Constanta

 

Communist Youth Memorial on canal

We spent the morning sailing down the Danube-Black Sea Canal. The purpose of the canal is to avoid the difficult to navigate Danube delta into the Black Sea, it also reduced the length of passage from over 248 miles to 40 miles.  The canal was started in 1949 and the communists turned their political prisoners into laborers, about 50,000 died between 1949 and 1953. The project was resumed in 1973 and completed in 1987.

Fortuna from Roman times

Constanța was first called Tomis, by the Greeks in 625BC and then named Constantina by the Romans. We visited Ovid Square, named for the Roman poet, who was exiled here by the Roman Emperor Augustus. The archeology museum is filled with statues and gold items found here in 1962 when they began building a railway station. Nearby is a picturesque Mosque and Saint Peter and Paul Orthodox Church. We then headed for Mamia Resort along the Black Sea. The port of Constanta is the largest on the Black Sea. Now a lot of Ukrainian grain is being shipped from here with the Russian Invasion closing the Ukrainian ports. This caused a black market of Ukrainian grain to flood the local market, resulting in farmer protests.

St. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church

That evening we shared dinner with the captain and our program director, Christian.

The Captain escorts us to dinner