The Art Museum of Tulcea

The building, located on str. 9 Mai, no. 4, entered in the List of Historical Monuments (code TL-II-m-B -05972), was built around 1911, in the neo-Romanian style. Its owner was Alexandru Calafeteanu, a professor from Tulcea, who owned it until 1947. Between 1958 and 2005, it performed several public functions: the House of Pioneers, a space managed by the Tulcea "Danube Delta" Museum, originally intended for the collection of fine art and later that of folk art and ethnography. The building was retroceded in 2005 to the descendants of Alexandru Calafeteanu, and is currently a private residence.

The building was built in 1866 by Lazar Lazarov. In 1927 it was bought by Nicolae Georgescu, lawyer, deputy and senator in the interwar period from the National Peasant Party. In 1932, on the ground floor of the building, were the offices of the grain barn and the cattle fair in Piața Sfântu Gheorghe. Since 1950, SANEPID and several shops have operated here. Currently, the building is owned by the heirs of Nicolae Georgescu, and a pharmacy operates on the ground floor of the building. We invite you to read more details about the story of this historic house at https://mistereledunarii.wordpress.com/2021/04/27/misterele-dunarii-top-10-locul-07-cea-mai-veche-casa-din -tulcea/

Casa Borș is located in the historical area of ​​the city, a few steps from the "St. Nicolae" Cathedral, the "Jean Bart" Theater, the Avramide House and other heritage buildings. Ștefan Borș, the former owner of this beautiful house, built in 1905 and recently rehabilitated, was born in 1858 in Neamț. After graduating from higher education in Bucharest, he returned to his native county where he began his professional activity as a copyist in the Piatra-Neamț public works constituency office. In 1883, as a young engineer and entrepreneur, he carried out various infrastructure works in Iasi. Fate made him move to Tulcea at the age of 26, in 1884, taking over the management of the County Technical Service, an institution he managed professionally for four years. Six years later, in 1894, at the age of 36, he became the mayor of the municipality of Tulcea; likewise in 1906 and 1911. His political career continued as a senator in the Romanian Parliament. In the 43 years spent here, as an entrepreneur, engineer or politician, 14 schools, 12 churches, 3 barracks, 3 hospitals, a theater, a conference hall and the Fishery Palace were built in Tulcea through his direct involvement. He also rehabilitated the Administrative Palace, the former Pasha Mansion and the current Art Museum, completed the city cadastre, connected the population to the water and electricity network, built streets with paved sidewalks and much more. Ștefan Borș died on June 7, 1928, when the city was in full preparation for the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Dobrogea by the Romanian state. He is buried in the Eternitatea Cemetery in Tulcea alongside his first wife and one of the seven children he had. It is said that he lived in this beautiful building until 1921 when he sold the property to Banca Dunărea. From 1968, the building became the headquarters of the Tulcea Garrison Command, or the Army House as it was known by all Tulcea residents. The building has been recently rehabilitated and is worth admiring, even if it cannot be visited.

The house was built in the period 1870-1875, and from 1929 it became the property of Constantin Motomancea, mathematics teacher and director of the high school that today bears the name "Spiru Haret", particularly involved in the socio-cultural life of the city. The building was nationalized in 1950, where the Tulcea Police operated for a while. Fortunately, even though it currently houses a notary's office, this house has recently been rehabilitated and can be admired and photographed from the street.

The building was built in the second half of the 19th century by the Greek merchant Ilie Lichiardopol, hence the name. After 1940, Teodor Lichiardopol, the rightful heir, sells the building to the Ministry of Public Instruction as a school premises. According to the accounts of some notables from Tulce, in the hall with the mural painting on the first floor of the building, on November 18, 1878, the documents for the takeover of Dobrogea by the Romanian authorities were signed. Unfortunately, the building is a ruin today.

The building was built in 1868, being ordered by the governor of Sangeac Tulcea, Ismail Bey Paşa, as the headquarters for the Turkish high school. The building was erected through the contributions of the inhabitants and with the financial support of the Circassians established in the city, who, being exempt from taxes for a while, offered money for its construction. After Ismail Bey Pasha's forced departure from the city, the building remained unused for a while and was then turned into a barracks. Since 1878, the premises have been used as the seat of the Tulcea City Hall and since 1968 of the People's Council of the city of Tulcea. In recent years, the building housed the headquarters of some companies, the most recent being Deltacons. As in the case of the former Turkish school, we hope that this historic building will be rehabilitated and utilized for cultural-tourist purposes.

The Turkish School operated next to the Aziziye Window, being inaugurated in 1863, during the reign of Sultan Abdulaziz. The building was built in the architectural style specific to the period, with a ground floor, a first floor and a hipped roof. In this area was the Turkish slum, where the main public edifices of the city, which became the residence of the sangeac, were located: the window, the pasha's mansion, the bazaar, the port and others. We hope that this historic building will regain its former glory and importance.

On the Babadag Street, one of the most important streets of the municipality, is located the Synagogue, known as the Israelit Temple, as it appears in official documents and as it is called by the local-jews people, as many as are left. It looks like a construction that has traveled through time, being the only one of its kind on the entire street, guarded on both sides by concrete blocks. In the old days, Babadag street, together with the surrounding streets, was the center of the Jewish quarter of Tulcea, whose number of souls reached, in 1910, approximately two thousand. The Israelite neighborhood, as it was called by the Tulceni, was formed later and more slowly than the Romanian, Greek or Bulgarian ones, perhaps also due to the fact that the Tulcean trade was for a long time a fiefdom of the Greeks and the Armenians. The Israelit Temple is an almost lonely vestige of a large and important community of the city, of which only a few dozen representatives still exist today. From time to time, the beautiful synagogue hosts various cultural events.

The Azizyie Mosque in Tulcea was built in 1863, during the reign of Sultan Abdul Aziz, to whom it is dedicated and from which its name comes. It is one of the largest mosques built by the Ottoman Empire on the territory of Dobrogea, made of carved stone with a thickness of 85 cm. The beautiful construction is equipped with an impressive number of windows (32), their location being 18 in the upper area and ensuring natural lighting for the interior terrace that surrounds the glass on three sides and a number of 14 windows in the lower area. From the beginning, a Turkish school functioned next to the window, which had its headquarters in the building at (currently) 4 Independence Street, still existing today. The window minaret, still visible today, dates back to 1897, when it was rebuilt with funds made available by the Ministry of Religion and Public Instruction.