Sulina

Sulina (Romanian pronunciation: [suˈlina]) is a town and free port in Tulcea County, Northern Dobruja, Romania, at the mouth of the Sulina branch of the Danube. It is the easternmost point of Romania.

For the Brazilian municipality, see Sulina.
Sulina
Town
Coat of arms
Location in Tulcea County
Sulina
Location in Romania
Coordinates: 45°9′34″N 29°39′10″E
Country Romania
CountyTulcea
Government
 • MayorNicolae Răduș[1] (PSD)
Area
329.56 km2 (127.24 sq mi)
Population
 (2011)[2]
3,663
 • Density11/km2 (29/sq mi)
Time zoneEET/EEST (UTC+2/+3)
Vehicle reg.TL

History

During the mid-Byzantine period Sulina was a small cove and in the 14th century a Genoese port inhabited by a handful of sailors, pirates and fishermen. In the 18th century the Ottomans built a lighthouse there in order to facilitate communication between Constantinople (Istanbul) and the Danubian Principalities, the main breadbaskets for the Ottoman capital.

Thanks to the signing of the Treaty of Adrianoupolis (Edirne), September 2, 1829, that unfettered the Danube grain trade, Sulina, by then under Russian control, became important. Great sailing boats could not sail fully loaded to Brăila and Galați, which were the main export centres of Wallachia and Moldavia, because of the shallow waters of the river; therefore, they had to tranship at least part of their cargoes to smaller riverboats (shleps). The owners and crew of these shleps were almost always Greek.

Even greater development, however, would occur after the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1856), which ended the Crimean War. One of the treaty’s terms determined the establishment of a certain committee, the Danube European Committee(C.E.D.), which would conduct infrastructure works on the mouth of the river in order to make it floatable for larger ships as well. The technical works allowed entrance to the Danube for a great number of “foreign”, i.e. non-Greek ships, leading to a higher level of competition. River faring, however, largely remained in Greek hands. Moreover, the declaration by the Ottoman administration of Sulina as a free port in 1870 also boosted its development.

The Russo-Ottoman war of 1877-1878 led to many changes as well. The city was initially put under Russian control and after the signing of the Berlin Treaty was annexed to Romania, as was the whole Dobrudja area.[3] According to a 1878 estimation, the town then had a total population of 800, consisting of 350 Greeks, 150 Turks, 50 Romanians, 50 Russian Old Believers and 200 others.[4] During World War I the city served as base for the Romanian cruiser Elisabeta, whose actions kept the mouths of the Danube under Romanian control throughout the war.[5]

In November 1916, the German submarine UC-15 was sent on a minelaying mission off Sulina and never returned, being sunk by her own mines.[6][7] This was probably caused by an encounter with the Romanian torpedo boat Smeul, whose captain surprised a German submarine near Sulina in November 1916, the latter reportedly never returning to her base at Varna. This could only be UC-15, whose systems most likely malfunctioned after being forced to submerge in the shallow waters, upon encountering the Romanian torpedo boat.[8]

In World War II, the Soviet M-class submarine M-59 was sunk by mines laid off Sulina by the Romanian minelayers Amiral Murgescu, Regele Carol I and Dacia.[9]

Demographics
Historical population
YearPop.±%
1900 5,612—    
1912 7,347+30.9%
1930 6,399−12.9%
1948 3,373−47.3%
1956 3,622+7.4%
1966 4,005+10.6%
1977 4,911+22.6%
1992 5,484+11.7%
2002 5,140−6.3%
2011 3,663−28.7%
Source: Census data

According to the 2011 census, 82.82% of the population were Romanians, 11.43% Lipovans, 1.8% Greeks, 1.29% Ukrainians and 2.3% of other or undeclared ethnicity. At the 2002 census, 93.0% spoke Romanian and 5.7% Russian as their first language. 94.3% were Orthodox and 5.1% Old Believers.

At the 1930 census, 47.2% were Romanians, 20.8% Greeks, 17.7% Lipovans, 3.3% Serbs, 3.0% Turks, 1.6% Jews, 1.0% Germans and 5.4% others.[10]

Sightseeing

The waters of the Danube, which flow into the Black Sea, form the largest and best preserved of Europe's river deltas. The Danube delta hosts over 300 species of birds as well as 45 freshwater fish species in its numerous lakes and marshes.[11]

Climate

Sulina has a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification: BSk).

Climate data for Sulina (1981–2010)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 12.6
(54.7)		 17.0
(62.6)		 18.5
(65.3)		 22.4
(72.3)		 26.3
(79.3)		 32.0
(89.6)		 32.0
(89.6)		 31.7
(89.1)		 28.8
(83.8)		 26.2
(79.2)		 21.1
(70.0)		 16.4
(61.5)		 32.0
(89.6)
Average high °C (°F) 3.4
(38.1)		 3.8
(38.8)		 7.0
(44.6)		 12.5
(54.5)		 18.7
(65.7)		 23.4
(74.1)		 26.0
(78.8)		 25.8
(78.4)		 21.2
(70.2)		 15.9
(60.6)		 10.0
(50.0)		 5.3
(41.5)		 14.4
(57.9)
Daily mean °C (°F) 0.9
(33.6)		 1.2
(34.2)		 4.5
(40.1)		 10.0
(50.0)		 16.1
(61.0)		 20.5
(68.9)		 23.0
(73.4)		 22.8
(73.0)		 18.4
(65.1)		 13.4
(56.1)		 7.5
(45.5)		 2.8
(37.0)		 11.8
(53.2)
Average low °C (°F) −1.3
(29.7)		 −0.9
(30.4)		 2.7
(36.9)		 8.2
(46.8)		 14.1
(57.4)		 18.2
(64.8)		 20.3
(68.5)		 20.2
(68.4)		 16.0
(60.8)		 11.2
(52.2)		 5.3
(41.5)		 0.6
(33.1)		 9.6
(49.3)
Record low °C (°F) −16.7
(1.9)		 −17.8
(0.0)		 −15.6
(3.9)		 −0.7
(30.7)		 4.4
(39.9)		 9.3
(48.7)		 12.1
(53.8)		 10.5
(50.9)		 4.4
(39.9)		 −1.0
(30.2)		 −8.0
(17.6)		 −11.5
(11.3)		 −17.8
(0.0)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 14.0
(0.55)		 13.0
(0.51)		 16.7
(0.66)		 13.5
(0.53)		 16.0
(0.63)		 26.9
(1.06)		 17.4
(0.69)		 27.6
(1.09)		 22.6
(0.89)		 19.1
(0.75)		 22.2
(0.87)		 20.1
(0.79)		 229.1
(9.02)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) 8.2 7.9 7.0 6.7 6.3 6.5 4.1 3.5 4.8 5.0 6.6 8.6 75.2
Mean monthly sunshine hours 78 102 137 191 277 290 326 303 227 164 90 70 2,255
Source 1: World Meteorological Organization,[12] Ogimet (mean temperatures and sun 1981–2010)[13]
Source 2: NOAA (extremes 1961–1990)[14]
  • The Palace of the Danube Commission.
  • The Lighthouse.
  • Sulina from space

References
  1. "Results of the 2016 local elections". Central Electoral Bureau. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  2. "Populaţia stabilă pe judeţe, municipii, oraşe şi localităti componenete la RPL_2011" (in Romanian). National Institute of Statistics. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  3. Encyclopedia of Greater Hellenism, article "Sulina".
  4. Kemal Karpat (1985), Ottoman Population, 1830-1914, Demographic and Social Characteristics, The University of Wisconsin Press, p. 199
  5. Warship International Volume 21, p. 166
  6. R.H. Gibson, Maurice Prendergast, The German Submarine War 1914-1918, Periscope Publishing, 2002, p. 135
  7. United States Naval Institute Proceedings, Volume 64, United States Naval Institute, 1938, p. 73
  8. Cristian Crăciunoiu, Romanian navy torpedo boats, Modelism Publishing, 2003, p. 24
  9. Mikhail Monakov, Jurgen Rohwer, Stalin's Ocean-going Fleet: Soviet Naval Strategy and Shipbuilding Programs 1935-1953, p. 266
  10. Recensământul populației din 1930. Populația pe Neamuri. Institutul Central de Statistică. p. 480.
  11. From the UNESCO website
  12. "World Weather Information Service – Sulina". World Meteorological Organization. Archived from the original on July 26, 2017. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  13. "CLIMAT summary for 15360: Sulina (Romania) – Section 2: Monthly Normals". CLIMAT monthly weather summaries. Ogimet. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  14. "Sulina Climate Normals 1961-1990". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved July 9, 2015.

Bibliography
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