Tel: (241) 618.763
Open: Wed. - Sun. 8:00am - 8:00pm (October - May, 9:00am - 5:00pm); Closed Mon. & Tue.
Admission charge for the museum and the site
Heading north from Constanta towards Tulcea, you'll pass through Istria. Four miles east of the village, on the shores of Lake Sinoe, is the ruined Greek-Roman city of Histria. Histria Fortress, the Pompeii of Romania, was the oldest Greek settlement in Romania. Founded in the 7th Century BC by Greeks from Miletos, the richest city in Ionia (Asia Minor), this trading post soon became the main Greek port on the Black Sea. The city thrived for fourteen centuries, prospering under Roman and Byzantine occupation until invading forces wiped it off the map in the 7th century AD.
The lost city features remains of Aphrodite's Temple, the Temple of Zeus, Roman baths and other public buildings from the Roman-Byzantine period. The nearby museum (Open: Tue. - Sun 9:00am - 8:00pm; Closed Mon.) houses a collection of coins, ceramic items and other vestiges of the great civilizations that thrived on the Black Sea coast, or Pontus Euxin's, at it was called in ancient times. Near Histria Fortress, you can visit one of the most beautiful lagoons in the country, Lake Sinoe, an extension of Lake Razim. The lake makes for an excellent bird watching site; 267 species have been recorded. The area is a stretch of marshy land and reedbeds between the freshwater Lake Nuntasi and the brackish lagoon of Lake Sinoe (the last one was open to the sea until 1960). Lake Razim is popular for bird-watching, especially in November when thousands of Red-Breasted Geese arrive from the Arctic.