Anghel Saligny

Anghel Saligny (April 19, 1854, Şerbăneşti – June 17, 1925, Bucharest) was a great Romanian engineer, forerunner of metal and concrete construction science.

His father, Alfred Saligny, an educator, was a French immigrant to Romania. He started his studies at the boarding school founded by his father in Focşani, then went on to high school, initially also in Focşani and then in Potsdam, Germany. He pursued astronomy at the University in Berlin - as a student of Hermann von Helmholtz, and engineering studies at the Polytechnic Institute in Charlottenburg (1870-1874), and then contributed to the construction of railways in Saxony (Cottbus-Frankfurt). He was a founding member of the Bucharest Polytechnic Society (the precursor to today's Bucharest Polytechnic Institute) - and its president between 1895-1897 and 1910-1911 - and was even appointed a Minister of Public Works. In 1892, he was elected a member of the Romanian Academy, and he served as its president between 1907 and 1910. Anghel Saligny's brother Alfons Oscar Saligny (1853–1903) was a chemist and educator who was also elected a member of the Romanian Academy.

He drew the plans for the Adjud–Târgu Ocna, which included the first mixed-use (railway and highway) bridges in Romania (1881–1882). He was also involved in the construction of numerous other metallic bridges, such as the one at Cosmeşti over the Siret River, which measured 430 m in length. Between 1884 and 1889, Saligny planned and built the first silos in the world made of reinforced concrete, which are preserved today in Constanţa, Brăila and Galaţi. In the port of Constanţa, he created a special pool to allow oil export and two silos for grain export.

Anghel Saligny's most important work was the King Carol I Bridge over the Danube at Cernavodă. Although a public offer had been held by the Romanian government for the erection of a bridge in that location, all projects were found to be subpar and then rejected. Based on his previous experience, Saligny was then selected and given the daunting (at the time) task to draw up the plans for the new structure. Construction work for the bridge started November 26, 1895, in the presence of King Carol I of Romania. The bridge has five openings, with four being 140 m wide, and the central one spanning 190 m. To allow ships to pass under the bridge, it was raised 30 m above the water. The endurance test was performed on the official opening day, when a convoy of locomotives drove on it at 85 km/h. The bridge at Cernavodă measures 4.088 m in length, with 1,662 m over the Danube, and 920 m over the Borcea arm of Danube. At the time, it was the longest bridge in Europe, and the third longest bridge in the world. The structure was famous for its era, competing with Gustave Eiffel's engineering works in France — the Garabit viaduct and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It was later renamed Anghel Saligny Bridge, and was not used since 1987, after the construction of a new bridge.

After Wikipedia.

Danube sturgeons

Sturgeon are large (up to 6 m and 1.5 t) long-lived, archaic fish. All 25 species of sturgeon and two species of paddlefish inhabit the coastal waters, rivers and lakes of the Northern Hemisphere. They feed on small animals and plants, and most migrate up-river to breed and spawn. Their late sexual maturity, up to 25 years for beluga sturgeon females, is one of the reasons for their vulnerability to over-fishing. Today, the largest populations of sturgeon are found in the Caspian Sea, with important populations also found in the Danube and Amur River basins.


Six species of sturgeons are native to the Danube River Basin, five are classified as either "Endangered" or "Critically Endangered", and one "Vulnerable" (Acipenser ruthenus) according to the 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN 2004). In fact, one of the five endangered species, the Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser sturio), is already extinct in the Danube River Basin. The Danube sturgeons are:
* Beluga (Lat: Huso huso, Romanian: morun) - 6m, 1500kg


* Russian sturgeon (Lat: Acipenser gueldenstaedtii, Romanian: nisetru) - 3m, 500kg


* Starry sturgeon or Sevruga (Lat: Acipenser stellatus, Romanian: păstruga) - 2.2m, 54kg


* Fringebarbel sturgeon (Lat: Acipenser nudiventris, Romanian: bogzar) - 2.2m, 80kg


* Atlantic sturgeon (Lat: Acipenser sturio, Romanian: sip, viza galbenă) - 5m, 1000kg


* Sterlet (Lat: Acipenser ruthenus, Romanian: cega) - 1.25m, 16kg

Until the 19th century, giant Beluga sturgeon the size of a small bus migrated on Danube as far as Germany and were important mainstays for many communities. Today, this ancient fish is on the brink of extinction. Dams have cut off the sturgeon's migration routes. Diking and draining of 80% of the Danube's former floodplains has removed important spawning and feeding areas. Overfishing has taken its toll as well. Now projects to improve navigation on the Lower Danube threaten to destroy some of the last sturgeon spawning areas and migration routes. WWF is working with the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River and the governments of Romania and Serbia to examine options for making the dams passable to sturgeon and other species, which could extend migration and habitats by 1,000 km up to Slovakia.


Sturgeon fishing and trade in the products is a very profitable business. Compared to other fishery activities it is often viewed as “gold-mining”. Caviar is the unfertilized eggs of sturgeons. For many gourmets, caviar, dubbed "black pearls", is a food delicacy without parallel. The three main traded species of sturgeon produce distinctive caviar: Beluga, Osietra (Russian sturgeon) and Sevruga (stellate sturgeon). The color and size of the caviar are influenced by the species and the stage of maturity of the roe. The most sought after and expensive caviar is from beluga, a gigantic fish that can live for 100 years.

The tallest rock sculpture in Europe.

The Statue of Dacian king Decebalus is a 40-meter high statue that is the tallest rock sculpture in Europe. It is located on the Danube's rocky bank, near the city of Orşova, Romania.


Decebal was a Dacian king, famous for fighting three wars against Roman empire. He ruled Dacia from 87 to 106 AD. At the end he killed himself, not allowing Romans to capture him alive. The idea of the statue belonged to controversial Romanian businessman and amateur historian Iosif Constantin Drăgan and it took 10 years (1994-2004) for the 12 sculptors to finish it and in the end, it cost over a million dollars. Under the face of Decebal there is a Latin inscription which reads in latin "DECEBAL REX - DRAGAN FECIT" ("King Decebal - Made by Drăgan"). Right in front of the statue, but on the Serbian shore facing Romania, can be found an ancient memorial plaque ("Tabula Traiana") commemorating the victories of the Roman Empire over the Dacian kingdom in 105.

The Yellow Tulip of Cazane

In scientific reserve bordering the Danube - "Cazane", located in the perimeter of 115,655 hectares of Iron Gates Natural Park, flourishes the yellow tulip (Tulipa hungarica Borb.), a species of tulip unique in the world, declared a natural monument and protected by law.



The species was described for the first time in 1882, by Vincze Borbás, in an areal on the steepness of Romanian Great "Cazane" of Danube. Two years later, in 1884, a Serbian scientist reported the same plant on the coast of an almost inaccessible peak, Veliki Strbač in Serbia. Today, the only place in the world in which this tulip can be found is in Romania, on the Danubian "Cazane", in Serbia this plant finally disappearing in the 1940'.


The species is endemic and flourishes from April to May.

Photos: Sretco Milanovici.