Histria
Part of Dobrogea
Ruins of Romania's oldest city, a Greek colony founded in the 7th century BC.
History
Greek settlers from Miletus founded Histria around 630 BC, making it the oldest documented town on Romanian territory and one of the earliest Greek colonies on the Black Sea coast. For centuries it thrived as a trading port, exporting grain from the surrounding plains and importing pottery and goods from across the Greek world, though repeated silting of its harbor and waves of invasion — by Scythians, Goths, and finally Avar and Slavic raiders — wore it down. It was permanently abandoned after the 7th century AD, once the retreating coastline had cut it off from the sea it depended on. Systematic excavation began in 1914 and continues today, with finds from the site displayed in the on-site Histria Museum, founded in 1982.