Lighthouse at the end of the Danube

Andrei ATANASIU, Andrei PÂSLARIU

The lighthouse of the European Commission of the Danube - a historical monument of national importance (TL-II-m-A-06023), officially dated18701, but built around 1839 and repaired by the European Commission of the Danube between 1856-1870 - is today located at approx. 2.5 km from the sea shore and, as such, is no longer used for ship orientation. Permanently disused with the erection of the new lighthouse in 1982, this old lighthouse has continued to deteriorate over the years and, despite being 'resurrected' since 1995 (when extensive rehabilitation works were started), the damp environment, high atmospheric salinity and strong winds from the sea have soon caused further degradation. The restoration and conservation works carried out over the last three years, starting in May 2019, aimed to bring the monument back to life and valorize this symbol of Sulina, to restore the museum setting and to reintroduce the building among the first-class tourist and cultural attractions of this isolated corner of the country. Of the four existing lighthouses in Sulina today, this is undoubtedly the oldest and the most historically and architecturally important.

The history of the CED lighthouse sums up, in a single building, the turbulent history of Sulina, the prosperous and cosmopolitan city of 150 years ago, which, after decades of growth and decline, in the context of increasing geographical and economic isolation, has been struggling in the last 10-15 years to regain its former prestige, by promoting its built heritage, natural landscape and, in general, tourist values.
The U-shaped building is organized around an inner courtyard with a general east-west orientation. At the eastern end is the cylindrical lighthouse tower. At the base of the tower is the main rectangular building, which extends the full width of the courtyard and consists of two rooms and a vestibule. To the west, the only entrance to the lighthouse courtyard is pierced by two square pavilions, and between the pavilions and the rectangular body, the north and south sides of the enclosure are delimited by two symmetrical bodies opening onto the central space of the courtyard.

1745-1856: Sulina under Ottoman andRussianrule
On the initiative of Beșir Ağa, a Turkish statesman and ruler of the Ottoman Empire between1717-17462, a lighthouse administration service was set up in 1745. In the same year the firstSulina lighthouse3 was built at the mouth of the Danube on the left bank of the river, after several ships loaded with grain, bound for Istanbul from a Danube port (probably Braila), were shipwrecked near Sulina due to lack of visibility atnight4. In order to ensure military control of the area, Beșir Ağa ordered the construction of a small fort in the vicinity of thelighthouse5.
From the second half of the 18th century onwards, constant pressure from the Russian Empire and its offensive campaigns for military and economic dominance in the Black Sea and at the mouth of the Danube led the Turks to reinforce this border point. Repairs to the fortress and the lighthouse did not take place until1802-18036, according to archival documents. As a result of the permanent state of conflict with the Russian Empire, the fort became a permanent garrison in the first half of the 19thcentury7.
Following the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829, the Russians obtained Sulina and the border between the empires moved to St. George's Arm. International traffic was opened to all ships, on condition of unbiased use of the river mouths, but in reality Russian interests prevailed. Sulina was at that time a real haven for pirates of different nationalities, where "robbery was organized"8 and the passage of ships was always dangerous.
In 1836-1842, the Russians built the lighthouse onSnakeIsland9. In the same period, around 1839, they also built a lighthouse at Sulina, this time on the right bank of the Danube. Their lighthouse would later be remodeled into what we today call the lighthouse of the European Commission of the Danube. It appears in several drawings and engravings of the period, published in Europeanperiodicals10, and these representations, without claiming to be accurate photographs, show that at least the lighthouse tower was built before the CED was established.
In 1854, Sulina was completely destroyed by the British in revenge for an incident in which Admiral Parker's son was shot dead while visiting the old Russian army strongholds on the leftbank11. Only the lighthouse, the Russian church and a few other buildings escaped the fire. Naval traffic was interrupted until185512.
The Crimean War (1853-1856) ended with the defeat of the Russians and the Ottoman Empire regained the mouth of the Danube following the Treaty of Paris (1856). Against the backdrop of the wars between the Russians and the Turks and their mutual weakening, the European powers considered it opportune to intervene directly in the Black Sea region and in 1856 (on the basis of the same treaty) set up the European Danube Commission, an international institution for the administration and control of river traffic.

1856-1870: Lighthouse of the European Danube Commission
As a result of the direct involvement of the EDC, Sulina was to undergo a period of remarkable development in the following decades. When the EDC was founded, there were only three lighthouses at the mouths of the Danube: the one at Sulina, the one on the Serpilor Island and a third on the Black Sea coast, south of the St. George's Arm. All three had returned to the administration of the Ottoman government13 after it had regained the territories lost in 1829.
On the wall to the right of the entrance to the courtyard of the Sulina lighthouse there is a commemorative panel in French, which mentions both the date of the establishment of the European Danube Commission and the year of the lighthouse's construction:

European Commission
established by the Treaty of Paris of March 30, 1856
for the improvement of navigation
at the mouth of the Danube
built these breakwaters and this lighthouse
completed in November 1870

In addition to the above, the inscription also mentions the names of the main representatives of the political powers that signed the act establishing the EDC.
An analysis of the old drawings and plans of the CED from 1856-1865 leads to the conclusion that the work carried out by the CED on the lighthouse - called the 'Old Lighthouse' since the 19th century (in the Commission documents: 'Vieux Phare', 'Old Lighthouse', etc.) - consisted only in repairing the existing building. Indeed, geotechnical surveys carried out in 2017 reinforce this hypothesis. The main body of the building and the lighthouse tower share the same foundations and the same construction system, which proves that both were built at the same construction stage, i.e. before 1856. It is possible that the two symmetrical pavilions framing the entrance to the courtyard also date from this first stage, but their different constructional features and the way they are placed give the impression that they belong to a later constructional stage. The two volumes are lower, the floor level is close to the level of the courtyard, and the facades are treated in a simpler manner (lacking ornaments, stone plinth).
1870-1939: Sulina porto franco
In 1871, the Treaty of London made Sulina a free port. From a legal point of view, only the eastern half of the town had the status of a free port, while the western half was subject to international customs law. In practice, however, the entire area of the port of Sulina was a free port, due to disagreements between the decision-making authorities, which could not establish a free zone boundary14. The lighthouse was managed by the Ottoman Empire's General Administration of Lighthouses until 1879, when it was taken over by the CED15.
In 1910-1911, the old oil lighting system of the CED lighthouse was replaced by electric lighting
At the beginning of the 20th century, two short volumes, covered in a water, were built against the enclosure walls and facing the inner courtyard. As they were not part of the original building, these modest constructions, without any particular architectural plasticity of the facades, were dismantled during the 1995-1997 works and replaced by two volumes similar in size but matching in terms of architectural plasticity with the old buildings on the site.

1939-1989: The decline of the Sulina
The European Commission for the Danube was abolished in 1939, following the "Sinaia Agreement", by which its rights and powers were transferred to the Administration of the Lower Danube, an entirely Romanian body, which was short-lived due to the outbreak of the Second World War. The Lower Danube Administration functioned until 1940, when the Danube territories came under the control of Nazi Germany.
To continue the work and regulations of the EDC, the Danube Commission was set up after the war, with its headquarters in Belgrade (1948) and later in Budapest (1954).
Towards the end of the 20th century, and especially after 1982, the decommissioned EDC lighthouse gradually fell into disrepair and only the ground-floor buildings at the base of the tower were sporadically used for storage or living quarters.
The continuous degradation of the lighthouse coincided with the era of Sulina's decline. After the opening of the Danube-Black Sea Canal, the town lost its former economic importance, the new canal being an obviously much shorter navigation route from Constanța to Cernavodă. The population left and the town grew poorer, the local administration unable to maintain the rich built heritage left behind by the CED.

1995-2019: Rehabilitation of the building, museum development and further deterioration
The lighthouse was transferred to the ownership of the Romanian State (D.M.A.S.I.) in 1991 for its protection, included on the List of Historical Monuments from 1991-1992, and rehabilitated between 1995-1997. The ground-floor high-rise buildings at the base of the tower were converted into a museum after 1999.
However, climatic factors, the presence of the water table only 1 meter below ground level, humidity and the permanent and accentuated salinity in the air have taken their toll, leading to further deterioration in less than 10 years after the works were completed. The lighthouse tower, being exposed to strong winds, suffered most, but the interior spaces were also affected. Because the works in 1995-1997 did not take into account the fluctuations in the hydrostatic level and did not take adequate waterproofing measures, the interior spaces of the side wings were frequently in the water, which ultimately led to the restriction of museum activity to only the two rooms of the hull at the base of the lighthouse.
This was the state of the lighthouse in 2017, when the new restoration project started: the technical condition of the building was deeply affected by the continuous presence and devastating effects of water and salinity, and the museum collection was improperly housed in two rooms, while the rest of the building was either inoperable or converted into storage.

2019-2022: Restoration of the CED Lighthouse
As the European Commission of the Danube lighthouse underwent extensive restoration and consolidation works between 1995-1997, when the side wings of the lighthouse courtyard were largely rebuilt on a new reinforced concrete structure, the project developed between 2017-2019 envisaged minimal structural interventions (grouting, matting, repair or, where necessary, replacement of degraded wooden elements of the roof frame and astellars, without changing the roof volumetry).
The museum function of the building was preserved and the interior spaces adapted to the functional requirements. Some partition walls and door openings have been repositioned without affecting the original 19th century masonry. Only the walls erected in 1995-1997 underwent relevant alterations.
Intervention works carried out on the basis of the restoration project included: restoring the ceramic pottery roofing, restoring damaged wooden elements (guards, decorative beams, porch pillar dressings), cleaning the wooden steps of the staircase in the lighthouse tower, restoring the green paint coating on the lighthouse cabin, restoring the existing woodwork (most of which was made during the 1995-1997 restoration) and making new woodwork, patterned after the existing ones, restoration of the metal surfaces (preserving the valuable patina where appropriate), horizontal perimeter waterproofing at the base of the walls, restoration of the exterior plasterwork and all interior finishes.
Among the determining factors that influenced the way in which the project was carried out, the exceptional natural conditions of Sulina cannot be overlooked. Due to the geographic isolation of the town, accessible only by water, all construction materials were brought to the site by barge on the Danube. The need to create a water supply and a pump room in the lighthouse courtyard required special technical solutions, given that the water table is only 1 m from the ground. For better protection against atmospheric factors, the exterior rendering was silicified.
The lighthouse courtyard has been minimally landscaped, with particular attention paid to preserving and capitalizing on the green space and tall vegetation, and the fencing from the street has been rebuilt in the form of a low wooden fence in the style of traditional Dobrogea architecture.
We hope that the finalization of the museum will contribute to the promotion of Sulina and its built heritage once the gates of this exceptional monument, both in terms of its history and architecture, and the robustness of its sober tower, from whose cabin tourists scan the sky year after year, looking for the meeting point of the Danube and the Black Sea.

NOTES
1 According to the List of Historical Monuments and on the basis of the inscription preserved on the main façade of the monument, on a bronze plaque to the right of the entrance.
2 Jane Hathaway, Beshir Agha: Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Imperial Harem, Oneworld, Oxford, 2005, p. XII.
3 Șenay Ozdemir Gümüș, 'Sünne boğazi'nda seyrüsefer güvenliği ve Kule-I Fener Vakfi', in The Journal of Academic Social Science, Year 4, No. 31, October 2016, pp. 35-52.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 M. D. Ionescu, Dobrogia în pragul veacului XX-lea, București, 1904, reprinted in Ed. Tipo Moldova, Iași, 2010, Part I, p. 266; Ed. Engelhardt, Études sur les embouchures du Danube, Galați, 1862, p. 52.
8 M. D. Ionescu, op. cit., p. 265.
9 La Commission européene du Danube et son oeuvre, de 1856 a 1931, Imprimerie Nationale, Paris, 1931, p. 322.
10 "Die Zerstorung von Sulinadurch die Englender am 17 Juli 1854", anonymous drawing published in the "Illustrierte Zeitung", Leipzig, 1854; "Gura Sulina", engraving published in the volume "The Danube", by William Bettie M. D., with illustrations by W. Henry Bartlett, London, 1842.
11 Ed. Engelhardt, 'Les embouchures du Danube et la commission instituée par le congrès de Paris', in Revue des Deux Mondes, Paris, vol. 88, 1870, pp. 98-99.
12 Ibid.
13 La Commission européene du Danube..., p. 319.
14 Ibidem, p. 313.
15 ICEM Tulcea, The Sulina Lighthouse. Sulina Lighthouse Museum.