Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 309, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1916 — DANUBE PORT OF BUCHAREST [ARTICLE]

DANUBE PORT OF BUCHAREST

Giurgevo Was Established by Genoese Merchants on a Site That Is Historic. Giurgevo, the Roumanian border city from which the Bulgarian town of Rutschuk, on the south bank of the Danube, was bombarded not long ag<v is the center of trade between the two countries in peace times and is the southern terminus of the first railroad built in Roumania, (1869), the line running to the capital, Bucharest, 40 miles to the north. With Smarda, two and a half miles distant, it Is the Danube port for Bucharest and for all the rich corn land which lies between the two cities, says a bulletin of the National Geographic society.

Occupying the site of ancient Tbeodorapolis, founded by the Emperor Justinian and named by him for his famous actress wife, daughter of a bearfeeder of the amphitheater at Constantinople, the present city of Giurgevo was established by Genoese silk and velvet merchants of the fourteenth century, who edjoyed the highly profitable patronage of the finery-loving nobles of this rich agricultural district The name is derived from Genoa’s patron saint San Giorgio. A short distance north of Gldrgevo therp'is a narrow defile which to Roumanians is one of the most hallowed spots In t|ie e kingdom, for here Michael the Brave in 1595 made a stand which native historians compare with Thermopylae. A tiny band of patriots withstood the onslaughts of a Turkish army overwhelmingly superior'in numbers. The Roumanians achieved a notable victory, their adversaries leaving three pashas dead upon the field and the grand vizier himself barely escaping death In the neighboring marshes. In the Turko-Itussian war in 1771 the capture of Giurgevo was one of the few successes of the.decaying Ottoman power. Below this city the Danube widens until it Is three miles from bank to bank, while in midstream are many islets, overgrown with willow trees, la .early summer the adjacent plains, presenting a most delightful prospect to the eye, are described by one traveler as “a never-ending succession of pasture lands, so rich, so verdant, so luxuriant that one might fancy they were the reality of the Indian’s dream of paradise, where the green hunting fields have no end.”