Mangalia  From Mangalia Nord to Vama Veche

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 Mighty Mangalia!

Mangalia has all of the features you want to find in a seaside city -- and a few more too!  A naval yard and some great beaches make this the mini San Diego of Romania!

South of Constanţa, Mangalia is on the same latitude as the French resort of Nice. Mangalia also is the southernmost city on the Romanian Riviera, and from it's beginnings as the early Greek port city of Callatis, Mangalia is also the oldest continuously inhabited city in Romania!

The Pearls of the Romanian Riviera

Gracefully marching south from the trendy and first-class resort of Neptun in the north, down to value-based Saturn on the northern suburbs of Mangalia, the long scenic strip of resorts here make up the "Mangalia Nord" section of the Romanian Riviera.

Mangalia and Resorts North from Mangalia and Saturn to Olimp, Jupiter and Neptun just below the horizon

The photo immediately preceding this notice is Copyright (c)2005 - 2008 Rest Romania SRL, All rights reserved. Photo: © REST ROMÂNIA

Mangalia Region Coastal Towns: Mangalia -  Jupiter -  Vâlcelele -  Darabani -  Albeşti -  Vârtop -  Hagieni -  Arsa -  Vama Veche -  Limanu -  Doi Mai -  Saturn -  Venus -  Aurora -  Neptun -  Olimp -  Vânători -  Pecineaga -  Dulceşti -  Moşneni -  Comana -  General Scărişoreanu -  Amzacea -  Pelinu -

For other towns in OTHERREGION, please see our OTHERPAGENAME section!

Foreign tourists flock to the spas and resorts just north of Mangalia year-round, and the resort areas feature large, fine-sand beaches.   The microclimates which form at the ends of these beaches are full of adherents who breath in the sea breezes, laden with aerosolised sea water charged by the sun, said to be beneficial for a range of conditions. 

Good for What Ails You!

Mangalia is a natural choice for those looking for the curative powers of good hot mineral springs, good hot mud and a great ocean too!

As the third- largest and second-deepest European sea, the Black Sea offers the near perfect combiation of low salinity, a gentle slope of 17-18 degrees along the coastline, and a summer water temperature of 20-25C. There are no dangerous currents, plants or fish in the Black Sea!

The main reason for so much repeat business from European tourists are the great quality of the mineral waters which bubble up from deep below the Black Sea shelf. 

The sulphurous sparkling water, rich in calcium and chlorides are plentiful from northern Mangalia through the beaches of Saturn and Venus.   This treatment is available at the Mangalia Spa, Hotel Mangalia, the hotels Hora and Balada in Saturn, and the Hotel Doina in Neptun.

The total number of available hotel rooms during the summer season is around 100.000, spread evenly between the resort towns.  The mineral waters are also used in a therapeutic setting at the Hydrotherapy Treatment centre near the Mangalia Municipal Hospital.

Also very popular is the sulphurous peat mud, rich in minerals, which is extracted from the peat bog north of the city (expected to last another 250 years). 

If you have some information for us about Mangalia or County Contanţa,
please Let us know about it now!   We appreciate all of your efforts!

Sunny Mangalia The Warmest temperatures and the warmest people in Romania too!

Photo:  Adrian M

The "Cocktail Callatis" Stage On the water, a shimming clamshell of undeniable glitz and glamour during the annual Callatis Festival

Hailing from Italy A recent contestant from Italy in Mangalia's annual Miss Diaspora contest, part of the Callatis Festival on the Romania Riviera.

Photo:  The Callatis Festival

The Citadel Walls Next to the icon President Hotel

Photo:  Hotel President

Understanding Mangalia

Getting to know the ancient city of Mangalia is like opening a shiny new book and finding a rare old manuscript inside.   All modern and new on the top layers, under Mangalia lie two and a half millennia of history which is like a keystone for the western Black Sea shores.

There is none of the pace of the hectic capital cities here, just a slow, gloriously sunbaked rhythm steeped in the spirit of 25 centuries of history.  Marvel at the old Turkish mosque (Mangalia was in the Ottoman Empire for 500 years until 1878 after all), take a dive in the stupendous marine park offshore, and check under the Hotel President for the amazing ruins from the early Callatis days.  

If you have any amount of time at all in Mangalia, we strongly recommend that you simply walk around.

 Most Romanians arrive in Mangalia by the frequent train services which ply the Romanian Riviera.   Stop in at one of the information points at the train stations where available.

The Esmahan Sultan Mosque

In the centre of town, the Mangalia Mosque ("Esmahan Sultan") is the oldest mosque in Romania, being built in 1524 by Esmahan, the daughter of Ottoman sultan Selim II.

The mosque today serves a community of 800 Muslim families, most of them of Turkish and Tatar ethnicity.  If you want to understand how rich and varied the history of Mangalia truly is, take a walk through the cemetery, where tombstones from height of the Ottoman Empire in the late 1600s stand as artful tributes to a powerful and exotic culture.   Inside the Mauro style mosque you will find some excellent oriental rugs, the ritual well, a Lapidarium, and fully renovated fixtures from a 1990 refurbishment.

The mosque was built in a style unique to the Turkish Dobrogeans, with the entrance area to the church being preceded by a covered verandah. 

The mosque was constructed from rocks hewn into shapes by local Turkish stonemasons, and are up to 85cm large.  Most remarkable about the construction of the mosque is that the craftsmen used no concrete, but in fact used linking strips of iron cast on the spot, as was the custom for Ottoman bricklayers of the day.  This same technology was used to build the minaret, with the rock cut to give the ideal proportions for this slender spire.

The Citadel's City of the Dead

The Scythian incineration tombs were discovered in 1959, while archaeologists were unearthing fragments of a papyrus scroll in Greek, the first such documents ever discovered in today's Romania.

The incineration tombs were arranged in the City of the Dead (the necropolis) of the main fortress at the Greek port city of Callatis.  Dating back to the 4th-2nd centuries BC, the tombs were a macabre place where the remains of loved ones were set alight to smoulder, a tribute to their Gods. 

The foundational culture of the region, the Thracian-Getian people at Acervatis (the first name for Mangalia) commonly sacrificed men, women and horses in their burial mounds, much as the Scythians did across the Danube. 

A Killer Spot

A special place called Killer is found near a meteorological checkpoint. This is a place popular among more Bohemian couples, a romantic and spectacular place in winter and summer.

The Moon rises with a red colour from the Black Sea at nights in the summer, and in winter at Killer the biggest waves can be found. Actually this is the reason why this place is called Killer: the giant waves that sweep the whole seawall during the winter.

Greet the Greeks, MAM!

No need to turn on the Discovery Channel to take in 25 centuries of civilisation!  And no need to travel to Athens or Rome to see authentic and significant examples of Greek and Roman citadels, artwork, and examples from daily life either.

The Mangalia Archaeology Museum (MAM) shelters a rich collection of amphorae and sculptures from the Hellenistic epoch, fragments of stone sarcophagi, and some rather striking artwork.   The unique collection of locally found artifacts make this museum a great way to spend an hour before you go out to dinner.  

An extensive collection of rare and well-preserved coins that circulated in Callatis during its Greek period are on display, along with suitably impressive ancient columns, and some sarcophagi uncovered in the immediate regions.  In addition to the sculptures and carvings, you'll also gain a great insight into the daily life of the locals through displays of ceramics, household and agricultural tools, and their artistic tastes from a series of statues.

All of the museum's displays reflect the layers of influences which pervade the Callatis artefacts, from the original Thracian culture of the town, through to Greek and Roman times.  The museum also has an important historical and archaeological library which contains 1,305 volumes.

 The Citadel of Mangalia

 When Mangalia was called Callatis, it had two Greek forts with walls made of large blocks of stone, carefully cut in rectangular forms up to a metre and a half long and a half metre high. Only the outside of the walls were constructed with large blocks, while the inside of the walls were filled with small stones and earth.

Unlike in the other Dobrogean colonies, Callatis fort has a later Roman wall that has been built directly on top of the Greek one. We can therefore establish that the Greek fort walls on the northern side (which go along the southern side of the current soccer stadium to the seaside and stop near the main street) had a length of around 370 meters. In the west, the wall crosses the centre of the current city, parallel the main street, 50 meters to the east up to the market across from the Casa de Cultură, going under a series of apartment buildings and continuing on the southern side to the current Hotel President.

These later ruins from the Roman-Byzantine era, which were discovered over a surface of 1000 square meters, showsa  main street oriented from east to west and 6 meters wide, paved in stone.

The street has ditches for waste made of large flat stones and which are around one meter deep and wide. Other smaller ditches branch off the large ones, and would have come from buildings or courtyards north or south of the main street. The street was in function from the 6tth to the 7th centuries A.D., as shown by the discovery of coins in the canals showing Justin I (518-527) and Justin II of Sofia (565-578). Part of the walls built in the 4th century were redone or doubled in height, but most of the constructions from the 4th century would keep their original forms.

The Callatis Festival Main Stage One of the best shows in Romania, all the current groups and tunes!

For other towns in OTHERREGION, please see our OTHERPAGENAME section!

Annual Events

The Callatis Festival

The city has been known in recent years as the place where the largest festival in Romania takes place: The Callatis Festival

Resort communities all up and down the Mangalia Nord section of the Romania Riviera take part in this festival of mainstream music, beauty shows, symposiums, concerts, special exhibits, live television specials broadcast nationwide on TVR2, and a general happy carnival atmosphere that keeps visitors young and old entertained and interested.

The Miss Diaspora contest brings winsome young Romanian lasses and even some guys from all over the planet in a beauty contest with a twist.  

Many of these contestants were born and raised in the USA, Australia, and Canada, but flock back to the warm sunny beaches of Mangalia for their obligatory photos shoots, pampering, and plenty of press attention.

Local arts academies offer free portraits, the Romanian Backgammon Federation holds it's annual championship, and night after night of music for all ages blasts from the main stage, looking for all the world like some fabulous UFO which just landed.

 Cocktail Callatis offers the best of Romanian House and Club music for young adults, and Radio Romania offers the top of the top in pop music, as does the trendy Starfish Alley with the Starfish Trophy being awarded to Romania's best loved personality. 

The Festival Market runs in early August and a nod to senior citizens with special activities and facilities set up for the elder set.  The whole festival is a great place for families, so take the kids and roam around and you can catch the "Dobrogean Pie" festival, organised by the local woman's club; the Callatis Festival Book Market (and the Summer Book Fair) Cultural Centre exhibits featuring local and national artists; and National Theatre company presentations of well-known and original plays at the Mangalia Cultural Centre, along with the super Young Actor's Festival.     Check out the Callatis Festival website for more information (in Romanian, but the listings are pretty readable). 

 Navy Days

Towards the end of the Callatis Festival in mid-August comes the parade of Romania's Naval forces.  Equal in size to both the navies of Portugal and New Zealand, Romania's Navy has refurbishment work and repairs done at Mangalia's port facilities provided by Daewoo.

Alot of this Romania's time on the water is spent patrolling and performing drugs interdiction along their western Black Sea range of patrol.  Romania's Riviera, on top of having "fun in the sun", also features alot of "dash for hash" during the night, the area being a major transhipment point for heroin into Europe from the golden crescent growing region in Afghanistan. 

The country has registered  in the merchant marine a bulk carrier, 15 cargo ships, a passenger cruise ship, a couple of combined passenger and cargo vessels, three petroleum tankers, and a roll on/roll off ship.   There are also over 50 similar vessels registered in other countries mostly due to better licensing and ease of registration, mostly in Georgia on the other side of the Black Sea, as well as a dozen in North Korea,  nine each in Malta and Panama and a handful of other flags-of-convenience registrations.  

See also about the New Tourist Port of Mangalia Below!

For more great things to do, see also County Contanţa and the Dobrogea region

Listed below are some local agents who can help you with bookings and organize local tours in the Mangalia area.

Gamma Touristic (Mangalia), Sos. Constantei, nr.50, aprter in Mangalia

+40 (241) 754550  FAX: +40 (241) 754550 

Pasa International, Str. Mihai Viteazu, nr.56, bl.V3, apt.7 in Mangalia

 +40 (241) 750184  FAX: +40 (241) 750184 

Agentia de Voiaj Mangalia, Str. Stefan cel Mare nr. 16 in Mangalia

Informations,tickets

  Mangalia Nord Resorts

The New Tourist Port of Mangalia

Mangalia is one of only three tourist ports on the Romanian Riviera catering to the tourist cruise industry, cruising yachts, boating competitions, and public berths alike.

The new home to another Europa Yacht Club (as in Eforie Nord) is currently under rapid development, and is particularly well-placed, with Mangalia Nord's beaches just minutes away, making Mangalia a great stopping-in point for your yachting holiday or just to take a cruise out to the Marine Park offshore.

Work started rather un-superstitiously on Friday the 13th of July, 2007 on the rehabilitation and new construction of the Tourist port using 4 million Euros of funding from the European Commission, the first major project on this scale in Romania. The whole project is scheduled to finish in mid-2008.

Have another activity in Mangalia or the resort strips?  Let Us Know about some things to do!  Thanks!