1. Name - Human Geography - History

The port and the city of Mangalia are located on the north-west coast of the Black Sea, 45 km south of Consţanta.¹ In the Antiquity, a Greek colony was founded at this location and it was named Callatis. During the late medieval period, particularly in the 13th and 14th century, the city was named Pangalia and was a seaport for merchants from Genoa, which, at that time, had evolved in the main naval power in the Black Sea.

In 1402, Mangalia was conquered by the Ottomans and for a period, in the 16th century, was a wakf of Esmahan Sultan, the daughter of Selim II. Esmahan established the mosque of the city, which was already called Mangalia; a name whose etymology probably came from the ‘Mangals’, a Tataric tribe of Crimea, which often invaded Dobrudja.²

The Ottoman period was a period of economical and demographical stagnation. However, from the second quarter of the 19th century, the city started evolving into a notable wheat-exportation centre, as well into a fishing-port. Probably, that was the starting point of the settlement of a small number of Greeks, whose origins were mainly from Kefalonia (Cephallonia).³

In 1878, Mangalia, as well the whole region of Dobrudja, passed into Romania and comprised a distinct municipality of the Constanţa district (judeţ). The economy of the city didn’t develop significantly between 1878 and 1914, remaining of a local importance commercial and fishing centre, without any industry. The first official census of the population, which gives us a reliable report, was the one of 1899. According to that report, the Romanian subjects were 969 and the Greeks 84, in a total of 1507 persons. Assuredly, there is a possibility of some Greeks being Romanian or Ottoman subjects, a case which was quite common in Dobrudja.⁴

In the interwar years, and chiefly in the post-war period, Mangalia evolved into a tourist centre, with many hotels and a few industry-plants. In parallel, its population increased greatly and it reached 14,954 inhabitants, in 1973.⁵

2. Community Organisation-Church

Despite their small number and also their probably limited economic prospects, the Greek inhabitants of the region, including Greek, Ionian and Ottoman subjects, had proceeded, from the Ottoman period, in establishing a church and organizing a community. In 1854, the Greeks inhabitants of the city, ca. 30, had proceeded to the establishment of the church of Saint Nicholas, which was probably the first Christian church in Mangalia. The church was totally renovated in 1870, after given permission (firman) by the sultan Abdülaziz.⁶

St Nicholos’s church in Mangalia was probably also the first Greek church in Dobrudja. Moreover, according to some reports, which however have not still been confirmed, the Greek church existed in 1836, and in addition the Greek lawyer and diplomat, Georgios Streit, noted that the church existed ‘from time immemorial’.⁷ Nevertheless, there is no reliable information on the internal organization and the institutions of the community, as no statute has been discovered. However, the community of Mangalia was recognized by the state of Romania with the protocol which was appended in a Greek – Romanian commercial treaty, in the 19th of December of 1900.⁸

As the members of the Greek community were relatively poor, mainly merchants, seamen and fishermen, there were no community assets or properties⁹ and any educational activity inside the community was probably non-existent. Therefore, we don’t have any reports about the establishment of a Greek school in the city, although we cannot exclude the possibility that the Greek-Orthodox priest had undertaken the task of teaching the children of the community.

The Greek church was demolished in 1959, while the Greek community had also been diluted from the early 1950’s. The community was re-established in 1989.¹⁰