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Constanța is the oldest inhabited city in Romania, and its history goes back to its foundation around the year 600 BC. The city was established as Greek Tomis, and the name is said to come from the queen Tomyris, who was ruler of the Massagetes. After the Greek start, the city and the coastline later became part of the Roman Empire and then the Byzantine Empire.
Tomis’ name was changed in the Byzantine era to Constantiana in honor of Constantia, who was the sister of Emperor Constantine the Great. The first known use of the new name dates from the year 950, and approximately 500 years followed under the rule of various kingdoms before Constantiana became part of the Ottoman Empire around 1419.
After the Romanian War of Independence in 1878, Constanța and the Black Sea coast became part of Romania, and Constanța became the country’s largest port city. The railway had also come to the city, and hotels and the city’s famous casino were built for the international wealthy who came to the coastal city.
As part of Romania, churches and several public buildings were built in the Romanian style, and today you can see many of the houses from this time. You can also see excavated ruins of the old Tomis, such as a large find of Roman mosaics. One should also enjoy a stroll along the Black Sea and take a dip along the lovely beaches of the suburb of Mamaia.
Constanța Casino is a casino building that today stands as one of Constanța’s landmarks. The casino was first built on the city’s waterfront in 1880, but both this and the following casino building were demolished before the current casino was completed in 1910. The architecture was beautiful art nouveau like many of the leading buildings of the day.
The casino was in operation until 1948, with breaks and bombings during the world wars of the 20th century, and for a time it was also set up as a hospital. In 1948, the casino building took on a new function as a kind of popular cultural center in the new Romania. From 1960, the beautiful casino was remodeled to house a large restaurant, which not least many tourists used.
The construction of the casino was an important part of the political life in the city at the beginning of the 20th century. The architect Daniel Richard was commissioned by the city’s liberal government, and his art nouveau project was started. However, the opposition won political power and Richard was replaced by Petre Antonescu and a neo-Romanian style was chosen. However, the Liberals regained power and Richard was once again put in charge of the project, which was once again restarted within a few years and this time completed with the opening in 1910.
After opening, the casino was tendered for operation in 1912 and Edgar de Marcay won the contract with the Society of Great Establishments. As part of the deal, the company built the posh Palace Hotel close to the casino in order to attract the wealthy and the upper class to Constanța, and it succeeded. The casino and hotel attracted wealthy people from all over the world, and among the guests was the Russian Tsar family.
The Roman Mosaic Building is the name of the place where, in 1959, remains were found from Tomis, which was the historic city on the site where Constanța is located today. Significant remains of Roman mosaics were found during an excavation in the center of ancient Tomis, and the mosaics were preserved and a museum building was erected over them.
There are almost 2,000 square meters of mosaics and they are believed to date from the 4th century during the reign of Constantine the Great. It is also believed that the mosaics were partially changed continuously until the beginning of the 6th century. The mosaics were located in a central location in Tomis, where several terraces with various roofs connected the city with the then port.
Remains of some of the buildings that were on the terraces have also been preserved, and based on them it is estimated that the large mosaic floor was under a hall with columns and arches. The columns were decorated with capitals, which were decorated with, among other things, acanthus leaves and figures of animals, and overall the complex constituted Tomis’ old harbor building.
At the local museum, you can of course see the impressive mosaics, and here are also exhibited many finds that were made in what used to be the harbor and the harbor building. These are, for example, goods and equipment from ships, warehouses and the port building. You can thus see amphorae, anchors, statuettes and much more.
In 1878, part of the Black Sea coast became part of Romania, and Remus Opreanu became the first prefect of the Constanța region. Opreanu proposed that an archaeological museum be established for the history of the area. The museum was founded and its collections expanded and stored in several locations until, in 1928, it moved into part of the city’s town hall.
The museum’s collections expanded all the time, and in the years 1957-1977 the museum was located in the archbishop’s palace, which had been opened in 1934 and restored after the destruction of World War II before opening as a museum. The museum moved out of the palace, which again today serves as the residence of the archbishop in the city.
Since 1977, the Historical and Archaeological Museum has been located in the city’s now former town hall building, which in itself is a beautiful building in neo-Romanian architecture. The old town hall was designed by the architect Victor Ștefănescu and it was inaugurated in 1921.
There are many exciting exhibitions and finds to see at the museum. You can experience fine old sculptures that have been found in the region over the years. There are also themes that convey the history of the Romanian Black Sea region, and at the museum you can also learn about the recent history of Constanța.
Piața Ovidiu is the central square in the center of Constanța. It was formerly called Independence Square, but today is named after the Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso. It was here on Piața Ovidiu that the city’s large town hall building was built in its time, which today is set up as the Historical and Archaeological Museum. The old town hall was inaugurated in neo-Romanian style in 1921.
In front of the old town hall you can see a statue of Publius Ovidius Naso. The statue was produced by the Italian sculptor Ettore Ferrari in 1887, and in Ferrari’s hometown of Sulmona, a copy of the statue was later found in Constanța. The statue was the first to be erected in the city after Constanța came under Romanian administration, and therefore it has a special significance.
Piața Ovidiu was laid out at the end of the 1800s, and in the 1890s an attempt was made to align some of the buildings to create a nicer urban space. There were, among other things, a hotel and a cinema on the eastern side of the square, but these can no longer be seen. Far to the east, however, you can see a building from the square’s early days; here is the corner building from the years after 1910, which was designed by Petre Antonescu.
Next to the old town hall building is an area to the south where you can see various archaeological finds from the site. These are set up to show fragments of Constanța’s history as Tomis. Next to the area is the Roman Mosaic Building, and this whole area formed the connection between the city and the port of the historic Tomis.
The Genoese Lighthouse that stands on the waterfront in Constanța. The approximately 8 meter high tower was built in its original style around the year 1300 by the city-state of Genoa, which ran an important trade in the city. With the lighthouse, the ships could be guided the last kilometers into Constanța’s then relatively small port.
The current lighthouse is the result of a reconstruction that took place in 1858-1860 by the French-Armenian engineer Artin Aslan. The reconstruction was carried out by the English company, Danube and Black Sea Railway co. Limited in memory of the former Genoese merchants and their trade.
Constanța Archaeological Park is an exciting place where the city has created a special experience by exhibiting a number of archaeological finds from the Roman and Byzantine periods of the historic Tomis Fortress in a green area in the middle of Constanța. When you walk along the paths of the park, it is as if you are in an open-air archaeological museum.
There are several entrances to the park, but it is recommended to take the main entrance to the north along Bulevardul Ferdinand street. Here lies a preserved part of the old Roman wall from the 2nd century Tomis, and on a house facade there is a colossal map showing the various settlements in the Roman-era region called Dobrogea. Here is also a small map that marks the location of what was Tomis.
After the entrance to the archaeological park, you can see remains of some buildings from Tomis, and here are various finds, which are exhibited along the park’s paths. It is quite impressive and a good way to experience impressions from the historical Tomis in the context of today’s Romanian metropolis.
Saint Peter and Paul Cathedral is the seat of the Romanian Orthodox Archbishop of the Diocese of Tomis, where Constanța is located. The cathedral was built 1883-1885 as an ordinary parish church according to the design of architects Alexandru Orăscu and Carol Benesch.
Constanța was established as a bishop’s seat in 1923, and in the same year Saints Peter and Paul received the status of a cathedral. The church was destroyed by bombing in 1941, and after a reconstruction 1946-1951 it was reopened. At the opening, the bishop’s seat was moved to Galați, and thus St. Peter and Paul was once again a parish church. In 1975, the church again became the episcopal seat, and it became the seat of the archbishop in 1990, when the Diocese of Tomis was re-established.
The cathedral was built in Greco-Roman style with a beautiful facade and a 35 meter high tower. The beautiful exterior continues with a fine church room with, among other things, a beautiful icon wall and frescoes. Several relics are also kept in the cathedral; Among other things, of Saint Pantaleon and Auxentius of Bithynia.
You can also take a look at the cathedral’s surroundings. Directly opposite the church building, you can see the Archbishop’s Palace/Palatul Arhiepiscopiei Tomisului, which was built from 1925 and consecrated in 1934. Just south of the cathedral, you can see some of the preserved ruins of the city of Tomis, which was the Greek forerunner of today’s Constanța.
The Museum of Folk Art was established as part of the Constanța Art Museum in 1975, and in 1980 the museum was made an independent collection. Since then, the museum has established itself among the leading museums in Romania in the field of folk art, and it is a fine collection that you can experience here today.
The museum building is worth seeing in itself and stands as one of Constanța’s beautiful architectural works from the late 1800s. The house was built in 1893 as the town’s town hall. Later it was converted into a post office, and today it functions as a museum building.
The museum’s collections consist of a wide selection of folk art from different regions all over Romania and of course also from the area around Constanța. Here are i.a. icons painted on wood, ceramics, folk costumes, glass and various handicrafts. It is an interesting collection that gives a good impression of Romanian folk life in different regions and periods.
The Constanța Art Museum is an interesting museum that functions as a regional museum for various arts. The museum was established based on the city’s collection of paintings and sculptures that were previously exhibited at Constanța’s town hall. Added to this were works transferred from the National Art Museum of Romania, and the collection has also been expanded several times through donations.
The art museum is located in a complex of an old building from 1895 with neoclassical elements and a modern building from the early 1980s. In the buildings, there are various exhibitions, where overall you get a good impression through the works of many Romanian artists and from the area around Constanța.
You can thus see works by painters and sculptors such as Theodor Aman, Nicolae Grigorescu and Ioan Andreescu. Here are also fine paintings from Constanța, where it is not least the seafront that has inspired the artists. In terms of period, the collection at the museum ranges widely, and here, among other things, a fine collection from the interwar period in the 20th century and of contemporary art.
The Palace Hotel is an important hotel from Constanța’s early 20th century history and is closely related to the construction of the famous Constanța Casino/Cazinoul din Constanța. The casino was completed on the city’s promenade in 1910, and two years later the city held an auction for the concession to operate the casino as an establishment for the wealthy and nobles from around the world.
The mayor’s office in the city decided that the construction of a distinguished hotel for the casino’s guests should be part of the concession agreement, and when Edgar de Marcay won the contract with the Society of Great Establishments, he was to be responsible for the construction of the hotel, and it became the Palace Hotel.
Baron Edgar de Marcay hired the architect Daniel Richard to design the hotel. Richard had already been responsible for the design of the Constanța Casino, and with the hotel he continued his work in the city. Inaugurated in 1914, the Palace Hotel’s eclectic style was inspired by posh hotels along the French Riviera.
The hotel was run by the Society of Great Establishments until 1928, when the hotel changed hands. For the following many decades, the fine building lived a changing existence; for example, first the Germans and later the Soviet Union used the place in connection with the Second World War. Later, the hotel was converted into residences, before being converted into hotel operations again in 1972.
Along Constanța’s promenade along the Black Sea is the Naval Headquarters and thus the command of the Romanian Navy. The headquarters is located in one of the city’s old buildings, and the building has been owned by the Ministry of Defense since 1978. It was renovated in the 1980s.
The beautiful headquarters were built 1879-1881 by the railway company The Danube & Black Sea Railway. It was then the first hotel in Constanța, and it was called Hotel Terminus. Electricity was installed in the hotel in 1905, and it continued as a hotel in the first half of the 20th century; later under the name Hotel Carol.
The construction of the hotel was linked to The Danube and Black Sea Railway’s activities in the Black Sea region. Already in the 1850s, the company had received permission to build a railway between the town of Cernavodă on the Danube and Constanța. The line was completed in 1860, it enabled transport between the ships on the Danube and the important port of Constanța.
The Greek Church in Constanța is one of the city’s older churches. It was built in the years 1865-1867 in accordance with a so-called ferman or permission from the Ottoman Sultan Abdulaziz. The church was built in a compact design without tall spires or towers, which was due to the fact that churches were not allowed to be taller than mosques in the Ottoman Empire.
As the name suggests, the church was built as a Greek church by the city’s Greek congregation. Over the years, however, it became necessary to raise funds for the building’s maintenance, and therefore the Romanian Orthodox Church was asked to take over the church. It was approved in 1974, and therefore subsequently there have been fairs in both Greek and Romanian.
Inside you can see an atmospheric church room with columns, arches and balconies. The marble used was sourced from Greece, and the church’s icons were painted by the church painter Aghiograf, who was sourced from Athos for the purpose. Over the years, the congregation donated a number of items to the church, which in 1947 was equipped with a small bell tower.
Saint Nicholas Church was built in the late 1890s by the Bulgarian congregation in Constanța. The church was of course fitted out for Bulgarian ceremonies, but the architecture itself was Romanian, and Romanian Ioanid Batranul created some of the church’s artwork.
After 1940, Saint Nicholas Church was placed under the Romanian Orthodox Church and founded Tomis. In connection with this transition, the Constanța city council hired the church painter Ion Musceleanu to change the church’s paintings, and the inscriptions were simultaneously changed from Bulgarian to Romanian.
The parish church served as the city’s cathedral in the years 1941-1946, as bombings in connection with World War II had destroyed the nearby cathedral in Constanța. After World War II, the church was temporarily used by the town’s Protestant congregation, and it also closed for a number of years. Saint Nicholas Church was reopened on 6 December 1987, which happened to be the day of the church’s patron saint.
The Constanța Great Mosque was built from 1910 on the initiative of the Romanian King Carol I. The mosque was also originally called Carol I Moské/Moscheea Carol I, and it was built for the Muslim congregation in the Dobrogea region along Romania’s Black Sea coast. The project was partially financed by the country’s government, and the inauguration took place in 1913 with a visit by Carol I.
In this very place Mahmudia Mosque/Geamia Mahmudia was built in 1822. It was named after Sultan Mahmud II, who ruled during the years when the mosque was built. At the inauguration of the new and current mosque, the chief architect Victor Ștefănescu was presented with the Ottoman mecidiye order, which had been awarded by Sultan Mehmed V.
The mosque’s architecture was inspired by, among other things a mosque in Konya, and stylistically the mosque draws on Egyptian, Byzantine and Romanesque details. Stone and brick were used for most of the mosque, while reinforced concrete was used for the dome and minaret. This made the mosque the first building in Romania to be built with reinforced concrete.
The Romanian Naval Museum is an interesting museum that tells and shows the history of navigation, seafaring and marine in the Romanian area. There is both an indoor and an outdoor exhibition at the interesting museum.
The museum’s exhibitions are divided so that you get through the history from ancient seafaring and navigation to the modern fleet. Life on and by the water is depicted, just as you can take a closer look at river traffic, the development of ports, shipyards and much else that has been important throughout history.
Behind the museum building there is a museum garden that is also interesting to see. Here there are, among other things, anchors, screws, gun turrets and some artillery on display, and there are also several vessels in the garden. An example is the Soviet minesweeper, Project 151, which was purchased by Romania in 1957 and was an active part of the fleet until 1976.
Just north of Constanța, an approximately 8 kilometer long strip of land extends between the Black Sea and the Siutghiol lagoon. The long stretch is about 300 meters wide, and here lies the resort area of Mamaia. Mamaia is Romania’s most popular seaside resort, and here are hotels, restaurants and various activities along the lovely sandy beach of the Black Sea.
Mamaia was continuously developed from the 1900s, when the pleasant climate increasingly attracted tourists, and Mamaia became one of the resort areas that the country built to bring foreign tourists to Romania. Today there are i.a. a large water park, a cable car and activities along the beaches that receive the most tourists from June to September.
The Tropaeum Traiani is an impressive monument built in 109 as a symbol of Emperor Trajan’s victory over the Dacians of the area in the winter of 101-102. It happened as a result of the Battle of Adamclisi, and it is in the same place that the monument can be seen today. The original monument was built to scare local tribes from fighting the Romans.
The current monument is a reconstruction from the 1970s, which was built based on a possible appearance of the original Tropaeum Traiani. Many of the original decorations, such as metopes with Roman armies, can be seen in the nearby museum.
Podul Anghel Saligny is the name of an impressive bridge that crosses the river Danube at the town of Cernavodă. The bridge was built 1890-1895, and with a length of over 4 km including approaches, it opened as Europe’s longest bridge. King Carol I was present at both the start of construction and the opening of the bridge.
The bridge was originally named after King Carol I of Romania, but it was later renamed to its current name, which refers to the engineer Anghel Saligny. Saligny stood among other things behind the construction of the railway bridge over the Danube on the stretch from Fetești to Cernavodă.
The long railway bridge was the only one in use until 1987, when the new Cernavodă bridges were opened to carry both road and rail over the Danube’s two river arms immediately west of Cernavodă. However, you can still enjoy the sight of Anghel Saligny’s beautiful engineering company, and at Cernavodă you can also see Romania’s first nuclear power plant.
Bulevardul Alexandru Lăpușneanu, Strada Soveja
city-park.ro
Strada Ștefan cel Mare 36-40
tomis.ro
Bulevardul Aurel Vlaicu 220
vivo-shopping.com
Strada Ștefan cel Mare, Bulevardul Tomis
Delfinariu Constanța
Bulevardul Mamaia 255
delfinariu.ro
Planetariu Constanța
Bulevardul Mamaia 255
delfinariu.ro
Grădina Zoologică
Bulevardul Mamaia 255
delfinariu.ro
Akvariu
Bulevardul Regina Elisabeta 1
delfinariu.ro
Aqua Magic
Bulevardul Mamaia 335
aqua-magic.ro
Plaja Modern, Plaja Trei Papuci og Mamaia
Telegondola Mamaia
Statie Pornire Perla/Bulevardul Mamaia to Stație Terminus Albatros/Cazino
telegondolamamaia.ro
Constanta Constanța, Romania
Overview of Constanța
Constanța is the oldest inhabited city in Romania, and its history goes back to its foundation around the year 600 BC. The city was established as Greek Tomis, and the name is said to come from the queen Tomyris, who was ruler of the Massagetes. After the Greek start, the city and the coastline later became part of the Roman Empire and then the Byzantine Empire.
Tomis’ name was changed in the Byzantine era to Constantiana in honor of Constantia, who was the sister of Emperor Constantine the Great. The first known use of the new name dates from the year 950, and approximately 500 years followed under the rule of various kingdoms before Constantiana became part of the Ottoman Empire around 1419.
After the Romanian War of Independence in 1878, Constanța and the Black Sea coast became part of Romania, and Constanța became the country’s largest port city. The railway had also come to the city, and hotels and the city’s famous casino were built for the international wealthy who came to the coastal city.
About the Whitehorse travel guide
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Language: English
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The Genoese Lighthouse that stands on the waterfront in Constanța. The approximately 8 meter high tower was built in its original style around the year 1300 by the city-state of Genoa, which ran an important trade in the city. With the lighthouse, the ships could be guided the last kilometers into Constanța’s then relatively small port.
The current lighthouse is the result of a reconstruction that took place in 1858-1860 by the French-Armenian engineer Artin Aslan. The reconstruction was carried out by the English company, Danube and Black Sea Railway co. Limited in memory of the former Genoese merchants and their trade.
Constanța Archaeological Park is an exciting place where the city has created a special experience by exhibiting a number of archaeological finds from the Roman and Byzantine periods of the historic Tomis Fortress in a green area in the middle of Constanța. When you walk along the paths of the park, it is as if you are in an open-air archaeological museum.
There are several entrances to the park, but it is recommended to take the main entrance to the north along Bulevardul Ferdinand street. Here lies a preserved part of the old Roman wall from the 2nd century Tomis, and on a house facade there is a colossal map showing the various settlements in the Roman-era region called Dobrogea. Here is also a small map that marks the location of what was Tomis.
After the entrance to the archaeological park, you can see remains of some buildings from Tomis, and here are various finds, which are exhibited along the park’s paths. It is quite impressive and a good way to experience impressions from the historical Tomis in the context of today’s Romanian metropolis.
Saint Peter and Paul Cathedral is the seat of the Romanian Orthodox Archbishop of the Diocese of Tomis, where Constanța is located. The cathedral was built 1883-1885 as an ordinary parish church according to the design of architects Alexandru Orăscu and Carol Benesch.
Constanța was established as a bishop’s seat in 1923, and in the same year Saints Peter and Paul received the status of a cathedral. The church was destroyed by bombing in 1941, and after a reconstruction 1946-1951 it was reopened. At the opening, the bishop’s seat was moved to Galați, and thus St. Peter and Paul was once again a parish church. In 1975, the church again became the episcopal seat, and it became the seat of the archbishop in 1990, when the Diocese of Tomis was re-established.
The cathedral was built in Greco-Roman style with a beautiful facade and a 35 meter high tower. The beautiful exterior continues with a fine church room with, among other things, a beautiful icon wall and frescoes. Several relics are also kept in the cathedral; Among other things, of Saint Pantaleon and Auxentius of Bithynia.
You can also take a look at the cathedral’s surroundings. Directly opposite the church building, you can see the Archbishop’s Palace/Palatul Arhiepiscopiei Tomisului, which was built from 1925 and consecrated in 1934. Just south of the cathedral, you can see some of the preserved ruins of the city of Tomis, which was the Greek forerunner of today’s Constanța.
The Museum of Folk Art was established as part of the Constanța Art Museum in 1975, and in 1980 the museum was made an independent collection. Since then, the museum has established itself among the leading museums in Romania in the field of folk art, and it is a fine collection that you can experience here today.
The museum building is worth seeing in itself and stands as one of Constanța’s beautiful architectural works from the late 1800s. The house was built in 1893 as the town’s town hall. Later it was converted into a post office, and today it functions as a museum building.
The museum’s collections consist of a wide selection of folk art from different regions all over Romania and of course also from the area around Constanța. Here are i.a. icons painted on wood, ceramics, folk costumes, glass and various handicrafts. It is an interesting collection that gives a good impression of Romanian folk life in different regions and periods.
The Constanța Art Museum is an interesting museum that functions as a regional museum for various arts. The museum was established based on the city’s collection of paintings and sculptures that were previously exhibited at Constanța’s town hall. Added to this were works transferred from the National Art Museum of Romania, and the collection has also been expanded several times through donations.
The art museum is located in a complex of an old building from 1895 with neoclassical elements and a modern building from the early 1980s. In the buildings, there are various exhibitions, where overall you get a good impression through the works of many Romanian artists and from the area around Constanța.
You can thus see works by painters and sculptors such as Theodor Aman, Nicolae Grigorescu and Ioan Andreescu. Here are also fine paintings from Constanța, where it is not least the seafront that has inspired the artists. In terms of period, the collection at the museum ranges widely, and here, among other things, a fine collection from the interwar period in the 20th century and of contemporary art.
The Palace Hotel is an important hotel from Constanța’s early 20th century history and is closely related to the construction of the famous Constanța Casino/Cazinoul din Constanța. The casino was completed on the city’s promenade in 1910, and two years later the city held an auction for the concession to operate the casino as an establishment for the wealthy and nobles from around the world.
The mayor’s office in the city decided that the construction of a distinguished hotel for the casino’s guests should be part of the concession agreement, and when Edgar de Marcay won the contract with the Society of Great Establishments, he was to be responsible for the construction of the hotel, and it became the Palace Hotel.
Baron Edgar de Marcay hired the architect Daniel Richard to design the hotel. Richard had already been responsible for the design of the Constanța Casino, and with the hotel he continued his work in the city. Inaugurated in 1914, the Palace Hotel’s eclectic style was inspired by posh hotels along the French Riviera.
The hotel was run by the Society of Great Establishments until 1928, when the hotel changed hands. For the following many decades, the fine building lived a changing existence; for example, first the Germans and later the Soviet Union used the place in connection with the Second World War. Later, the hotel was converted into residences, before being converted into hotel operations again in 1972.
Along Constanța’s promenade along the Black Sea is the Naval Headquarters and thus the command of the Romanian Navy. The headquarters is located in one of the city’s old buildings, and the building has been owned by the Ministry of Defense since 1978. It was renovated in the 1980s.
The beautiful headquarters were built 1879-1881 by the railway company The Danube & Black Sea Railway. It was then the first hotel in Constanța, and it was called Hotel Terminus. Electricity was installed in the hotel in 1905, and it continued as a hotel in the first half of the 20th century; later under the name Hotel Carol.
The construction of the hotel was linked to The Danube and Black Sea Railway’s activities in the Black Sea region. Already in the 1850s, the company had received permission to build a railway between the town of Cernavodă on the Danube and Constanța. The line was completed in 1860, it enabled transport between the ships on the Danube and the important port of Constanța.
The Greek Church in Constanța is one of the city’s older churches. It was built in the years 1865-1867 in accordance with a so-called ferman or permission from the Ottoman Sultan Abdulaziz. The church was built in a compact design without tall spires or towers, which was due to the fact that churches were not allowed to be taller than mosques in the Ottoman Empire.
As the name suggests, the church was built as a Greek church by the city’s Greek congregation. Over the years, however, it became necessary to raise funds for the building’s maintenance, and therefore the Romanian Orthodox Church was asked to take over the church. It was approved in 1974, and therefore subsequently there have been fairs in both Greek and Romanian.
Inside you can see an atmospheric church room with columns, arches and balconies. The marble used was sourced from Greece, and the church’s icons were painted by the church painter Aghiograf, who was sourced from Athos for the purpose. Over the years, the congregation donated a number of items to the church, which in 1947 was equipped with a small bell tower.
Saint Nicholas Church was built in the late 1890s by the Bulgarian congregation in Constanța. The church was of course fitted out for Bulgarian ceremonies, but the architecture itself was Romanian, and Romanian Ioanid Batranul created some of the church’s artwork.
After 1940, Saint Nicholas Church was placed under the Romanian Orthodox Church and founded Tomis. In connection with this transition, the Constanța city council hired the church painter Ion Musceleanu to change the church’s paintings, and the inscriptions were simultaneously changed from Bulgarian to Romanian.
The parish church served as the city’s cathedral in the years 1941-1946, as bombings in connection with World War II had destroyed the nearby cathedral in Constanța. After World War II, the church was temporarily used by the town’s Protestant congregation, and it also closed for a number of years. Saint Nicholas Church was reopened on 6 December 1987, which happened to be the day of the church’s patron saint.
The Constanța Great Mosque was built from 1910 on the initiative of the Romanian King Carol I. The mosque was also originally called Carol I Moské/Moscheea Carol I, and it was built for the Muslim congregation in the Dobrogea region along Romania’s Black Sea coast. The project was partially financed by the country’s government, and the inauguration took place in 1913 with a visit by Carol I.
In this very place Mahmudia Mosque/Geamia Mahmudia was built in 1822. It was named after Sultan Mahmud II, who ruled during the years when the mosque was built. At the inauguration of the new and current mosque, the chief architect Victor Ștefănescu was presented with the Ottoman mecidiye order, which had been awarded by Sultan Mehmed V.
The mosque’s architecture was inspired by, among other things a mosque in Konya, and stylistically the mosque draws on Egyptian, Byzantine and Romanesque details. Stone and brick were used for most of the mosque, while reinforced concrete was used for the dome and minaret. This made the mosque the first building in Romania to be built with reinforced concrete.
The Romanian Naval Museum is an interesting museum that tells and shows the history of navigation, seafaring and marine in the Romanian area. There is both an indoor and an outdoor exhibition at the interesting museum.
The museum’s exhibitions are divided so that you get through the history from ancient seafaring and navigation to the modern fleet. Life on and by the water is depicted, just as you can take a closer look at river traffic, the development of ports, shipyards and much else that has been important throughout history.
Behind the museum building there is a museum garden that is also interesting to see. Here there are, among other things, anchors, screws, gun turrets and some artillery on display, and there are also several vessels in the garden. An example is the Soviet minesweeper, Project 151, which was purchased by Romania in 1957 and was an active part of the fleet until 1976.
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