Babadag City, Tulcea County

Babadag city is located in Tulcea County, Romania, on the border of Babadag Lake, which was created by Taita River, into the dense forest plateaux of Northern Dobrogea. Also called as ”Dobrogea’s Sinaia”, Babadag is a small city located at the feet of Coiun Baba, Sultan Tepe and Ianik Bair hills.

From geographic point of view, Babadag is classified into the area of Dobrogean specificity, of temperate-continental climate, reduced precipitations and low hills of which the altitudes do not exceed 300 m.

Babadag plateau arises as a massive platform oriented toward north – east and delimitated at north by Cernei Depression and Babadag Lake, and at south by Pecineaga-Camena downthrow.

According to a medieval legend, Babadag city was founded by the leader of a group of Seljuk Turks, whose name was Baba-Saltik-Dede (it is said that the Holy Turks carry the name of “Baba”), who demanded from the Byzantine emperor at that time the right to occupy a place in the empire. 

The name of the city, in Turkish language, means “the father’s mountain”. From economic point of view, Babadag was the most prosperous and flourishing region in Dobrogea in the medieval times, and for a certain period, it even stood for the administrative centre of Dobrogea. In the 15^th century, Babadag is mentioned as an important sea salt deposit centre. The sea salt was extracted from the waters of Babadag Lake. In the period 1677 – 1678, Babadag becomes the residence of the Pasha, after he moves from Silistra. In this period, Babadag’s economic and political importance is higher and higher. In the 17^th century, the city occasionally served as winter home for the Grand Visier of the Turks during the wars carried with Russia. The city was bombarded by the Turks in 1854 during the Crimean War. After the war between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire (1877 – 1878), Babadag became part of an independent Romania.

Remnants of the Turks’ presence can still be found nowadays on the entire territory of Babadag city as well as around the city. Among the most important touristic places we can enumerate the Turkish mosque, the oldest Muslim establishment in Romania, Ali Gaza-Pasa’s tomb, Panaghia House, former main office of the Muslim seminar, Kalaigi drinking fountain, which was dug by the Muslim pilgrims at the end of the 17^th century, Sari Saltuk Dede’s Mausoleum, Enisala Fortress, the Roman retrenchment of Babadag –Tapraichioi, Korum Tarla Botanic Reservation, Laguna complex Razim-Sinoe and many others.