Fortresses and monuments of Dobruja

Milesian, 6th century BC. Under Rome it headed the Left Pontus. Ovidius wrote Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto here, 8–17 AD. The mosaic building still shows the money. Renamed Constantiana in the 6th century. The only Dobruja citadel never left empty.

Late 6th century BC, Doric, on older Getic ground. Wealth came from the fields. An early treaty with Rome. The papyrus tomb came up in 1959. Mangalia was built over it.

Argamum, called Orgame by Greeks, is the first settlement on today's Romanian territory mentioned in a written source: geographer Hecataeus of Miletus cites it as early as the 6th century BC. The city was founded in the 7th century BC on the cliffs of Cape Doloșman, above a sea gulf that would much later become Razim lagoon. In its necropolis was discovered the oldest known Greek tomb in the western Black Sea basin. The fortress lived until the 7th century AD, passing through Greek, Roman, and Byzantine eras, and left paleo-Christian basilicas and walls stopping at the cliff edge.

The name Capidava means, in Getic, "settlement at the bend": here was one of the Danube's great fords, used long before the Romans came. The fort was raised in Trajan's era by soldiers of Legions V Macedonica and XI Claudia, as a link in the Danube limes. Destroyed by Goths in the 3rd century, the fortress was rebuilt and lived a second life in Byzantine times, when in the 10th century a flourishing settlement developed here. The end came in the 11th century, under Pecheneg blows. Massive walls, with towers and gate, were restored and still dominate the river.

Carsium was raised in 103 AD, on Trajan's orders, on limestone cliffs dominating the Danube at Hârșova, one of the few places where the river can be crossed easily. Ala II Hispanorum was stationed here, a cavalry unit patrolling the ford. The position was so valuable that the fortification did not die with Rome: Byzantines rebuilt it, then Ottomans raised a new fortress over it, which played an important role in Russo-Turkish wars. Ottoman walls were demolished in 1829, at Russia's request, by the Treaty of Adrianople. Beneath them, archaeologists still uncover layers of nearly two thousand years of fortifications.

At Isaccea, the Danube has the most important ford in northern Dobrogea, used by whole armies through history: tradition says Darius's Persians crossed here in the Scythian campaign, and later Goths, Slavs, and Kievan princes. Romans understood the place's value and made Noviodunum base of the Danube fleet, Classis Flavia Moesica, raising the city to municipium rank. The fortress was destroyed and rebuilt countless times, but remained inhabited almost without interruption, through Byzantine and Ottoman times, until today's Isaccea. It is one of the Danube's longest-lived fortified points.

Halmyris was the last Roman fortress on the Sfântu Gheorghe branch, raised where in antiquity the Danube poured into the sea: today the shoreline has shifted kilometres east. The fortification operated from the 1st to the 7th century, as military port and customs point. In 290 AD, priest Epictet and young Astion were killed here, the oldest Christian martyrs attested in documents on Romanian territory. In 2001, archaeologists discovered the two men's bones in the basilica crypt, an exceptional find that made the site a place of pilgrimage. A monastery bearing their feast day was built beside the ruins.

Dinogetia was raised on a rocky island in Danube marshes, at the bend where the river turns east, facing today's Galați. The late Roman fortification, built in Diocletian's era, had thick walls with 14 horseshoe-shaped towers, preserved in places up to 3 metres high. After centuries of silence, the fortress revived in Byzantine times, between the 10th and 12th centuries, when an entire settlement of dugouts crowded between the walls. From this period come a brick church, among Romania's oldest, and one of the richest collections of early medieval objects in the country.

Ulmetum, "place of elms", was a Roman rural settlement raised at the crossroads of roads linking the Danube to Black Sea ports, in open Dobrogean steppe. Unlike fortresses on the river or coast, Ulmetum shows how farmers and cattle breeders of the province lived. The fortress was rebuilt in Justinian's era, in the 6th century, when the empire fortified its borders one last time, and perished soon after, under Avar-Slav waves. It was Vasile Pârvan's first major archaeological site, excavated here between 1911 and 1914, laying foundations of the Romanian school of archaeology.

Troesmis was one of the Roman fortifications on the Danube bank in northern Dobrogea, raised to control river traffic and fords in the area. The fort operated from the 1st to the 4th–6th centuries, passing through Byzantine rebuilds. Archaeological excavations brought to light enclosure walls, towers, interior buildings, and inscriptions attesting legions and auxiliary cohorts. Today ruins are partially consolidated and visible beside the road to Turcoaia.

Aegyssus (or Aegissus) was the ancient settlement at the Danube bend where Tulcea stands today. Getae used it as a river crossing point; Romans fortified it and integrated it into the Danube defensive system. The city prospered as river port and gateway to the Danube Delta, mentioned by ancient geographers. Vestiges — walls, buildings, pottery — emerge at excavations in central Tulcea. Medieval and modern Tulcea was built above, like Tomis beneath Constanța: the fortress did not die, it transformed.

Arrubium was the Roman fort at Măcin, station for cavalry cohorts and auxiliary infantry on the Danube limes. Raised in the 1st century, the fort controlled river and road traffic towards inland Dobrogea, at the foot of the Măcin massif. It passed through Roman, Roman-Byzantine, and late Byzantine phases, destroyed and rebuilt several times. Ruins — wall foundations, gates, buildings — lie in Măcin town, beside the Danube bank and ferry to Brăila.

Sacidava (or plateau Sacidava) was a late Roman fortification, raised on a loess plateau above Dunăreni, on the route linking the Danube limes to steppe interior. The fort operated in the 2nd–4th centuries, part of the last Roman defensive system in Dobrogea before Slavo-Avar migrations. Excavations revealed stone and brick walls, towers, interior buildings, and a Getic tumulus predating the Roman fortification. Ruins are visible on the hill above the village.