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Giurgiu_in_Romaniapng
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Coa Giurgiu GR ROpng
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Giurgiu County
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County capital
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Lucian Iliescu
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2000
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National Liberal Party
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2002
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73,586
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http://wwwprimaria-giurgiuro/
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(,
Wallachia ,
Romania in the region once called
Vlaşca . It is situated amid mud-flats and marshes on the left bank of the
Danube . Three small islands face the city, and a larger one shelters its port, Smarda. The rich corn-lands on North are traversed by a railway to
Bucharest , the first line opened in Romania, which was built in
1869 and afterwards extended to Smarda.
The
Giurgiu-Ruse Friendship Bridge , the only one in the shared
Bulgaria n-Romanian section of the Danube, crosses the river nearby.
Now it has a population of 69,000. In
1900 its population was 13,977.
The area around Giurgiu was densely populated in the time of the
Dacia ns as archeological evidence shows and even the capital of
Burebista was in this area (it is thought to be in
Popeşti on the
Argeş river). During the Roman times this was the site of Theodorapolis, a city built by the Roman emperor Justinian (
483 -
565 ).
The city of Giurgiu was probably established in the
14th Century as a port on the
Danube by the
Genoese merchant adventurers, who established a bank, and a trade in silks and velvets. They called the city, after the patron saint of Genoa, San Giorgio (
St George ); and hence comes its present name. It was first mentioned in Codex Latinus Parisinus, in
1395 during the reign of
Mircea Cel Bătrân and was conquered by the
Ottomans in
1420 as a way to control the Danube traffic.
As a fortified city, Giurgiu figured often in the wars for the conquest of the lower Danube; especially in the struggle of
Mihai Viteazul (
1593 -
1601 ) against the Turks, and in the later
Russo-Turkish Wars . It was burned in
1659 . In
1829 , its fortifications were finally razed, the only defence left being a castle on the island of
Slobozia , united to the shore by a bridge.
