Romania regions – Dobrogea in purple
Dobrogea (Northern Dobruja) is a historic region located in the south-east of the Romania, which also represents the country’s exit to the sea. Southern Dobruja is located in neighboring Bulgaria.
Dobrogea has a continental climate, making it the warmest part of Romania. The soils are extremely fertile.
It is a generally flat area, the highest peak is found in Macin mountains (467 meters – 1500 feet). Dobrogea is bordered by the Danube Delta in the north and the Danube river in the south.
The 3 Romanian provinces during Ottoman empire domination. While the main provinces were semi-independent, Dobrogea was fully incorporated in the empire.
Dobrogea has been inhabited since times immemorial. The Neolithic cultures were particularly advanced – Hamangia culture became popular around the world for its Thinker statue (see more here).
As far as 600 BC, it was populated by the local Getae and by the Greeks, who founded colonies on the Black Sea shore – Tomis (which today is Constanta), Callatis, Histria, Argamum, Heracleea, Aegysus. After the Greek period faded, the Romans incorporated Dobrogea into their empire.
In the XV century, after having been part of the Romanian principality of Vallachia for a short period, Dobrogea fell under the occupation of the newly rising Ottoman empire. In 1877, Dobrogea was given back to Romania.
Dobrogea had both Muslim and Christian populations who co-existed peacefully: turks, tatars, romanians, aromanians from Macedonia, lipovan Russians, greeks, germans etc. The Lipovans (Russian ethnics) had found refuge in and around the Danube Delta after escaping religious oppression in Russia. Germans were settled here until WWII when the western Allies expelled them. After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of the new state of Turkey in 1923, most muslim minorities left Dobrogea for Turkey.
Macin mountains
Dobrogea keys
Enisala fortress
Romania Dacia 