Cernavodă

Cernavodă
Town
Anghel Saligny Bridge
Coat of arms of Cernavodă Coat of arms
Location of Cernavodă Location of Cernavodă
Coordinates:
Country	Romania
County	Constanța County
Status	Town
Government
• Mayor	Gheorghe Hânsă (National Liberal Party)
Area
• Total	46.69 km2 (18.03 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	16,129
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Website	http://www.primaria-cernavoda.ro/

Cernavodă (Romanian pronunciation: [t͡ʃernaˈvodə], historical names: Thracian: Axiopa, Greek: Axiopolis, Bulgarian: Черна вода Cherna voda, Turkish: Boğazköy) is a town in Constanţa County, Dobrogea, Romania with a population of 20,514.

The town's name is derived from the Slavic (more precisely Bulgarian) černa voda (черна вода in Cyrillic), meaning "black water". This name is regarded by some scholars as a calque of the earlier Thracian name Axíopa, from IE *n.ksei "dark" and upā "water" (cf. Avestan axšaēna "dark" and Lithuanian ùpė "river, creek").

Economy

The town is a Danube fluvial port. It houses the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant, consisting of two CANDU reactors providing about 18% of Romania's electrical energy output. The second reactor was built through a joint venture between Canada's Atomic Energy of Canada Limited and Italy's ANSALDO and became fully functional in November 2007.

The Danube-Black Sea Canal, opened in 1984, runs from Cernavodă to Agigea and Năvodari.

The outskirts of Cernavodă host numerous vineyards, producers of Chardonnay wine. The largest winery in the area is Murfatlar.

History

Cernavodă was founded (under the name Axiopolis) by the ancient Greeks in the 4th century BC as a trading post for contacts with local Dacians.

The Constanţa - Cernavodă railroad was opened in 1860 by the Ottoman administration.

The town gives its name to the late copper age Cernavodă archaeological culture, ca. 4000—3200 BC.

Demographics

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
1912	5,743	—
1930	6,744	+17.4%
1948	6,100	−9.5%
1956	8,802	+44.3%
1966	11,259	+27.9%
1977	13,608	+20.9%
1992	22,043	+62.0%
2002	20,514	−6.9%
2011	16,129	−21.4%
Source: Census data

At the 2011 census, Cernavodă had 14969 Romanians (92.81%), 463 Turks (2.87%), 374 Roma (2.32%), 106 Lipovans (0.66%), 40 Tatars (0.25%), 15 Hungarians (0.09%) and 162 others.

See also

• Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant
• Anghel Saligny Bridge

External links

• Official site of the City of Cernavodă