Romania
Giurgiu
Giurgiu: A Danube Border Town and the Road to Bucharest
- Port traffic
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Good to know
Where Ships Tie Up
River ships tie up on the Romanian bank of the Danube at Giurgiu, and your cruise line will tell you where. Bucharest lies inland to the north and is reached from here by road or rail.
- Buses run to Bucharest and take a little over an hour.
- Trains to Bucharest are slower, at least 2 hours 30 minutes.
- The currency is the Romanian leu.
Giurgiu on Your Own
Giurgiu itself is small, and its main sights are in and around the town center. For a full day in the capital, plan around the bus or a booked car each way.
- The clock tower: The Turnul Ceasornicului stands in Unirii Square in the town center. It is 22 m tall and leans slightly.
- The walking street: Strada Gării is the pedestrian street in the center.
- The fortress ruins: The excavated remains of the medieval fortress lie in the south of the town, beside the Danube embankment near the Church of St. Nicholas.
- The county museum: The Teohari Antonescu County Museum covers the region from the Old Stone Age onward and holds the clock tower's original mechanism.
- Getting back on time: All-aboard is usually about 30 minutes before sailing, and your ship posts the exact time. A ship will not wait for passengers touring on their own.
- Watch the clock: All-aboard is given in ship's time, which may not match the local clocks or your phone. Romania keeps Eastern European Time, one hour ahead of Hungary and Serbia, so the clocks change by an hour if your cruise has come downriver from there.
Tipping in Romania
A tip of about 5 to 10 percent of the bill is usual in Romania. It is expected in restaurants, coffee shops and taxis.
- Currency: Pay in lei. Offering euros or US dollars can mean a rate up to 20 percent worse, or a refusal.
A Brief History
Giurgiu grew up as a fortified crossing on the Danube, fought over for centuries by Wallachian princes and the Ottomans. Little of the old fortress survives, but the town's watchtower and its bridge tell much of the story.
- Antiquity: The area was densely settled in Dacian times, and in the Roman era the emperor Justinian built a city called Theodorapolis here.
- 14th century: The town probably began as a Danube port of Genoese merchants.
- Around 1400: Giurgiu and its island fortress first appear in documents under the Wallachian prince Mircea the Elder, and the Ottomans took the fortress early in the 15th century.
- 1461: Vlad III, known as Vlad the Impaler, captured the fortress and set it on fire, but the Ottomans soon regained the town.
- October 1595: Michael the Brave's forces took the fortress in the Battle of Giurgiu.
- 1771: The Ottomans finished a watchtower to watch traffic on the Danube. A clock was added in 1830, and it has been the clock tower ever since.
- 1829: The Danube fortresses, Giurgiu among them, returned to Wallachia. The fortress walls were taken down by the middle of the 19th century.
- 1869: The first railway in the Kingdom of Romania opened between Bucharest and Giurgiu.
- 1916: After Romania entered the First World War, occupying troops set the town on fire and most of it was destroyed.
- 1954: The Friendship Bridge to Ruse opened, carrying a road and a railway across the Danube.
- To learn more ashore: The Teohari Antonescu County Museum is at Strada C. Dobrogeanu Gherea 3, in the former prefecture building.
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