Giurgiu County

When Genoa's San Giorgio became this city's namesake around 1395, Italian traders recognized strategic value—the Danube crossing that Ottomans would conquer in 1420 to control river traffic. For centuries, no bridge spanned the lower Danube after Constantine's Roman crossing collapsed. Then in 1954, Soviet engineers completed the Friendship Bridge: 2.8 kilometers of steel linking Giurgiu to Bulgarian Ruse, the first fixed crossing since antiquity. Romania's first railway had already arrived in 1869, connecting Bucharest to this Danube port that exported timber, grain, salt, and petroleum. Oil pipelines to Ploiesti still terminate here; the modern shipyard services river traffic. The Burnaz Plain behind the port produces agricultural goods, but Giurgiu's identity remains the crossing point—gateway between Romania and Bulgaria.