Histria, Southeast Romania, Romania

4Jazzumbo 5:00 PM Nov 9, 2022

Ruins of an ancient abandoned port
We've been the last visitors that day so had the chance to enjoy the sunset while strolling between ruins of the antique temples. The vestiges of the eastern quarter look amazing in the dusk with the lake in the background. Some majestic herons took off from the bushes around the lake, and flew over the ruins. This was the most poetic part of visiting the site that late in the afternoon. Some stray dogs came also out from nowhere, hunting small rodents in the shrubs growing around the walls of the Roman thermae. That's the evidence that this former harbor, built by Greeks, developed by Romans and attacked by Goths is nowadays conquest by Nature.

3Tiberiu_Baranyi 5:00 PM Sep 9, 2022

Oldest city on Romanian ground or how to "don't care about what you have"
Histria , a word that echoes through the eons of time , or at least it should , the place on Romanian soil where in the VIIth century BC, Greek colonist form the city state of Millet have established the first Greek colony near the mouth of the Danube on the shores of the Black Sea. The oldest city to date discovered on todays Romania's lands... a tourist attraction that everywhere else in the world would be a site visited by thousands daily - like Knossos, Kamiros Skala, Delphi, Pompei ... not here ... and there are good reasons why: - access road is poor - no pot holes but several km of unpaved road from the main road to the site will cover your car in a thick layer of fine dust. - the museum at the site has no guiding whatsoever and the building is in bad shape - the ruins of the archeological site are covered in weed , are crumbling away and there are very few signs telling you what you actually see - so you have to use your imaginations to think about what this and that building would be. - if you are not coming with a guide you will navigate the ancient ruin without a clue about what this place is and what was its historical relevance. - modern buildings on the premises ... built with stones from the ancient city?? (I still hope not, but the resemblance is as close as it gets to what the stone blocks of the ancient ruins look like) But it has a lighting system - at the outside wall there are reflectors every 15-20 m from each other for hundreds of meter - interesting fact that is not allowed to visit in the evening or night ... so the lighting is there for what??? for crying out loud.... Entry ticket is cheap - 10 Ron/Adult , so its like for free ...but no guide on the premises. It is a historically extremely important place, part of the cultural and historical heritage of the country I live in ... poorly cared for and neglected .... definitely with much more potential than the poor display I saw in July 2022. If you are in the area , go and see and think of what this place represents what a unique tourist attraction it could have been ... but it ain't, it is just average.