Calafat

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title: "Calafat" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["populated-places-on-the-danube", "populated-places-in-dolj-county", "localities-in-oltenia", "cities-in-romania", "port-cities-and-towns-in-romania", "bulgaria–romania-border-crossings", "planned-communities-in-romania"] topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calafat" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox Romanian subdivision"]

Field	Value
type	municipality
official_name	Calafat
county	Dolj
population_total	auto
map_caption	Location in Dolj County
image_skyline	Monument_Calafat.JPG
image_caption	The monument commemorating the soldiers who fought in the War of Independence in 1877
image_shield	ROU DJ Calafat CoA.svg
leader_name	Mihai Cotea
leader_term	2024–2028
leader_party	PSD
coordinates
elevation	35
area_total	103.59
postal_code	205200
website
::

Calafat (; ) is a city in Dolj County, southern Romania, in the region of Oltenia. It lies on the river Danube, opposite the Bulgarian city of Vidin, to which it is linked by the Calafat-Vidin Bridge, opened in 2013. After the destruction of the bridges of late antiquity, for centuries Calafat was connected with the southern bank of the Danube by boat, and later by ferryboat.

The city administers three villages: Basarabi, Golenți, and Ciupercenii Vechi.

Etymology

According to historian Nicolae Iorga, the toponym "Calafatis" comes from the Byzantines and means "place where ships are tarred".

History

It was founded in the 14th century by Genoese colonists. These colonists generally employed large numbers of workmen in repairing ships.

In January 1854, during the Crimean War, when Russian forces were headed up the Danube, Ahmed Pasha, commanding the Turkish forces at Calafat, made a surprise attack on the temporary Russian garrison nearby Cetate, which was under the command of Colonel . This diverted the initial Russian attack and allowed Ahmed Pasha to consolidate his forces in Calafat. On 28 January, the Russians under the command of General Joseph Carl von Anrep, reached Calafat and began the siege which lasted until May. Riddled by disease and unable to take the town, Anrep withdrew.

There used to be a small Greek community in Calafat since the Late Middle Ages, numbering about 165 people at the end of the 19th century.

Calafat was declared a municipiu in 1997.

Climate

|metric first=DA |single line= da |location= Calafat

|source = Census data |1900 |7113 |1912 |7608 |1930 |7633 |1948 |8251 |1956 |8069 |1966 |9483 |1977 |15568 |1992 |20445 |2002 |21227 |2011 |16247 |2021 |13807

Transport

Main article: New Europe Bridge

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Primaria_calafat.jpg" caption="Calafat City Hall"] ::

Calafat lies on the river corridor VII-Danube and the pan-European corridor IV, which starts in Germany and ends in Istanbul and Thessaloniki. The city is at the crossroads of National Roads DN56, DN56A, and DN55A and European route E79. The city of Calafat and its neighbour, Vidin (Bulgaria), are linked by a bridge over the Danube in the area called Bașcov (Danube Bridge 2), built by the Spanish company FCC. The project of constructing a Danubian bridge in the area of Calafat–Vidin dates back to 1925. Road traffic between Vidin and Calafat was doubling every year, so it became necessary to construct a bridge with four lanes of road traffic, a railway line, a lane two meters wide for bikes and a pavement for pedestrians. The bridge has a total length of 1971 m and its cost is estimated at US$200 million. It was officially opened on 14 June 2013.

Newspapers

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Poșta_Calafat.jpg" caption="Old post office"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Biserica_Izvorul_Tamaduirii_din_Calafat.jpg" caption="Greek Church of [[Life-giving Spring"] ::

Calafat has several city newspapers. One of them is called Ziarul De Calafat, which is also maintained online; another one is Calafat Live.

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Calafat is twinned with:

Bulgaria Vidin, Bulgaria
Serbia Zaječar, Serbia
Philippines Biñan, Philippines

References

"Results of the 2024 local elections". Central Electoral Bureau.
Ντίνας, Κ., Σούτσιου, Τσ., Χατζηπαναγιωτίδη, Α. & Χρηστίδης, Γ. (2011). "«Ελληνόγλωσση Πρωτοβάθμια και Δευτεροβάθμια Διαπολιτισμική Εκπαίδευση στη Διασπορά»". [[University of Crete]].
Jaques, Tony (2007) ''Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A guide to 8,500 battles from antiquity through the twenty-first century: A-E'' Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, Volume 1, page 247 {{ISBN. 0-313-33536-2
Jaques, Tony (2007) ''Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A guide to 8,500 battles from antiquity through the twenty-first century: A-E'' Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, Volume 1, page 184 {{ISBN. 0-313-33536-2
The Greek presence in the city was continued by [[Refugees of the Greek Civil War
''Comunele și orasele României'', p. 448. Bucharest: Editura All Beck, 2005
"Medii lunare pentru Calafat, Romania". weather.com.
[http://focus-news.bg/?id=n1786188 Announcement] of the Bulgarian president as published by Focus News Agency on 22 May 2013 (in Bulgarian), retrieved 31 May 2013
"Ziarul De Calafat".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::