"From Chilia we sailed up the Danube ... and arrived in a small town called Tulcea".
In 1582 the English merchant John Newberie states that he arrived in a market called Tulcea.
In 1595 the city of Tulcea is recorded in Paulo Giorgici's map, and the great Turkish cartographer Evlia Celebi (17th century) speaks of Tulcea as a city with several hundred houses inhabited by Vlachs.
According to the DEX, Wallachian is the name given in the Middle Ages by other peoples to Romanians on the left and right of the Danube.
Since sec. XVIII century Tulcea becomes more and more mentioned in documents and cartographic plans.
During the wars between Russia and Turkey in the 18th and early 19th century, Dobrogea became the main theatre of war, being called the Tatar Road or the War Road.
The Ottomans accepted the settlement of Lipovenes, Ukrainians and Bulgarians from the northern Crimea, as well as Germans from southern Russia, and Greeks, Jews and Armenians brought here by the flourishing trade.
The War of Independence (1877-1878) put an end to five centuries of Ottoman rule that influenced local ethnographic life and culture.
The War of Independence (1877-1878) ended five centuries of Ottoman rule, which influenced local ethnographic life and culture.
In 1860 there were several consulates in Tulcea: the Romanian consulate, the Turkish consulate, the French consulate, the Austrian consulate, the German consulate, etc.
The name of the town has a rather uncertain origin. According to some hypotheses, the word Tulcea comes from two words: "tul" meaning brick and "cea" meaning earth. Nicolae Iorga states that "tul" is in fact the name of a governor (Tula-bey) to which was added the ending "cea" present in other names: Casimcea, Isaccea, Hazamcea, etc..