DANUBE DELTA
nature, history, civilization

Cultural itinerary

Authors: Cristina Dinu, Aurel Stanica, dr. Steluta Parau, Mihaela Iacob

During the XIII-XIV centuries the Danube and Black Sea area is one of the most active in international trade.

At the end of the XIII-d century and at the beginning of the XIV century, Chilia Veche is mentioned in documents as important center of commercial transactions of Genovian merchants. The town issues coins, called "asperi boni argenti et spendibilis de Chilii".

A coin treasure (26000 coins-Tartarian asperis and Byzantine hyperberis) has been discovered on the hills of Uzumbair near Tulcea.

An Arabian geographer, Idrisi mentioned Armucastru (Ermocastro, Argamum (?)=Jurilovca) as an " old town with high buildings, flourishing fields and trade which brings prosperity, seated on a pleasant hill, which dominated the sea "

"There-in the Black sea-there is the source of all the merchandise " exclaimed a Genovian merchant in the XIV century; but because it was like that, the Danube Delta, its towns and commercial routes became object of a fiercely dispute during the next centuries.