Tulcea City

Tulcea (Romanian pronunciation: [tultcea]; Bulgarian, Russian and Ukrainian: Тулча, Tulcha; Greek: Aegyssus, Turkish: Hora-Tepé or Tolçu) is a city in Dobrogea, Romania. It is the administrative center of Tulcea county, and has a population of 91,875 as of 2002. One village, Tudor Vladimirescu, is administered by the city.

History

Tulcea was founded in the 7th century BC[citation needed] under the name of Aegyssus, mentioned in the documents of Diodorus of Sicily (3rd century BC). Ovid referred to it in Ex Ponto, saying that its name would have originated with that of its founder, a Dacian named Carpyus Aegyssus.

After the fights from 12-15 B.C., the Romans conquered the town. They rebuilt it after their plans, their technique and architectural vision, reorganizing it. The existing ruined walls and defending towers serve as a testimony of this. Also an inscription found at the Tulcea Museum of Archaeology mentions the name Aegyssus for the town. The Aegyssus fortified town is mentioned also by other documents until the 10th century: Notitia Episcopatum in political geography "De Thematicus".
Tulcea at the end of the 19th century

It was then ruled by the Byzantine Empire (5th - 7th century), the Bulgarian Empire (681-c.1000; 1185-14th century) [2] [3] [4] [5], the Genoese (10th - 13th century), it was part of the local Dobrujan polities of Balik/Balica, Dobrotitsa/Dobrotici, and, for a brief while after 1390, ruled by the Wallachian Prince Mircea cel Bătrân.

In 1416 it was conquered and ruled for 460 years by the Ottoman Empire.

In the 17th century Tulcea was mentioned by the Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi as a settlement with 600 houses, inhabited by Vlachs.

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 1878 Tulcea was eventually awarded to Romania, together with the Northern Dobruja (see Congress of Berlin). Tulcea was occupied by Bulgaria between 1916-1918 during World War I.

Today, Tulcea is the site of the Concursul George Georgescu, a music competition created by teachers at the Tulcea Arts High School and held annually since 1992. Named in honor of conductor George Georgescu (1887-1964), an important figure in the development of Romanian classical music who was born in the surrounding county, it was at first open only to Romanian music school and high school students but began admitting international students in 1995. Organizers include the Romanian Ministry of Education and Youth, the School Inspectorate of Tulcea County, the Tulcea County Council, the Tulcea Mayoralty, and surviving members of Georgescu's family.

According to the 2002 census, Tulcea has a population of 91,875 inhabitants, 91.3% of which are ethnic Romanian. Significant minority groups include Lippovan Russians (making up 2.78% of the total population), and Turks (1.4%). Most of the indigenous Bulgarians left the town in 1941 in accordance with the Treaty of Craiova.