History of Dobruja

Tomis (also called Tomi) was a Greek colony in the province of Scythia Minor on the Black Sea shore, founded around 600 BC for commercial exchanges with the local Getic populations. The name may likely be derived from Greek Τομή meaning cutpiece, section.
According to one myth dating from Antiquity, found in the Bibliotheca, it was founded by Aeetes:

"When Aeetes discovered the daring deeds done by Medea, he started off in pursuit of the ship; but when she saw him near, Medea murdered her brother and cutting him limb from limb threw the pieces into the deep. Gathering the child's limbs, Aeetes fell behind in the pursuit; wherefore he turned back, and, having buried the rescued limbs of his child, he called the place Tomi."

Another legend is recorded by Jordanes (after Cassiodorus), who ascribes the foundation of the city to a Getae queen (The origin and deeds of the Goths):

"After achieving this victory (against Cyrus the Great) and winning so much booty from her enemies, Queen Tomyris crossed over into that part of Moesia which is now called Lesser Scythia - a name borrowed from Great Scythia -, and built on the Moesian shore of the Black Sea the city of Tomi, named after herself."

In 29 BC the Romans captured the region from the Odryses, and annexed it as far as the Danube, under the name of Limes Scythicus.
In AD 8, the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC-17) was banished here by Augustus, where he found his death eight years later. He laments his exile in Tomis in his poems: Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto. Tomis was "by his account a town located in a war-stricken cultural wasteland on the remotest margins of the empire".

Statue of Ovid in front of the National History and Archaeology Museum

A statue of Ovid stands in the Ovid Square (Piața Ovidiu) of Constanța, in front of the History Museum (the former City Hall).
A number of inscriptions found in the city and its vicinity show that Constanța lies where Tomis once stood. The city was afterwards included in the Province of Moesia, and, from the time of Diocletian, in Scythia Minor, of which it was the metropolis. After the 5th century, Tomis fell under the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire. During Maurice's Balkan campaigns, Tomis was besieged by the Avars in the winter of 597/598.
Tomis was later renamed to Constantiana in honour of Constantia, the half-sister of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (274-337). The earliest known usage of this name was "Κωνστάντια" ("Constantia") in 950. The city lay at the seaward end of the Great Wall of Trajan, and has evidently been surrounded by fortifications of its own. After successively becoming part of the Bulgarian Empire for over 500 years, and later of the independent principality of Dobrotitsa/Dobrotici and of Wallachia under Mircea I of Wallachia, Constanța fell under the Ottoman rule around 1419.
A railroad linking Constanța to Cernavodă was opened in 1860. In spite of damage done by railway contractors there are considerable remains of ancient masonry walls, pillars, etc. An impressive public building, thought to have originally been a port building, has been excavated, and contains the substantial remains of one of the longest mosaic pavements in the world.
In 1878, after the Romanian War of Independence, Constanța and the rest of Northern Dobruja were ceded by the Ottoman Empire to Romania. The city became Romania's main seaport and transit point for much of Romania's exports.
On October 22, 1916 (during World War I), the Central Powers (German, Turkish and Bulgarian troops) occupied Constanța. According to the Treaty of Bucharest in May 1918, article 10.b (a treaty never ratified by Romania), Constanța remained under the joint control of the Central Powers. Allied troops liberated the city in 1918 after the successful offensive on the Thessaloniki front knocked Bulgaria out of the war.
In the interwar years, the city became Romania's main commercial hub, so that by the 1930s over half of the national exports were going through the port. During World War II, when Romania joined the Axis powers, Constanța was one of the country's main targets for the Allied bombers. While the town was left relatively undamaged, the port suffered extensive damage, recovering only in the early 1950s.

Geography

Mamaia, administratively a district of Constanța

Mamaia, view towards Constanța

Constanța is the administrative center of the county with the same name and the largest city in the EU Southeastern development region of Romania. The city is located on the Black Sea coast, having a beach length of 13 kilometres (8 miles). Mamaia, an administrative district of Constanța, is the largest and most modern resort on the Romanian coast. Close around there are mineral springs and sea bathing also attracts many visitors in summer.

Climate

Constanța is one of the warmest cities in Romania. It has a moderate subtropical climate with considerable maritime and some continental influences. There are four distinct seasons during the year.
Summer (late May to mid September) is warm, dry and sunny with a July and August average of 23 °C (73 °F). The beginning of summer brings plenty of precipitation, but by early July the weather becomes settled and dry. Most summer days see a gentle breeze refreshing the daytime temperatures. Nights are warm and somewhat muggy because of the heat stored by the sea.
Autumn starts in mid or late September with warm and sunny days. September can be warmer than June, owing to the heat accumulated by the Black Sea. The first frost occurs on average in mid November.
Winter is much balmier compared to other cities in southern Romania. Snow is not abundant but the weather can be very windy and unpleasant. Winter arrives much later than in the interior and December weather is often mild with high temperatures reaching 8 °C (46 °F) - 12 °C (54 °F). Average January temperature is 1 °C (34 °F). Winter storms when the sea becomes particularly treacherous are a common occurrence between December and March.
Spring arrives early but it's quite cool. Often in April and May the Black Sea coast is one of the coolest places in Romania found at an altitude lower than 500 m (1,640.42 ft).
4 of the warmest 7 years since 1889 occurred after the year 2000 (2000, 2001, 2007 and 2008). The winter and the summer of 2007 were respectively the warmest and the second warmest in recorded history with monthly averages for January (+6.5°C) and June (+23.0°C) breaking all-time records. Overall 2007 was the warmest year since 1889 when weather recording began.