Mangalia

Mangalia is a city and a port on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea in the south-east of Constanţa County.

The following resorts are administered by the Mangalia municipality: Cap Aurora, Jupiter, Neptun, Olimp, Saturn and Venus

A Greek colony named Callatis (Kallatis) was founded in 6th century BC by the city of Heraclea Pontica. Its first silver coinage was minted approximately 350 BC. In 72 BC, Callatis was conquered by the Roman general Lucullus and was assigned to the Roman province of Moesia Inferior. Throughout the 2nd century AD, the city built defensive fortifications and the minting of coinage under the Roman emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla continued. Callatis suffered multiple invasions in the third century AD but recovered in the 4th century AD to retain its status as an important trade hub and port city.

Since the 9th century it was known by the Turks as Pangalia, by the Romanians as Tomisovara and by the Greeks as Panglicara and it was one of the most important ports on the west coast of the Black Sea. Mangalia (former Callatis) is the oldest city, continuously inhabited, on the present territory of Romania.

Mangalia is positioned 44 km south of the municipality of Constanţa, on the same latitude as the French resort of Nice. Mangalia is one of the southernmost resorts on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea.

Mangalia is characterized by a moderate maritime climate (annual average temperature 11°C - one of the highest in Romania) with hot summers (July average over 21°C) and mild winters (January average 1°C), Mangalia being the country's second place, after Băile Herculane, with positive average temperatures in wintertime. Spring comes early but is cool and autumn is long and warm. In summer, cloudiness is reduced (about 25 sunny days in a month) and the duration of sunshine is of 10–12 hours a day. Annual precipitation is low (about 400 mm).

The sea breeze is stronger in summer. The natural cure factors are the water of the Black Sea, which is chlorided, sulphated, sodic, magnesian, hypotonic (mineralization 15.5g), the sulphurous, chlorided, bicarbonated, sodic, calcic, mesothermal (21-28°C) mineral waters of the springs in the northern part of the city, in the area of the beach between Saturn and Venus, the sulphurous peat mud, rich in minerals, which is extracted from the peat bog north of the city (expected to last another 250 years) and the marine climate, rich in saline aerosols and solar radiation that have a bracing effect on the organism.

The resort has a large, fine-sand beach developed for purposes of aeroheliotherapy and wave therapy, as well as high seawalls with a specific microclimate where one may benefit from inhalations of saline aerosols having therapeutic effects.

The Scythian tomb discovered in 1959 where archaeologists unearthed fragments of a papyrus in Greek, the first document of this kind in Romania; the incineration tombs (the necropolis of the Callatis citadel, dating back to the 4th-2nd centuries BC); the ruins of the Callatis citadel (6th century BC); the Turkish Mangalia Mosque (16th century); the Archaeology Museum which shelters a rich collection of amphorae and sculptures from the Hellenistic epoch, fragments of stone sarcophagi, etc.

The city has been well known in recent years as the place where one of the largest summer festivals in Romania takes place: Callatis Festival.