Hârşova is a town located on the right bank of the Danube

Danube

The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

, in Constanţa County

Constanta County

Constanța is the name of a county in the Dobruja region of Romania. Its capital city is also named Constanța.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 715,151 and the population density was 101/km². The degree of urbanization is much higher than the Romanian average. In recent years the...

, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, with a population of 11,000.

The village of Vadu Oii is administered by the town. The village is linked with the Giurgeni

Giurgeni

Giurgeni is a commune located in Ialomiţa County, Romania. It is composed of a single village, Giurgeni....

 commune over the Danube via the Giurgeni-Vadu Oii Bridge

Giurgeni-Vadu Oii Bridge

The Giurgeni-Vadu Oii Bridge is a bridge in Romania, over the Danube river, between Giurgeni commune and Vadu Oii village on national road.The bridge is in length with a main span of , and is constructed as a steel truss bridge.-External links:...

.

Etymology

The name of the city may derive from its historical name Carsium.

The current name may also derive from the ancient Slavic god

Slavic mythology

Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs before Christianisation.The religion possesses many common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion....

 Hârs

Hors

In Slavic mythology, Hors is the Slavic sun god.The name Hors comes from the Iranian languages — see , Middle Persian: xvaršêt, «shining sun»....

 (Хърс) and Slavic

Slavic languages

The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...

 suffix

Affix

An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...

 "-ova

-ovo/-evo

-ovo/-evo is a widespread Slavic suffix indicating a placename. It is the neuter form of the Slavic possessive suffix -ov/-ev which is declined this way after selo , mesto or another neutral noun, usually omitted in the toponym itself. The form -evo is used after palatal or palatalized consonants...

" and it is still under debate whether it is in any way linked with the ancient name. An alternative theory suggests that the town's name is of Turkish origins ("hırsız" means "thief" in Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

).

History

In ancient times, a Roman settlement named Carsium, belonging to the Scythia Minor

Scythia Minor

Scythia Minor, "Lesser Scythia" was in ancient times the region surrounded by the Danube at the north and west and the Black Sea at the east, corresponding to today's Dobruja, with a part in Romania and a part in Bulgaria....

province, lay on the current site of the town.

External links

• Numele Carsium la Proiectul LTDM al lui Sorin Olteanu (SOLTDM.COM)