Cernavodă () is a town in

Constanța County Constanța () is a Counties of Romania, county (județ) of Romania on the Bulgaria–Romania border, border with Bulgaria, in the Dobruja region. Its capital city is also named Constanța. Demographics In 2021, it had a population of 655,997 ...

Northern Dobruja Northern Dobruja ( or simply ; , ''Severna Dobrudzha'') is the part of Dobruja within the borders of Romania. It lies between the lower Danube, Danube River and the Black Sea, bordered in the south by Southern Dobruja, which is a part of Bulgaria. ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

with a population of 15,088 as of 2021. The town's name is derived from the Bulgarian ''černa voda'' ( in

Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...

), meaning 'black water'. This name is regarded by some scholars as a

calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...

of the earlier

Thracian The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared between north-eastern Greece, ...

name ''Axíopa'', from IE *''n̥ksei'' 'dark' and ''upā'' 'water' (cf.

Avestan Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family and was First language, originally spoken during the Avestan period, Old ...

''axšaēna-'' 'dark' and Lithuanian ''ùpė'' 'river, creek').

Economy

The town is a

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

fluvial port. It houses the

Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant The Nuclear Power Plant in Cernavodă () is the only nuclear power plant in Romania. It produces around 20% of the country's electricity. It uses CANDU reactor technology from Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, AECL, using heavy water produced at ...

, consisting of two CANDU reactors providing about 18% of Romania's electrical energy output. The second reactor was built through a joint venture between

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

's Atomic Energy of Canada Limited and

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

's ANSALDO and became fully functional in November 2007. The Danube–Black Sea Canal, opened in 1984, runs from Cernavodă to Agigea and Năvodari. The outskirts of Cernavodă host numerous

vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...

s, producers of Chardonnay wine. The largest winery in the area is Murfatlar.

History

Cernavodă was founded under the name '' Axiopolis'' by the ancient

Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...

in the 4th century BC as a trading post for contacts with local

Dacians The Dacians (; ; ) were the ancient Indo-European inhabitants of the cultural region of Dacia, located in the area near the Carpathian Mountains and west of the Black Sea. They are often considered a subgroup of the Thracians. This area include ...

. A Roman fort was built as part of the defensive frontier system of the Moesian Limes along the Danube. The railroad from

Constanța Constanța (, , ) is a city in the Dobruja Historical regions of Romania, historical region of Romania. A port city, it is the capital of Constanța County and the country's Cities in Romania, fourth largest city and principal port on the Black ...

to Cernavodă was opened in 1860 by the Ottoman administration. Cernavodă was one of the capitals of the short-lived Silistra Nouă County (1878–1879). The town gives its name to the late copper age Cernavodă archaeological culture, ca. 4000– 3200 BC.

Demographics

At the 2021 census Cernavodă had a population of 15,088 with a majority of

Romanians Romanians (, ; dated Endonym and exonym, exonym ''Vlachs'') are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking ethnic group and nation native to Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Sharing a Culture of Romania, ...

(80.4%) and minorities of Turks (2.23%), Roma (0.66%),

Lipovans The Lipovans or Lippovans are ethnic Russians, Russian Old Believers living in Romania, Ukraine, Moldova and Bulgaria who settled in the Principality of Moldavia, in the east of the Principality of Wallachia (Muntenia), and in the regions of D ...

(0.47%),

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

(0.15%),

Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars, are an Ethnicity, ethnic group native to Hungary (), who share a common Culture of Hungary, culture, Hungarian language, language and History of Hungary, history. They also have a notable presence in former pa ...

(0.05%),

Bulgarians Bulgarians (, ) are a nation and South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and its neighbouring region, who share a common Bulgarian ancestry, culture, history and language. They form the majority of the population in Bulgaria, ...

(0.02%), others (0.7%) and unknown (15.32%). At the 2011 census Cernavodă had 16,129 inhabitants; of those, 14,969 were

(92.81%), 463 Turks (2.87%), 374 Roma (2.32%), 106

(0.66%), 40

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

(0.25%), 15

(0.09%), and 162 others.

Natives

* Iulian Carabela (born 1996), footballer * Alexandru Claudian (1898–1962), sociologist, political figure, and poet * Iosipos Moisiodax (1725–1800), philosopher, deacon, and educator

References

External links