Sfântu Gheorghe Beach

Sfântu Gheorghe Beach lies on the Black Sea shore east of Sfântu Gheorghe village, Sfântu Gheorghe commune, Tulcea County, just north of the mouth of the Sfântu Gheorghe branch. The main access point is the end of the road leading from the village to the sea, about 2 km east of the village centre. To the north the beach continues as a strip of fine sand along the shore all the way to Sulina. The beach is part of the shore of the delta that the Sfântu Gheorghe branch has built at its mouth from Danube sediment (the Sfântu Gheorghe II delta, according to ARBDD). The shore is not growing everywhere: local guides point out eroded stretches, caused by a lack of sediment or by rising sea level, and show where the shoreline was in 1856, 1886, 1927 and 2010; since the Iron Gates dams were built, the sediment carried by the Danube has dropped from about 67 to 30-40 million tonnes a year. German bunkers from the Second World War can be seen along the path between the village and the beach. The sand is fine and strewn with millions of shells. On the dunes grow sand morning glory (Convolvulus persicus), a legally protected plant found in only a few places in Romania, mainly on the shore between Sfântu Gheorghe and Sulina, together with Argusia sibirica and sea holly (Eryngium maritimum); further back are thickets of sea buckthorn, tamarisk and oleaster, and Limonium bellidifolium grows on the salty ground. Common terns fish over the water. Part of the beach is wild: in 2019 ARBDD set the limits of the Sfântu Gheorghe beach, beyond which lie wild beach sections that need protection, and some sections are strictly protected, with no entry. You can walk to the beach from the village or take the ARBDD themed trail D8 (Natura Trail), which follows the Danube bank to the river mouth and returns along the beach; do not swim at the river mouth because of the whirlpools. Tents and caravans are banned in the reserve except at authorised campsites. Sfântu Gheorghe is reached on the Navrom Delta ship from Tulcea. Every visit to the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve requires the access permit issued by the reserve administration (ARBDD). It can be bought online on ddbra.ro, by SMS, at SelfPay terminals or, in cash, at the information centres in Sulina, Crișan and Murighiol; children, pupils, students and pensioners receive it free of charge. The beach lies within the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve (UNESCO and Ramsar site since 1991) and within the Natura 2000 sites ROSCI0065 and ROSPA0031, while the sea in front of it belongs to site ROSCI0066 Delta Dunării, zona marină. The dunes belong to the Natura 2000 dune habitat types protected in the reserve (embryonic shifting dunes, fixed grey dunes, dunes with sea buckthorn). Managed by ARBDD. Did you know that the “Milestones' Route”, the old overland road between Sulina and Sfântu Gheorghe from the days of the European Commission of the Danube, ran along this shore? It appears in the Commission's atlas of 1867 and 1874, and from the 1887 edition it was marked with milestones, from M1 at Sulina to M15 north of Sfântu Gheorghe village; some of the milestones have been swallowed by the sea.