Giurgiu

Giurgiu is a city in southern Romania and the seat of Giurgiu County, in the historical region of Muntenia. It lies among mud-flats and marshes on the left bank of the Danube, facing the Bulgarian city of Ruse on the opposite bank, and is one of six Romanian county seats on the river. Three small islands face the city, and a larger one shelters its port, Smarda. The Giurgiu-Ruse Friendship Bridge crosses the Danube on the outskirts of the city. The grain-growing land to the north is crossed by the railway to Bucharest, built in 1869 as the first line opened in Romania. In the past the town exported timber, grain, salt and petroleum and imported coal, iron and textiles. It was probably established in the fourteenth century as a Danube port by Genoese merchants, and the 2021 census counted 54,551 residents. The name is rendered Gyurgevo in Bulgarian.