesia and Scythia Minor.

Roman mosaic

Ovids statue in central Constana (1909)

Constantiniana between the Balkan empires and the barbaric North


Since the fifth century, the city was caught in the vortex of a complicated political history. It
remained part of the Eastern Roman Empire, but was continuously besieged by the tribes that forced the
imperial limes. It was later renamed Constantiana, in honour of Constantia, the halfsister of Roman
Emperor Constantine the Great, but it was later conquered by the powerful Bulgarian empire. It was at times
mastered by local rulers, it probably hosted Genoese merchants when they dominated the Black Sea trade, it
was occupied in late 14th century by Wallachia and finally fell under Ottoman rule in early 15 th century.

The the Genoese lighthouse, built in the late 1850s

Kustendje in an engraving from 1828

Kustendje in Turkish times


As a Turkish settlement, Kustendje was affected by the declining trade of the Black Sea after the
closure of the Straits to foreign trade and shipping. It was described as a small village, often destroyed in the
18th and early 19th century during Russias military campaigns in the area. Its fortune changed after the
development of Danubian grain trade, when a railroad between Kustendje to the Danubian port of Cernavod
was opened in 1860 by a British company, interested to trade the rich agropastoral resources of the
Danubian hinterland.

Constana in early 20th century


Romanian Constana
In 1878, at the end of a RussianTurkish war in which Romania fought for her independence, the
Turkish province of Dobrudja was ceded to Romania. Constana became the countrys most important port
and the central authorities in Bucharest invested huge capitals for the modernisation of the harbour. After the
inauguration of a bridge over the Danube in 1895 and the linkage of the province to Romanias railway
network, the city flourished and soon became the largest Romanian portcity. It was greatly affected during
the world wars, but it remained the centre of significant investments in infrastructure, which has made it one
of the most economically developed municipalities of Romania.

Russian bombardments (1941)

The new, systematised city (1960s)

Constana in the 21st century


Constana is one of the most populated municipalities in Romania, with about 300,000 permanent
inhabitants and a metropolitan area with about 400,000 people. It is one of the country's main industrial and
commercial centres, an economic activity centred round its harbour. It is the largest port of the Black Sea and
among the first five ports of Europe. The Danube Black Sea Canal also turns Constana into a fluvial port,
the economic terminus point of the mighty European river. Tourism has been an increasingly important
activity in recent years, mostly due to the fashionable resort of Mamaia.

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