Sulina

On our second day in the Delta, we took a long boat ride out to the village of Sulina, where the Danube reaches the Black Sea. At the entrance to an important European waterway, Sulina was once a bustling international port. It once had a population of over 40,000 people of various nationalities and was the home of the European Commission of the Lower Danube, which regulated trade and travel along the eastern Danube. Today Sulina is much smaller, with a population of closer to 5,000 Romanians. Because of its rich history and its current isolation, Sulina feels like a ghost town.

From Crisan, it took an hour and a half to reach Sulina in a small motor boat.

Here I am enjoying the ride. It was a bit chilly in the morning, but it turned into a beautiful sunny day.

Although Sulina is no longer and important port, large ships still pass through on their way from Russia or Turkey to western Europe.

One of the fascinating things about Sulina is its three lighthouses. The newest lighthouse is perched at the point where the river opens out into the sea, directing ships towards the mouth of the Danube. Older lighthouses are further inland, illustrating how the Delta has grown over the years as the Danube continually deposits silt on its way out into the Black Sea.

Here is Sulina's second lighthouse, which is now about a kilometer from the sea.

Sulina's first lighthouse was built by the European Commission of the Lower Danube in 18--, and it is now several kilometers from the sea.

We visited the lighthouse, which is now a small museum, to take a look at its inner workings...


...and get a nice view of Sulina from above.

We also took a closer look at Sulina's beautiful Romanian Orthodox Church.

The last part of our visit to Sulina was terribly exciting for a history-nerd like me. We visited Sulina's cemetery. Part of the cemetery is still used today, but it dates back to Sulina's heyday as a port city. This means that in addition to recent graves, it has whole sections of graves marked in English, German, Italian, Greek, and Ukrainian from the 1800s. Many of the people buried there were sailors who died in or near Sulina, while others worked for the European Commission of the Lower Danube. Visiting the cemetery made me think of my friend Caitlyn, who studies English and American maritime history. It also made me want to get in the archives and uncover the story of the cosmopolitan Sulina of the 19th century--the story of the people buried in those forgotten graves. Maybe after Caitlyn and I are both finished with our dissertations, we'll have to work on a joint project on Sulina. What do you say, Caitlyn?