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Giurgiu (Romanian pronunciation:[ˈdʒjurdʒju]ⓘ;Bulgarian:Гюргево,romanized: Gyurgevo;Turkish:Yergöğü) is a city in southernRomania. The seat ofGiurgiu County, it lies in the historical region ofMuntenia. It is situated amongst mud-flats and marshes on the left bank of theDanube facing theBulgarian city ofRuse on the opposite bank. It is one of six Romanian county seatslying on the river Danube. Three small islands face the city, and a larger one shelters its port, Smarda. The rich grain-growing land to the north is traversed by a railway toBucharest, the first line opened in Romania, which was built in 1869 and afterwards extended to Smarda. In the past, Giurgiu exported timber, grain, salt and petroleum, and imported coal, iron, and textiles.[3]
The area around Giurgiu was densely populated at the time of theDacians (1st century BC) as archeological evidence shows, andBurebista's capital was in this area (it is thought to be inPopești on theArgeș River). DuringRoman times this was the site ofTheodorapolis, a city built by the Roman emperorJustinian (483–565).
The city of Giurgiu was probably established in the 14th century as a port on theDanube by theGenoese merchant adventurers, who established a bank and traded in silks and velvets.[3]
One theory is that they called the city after the patron saint of Genoa, San Giorgio (Saint George), howeverNicolae Iorga disputes this theory, arguing that Giurgiu is just an old Romanian form of George.[4]
It was first mentioned inCodex Latinus Parisinus in 1395, during the reign ofMircea the Elder, and was conquered by theOttomans in 1420 as a way to control the Danube traffic. The Ottomans named the cityYergöğü, as if fromyer 'earth' +gök 'sky,' but the name was probably given because of the similarity between the pronunciations of "(San) Giorgio" and "Yergöğü".
As a fortified city, Giurgiu figured often in the wars for the conquest of the lower Danube. It was the site of the October 1595Battle of Giurgiu, and figured in the struggle ofMichael the Brave (1593–1601) against the Turks and in the laterRusso-Turkish War (1787–1792). It was burned in 1659. In 1771, the Ottomans built thehistoricGiurgiu Clocktower as a surveillance tower forDanube traffic. In 1829, its fortifications were finally razed, the only defence left being a castle on the island of Slobozia, connected to the shore by a bridge.[3]
Sephardi Jewish merchants came to Giurgiu from the Balkans in the 1820s andAshkenazi Jews settled later, leading to communal disputes. A 70-member Zionist group was formed in 1899. A joint Jewish school opened in 1878, with 60 pupils in 1910. The Jewish population by that point was 533, or 4% of the total.[5] By 1930, their number had fallen to 207, or 0.7%.[6] Jews were forced to forfeit their property to theIron Guard in 1941 and at least half of the 113 Jews living there that year left. A community existed after World War II.[5]
