The harbor was built in 1958 in the former Dolphins’ Bay. The harbor was executed by closing the bay with two moles: the northern one, with the shape of Y, with an initial length of 400 m, was extended in the year 2007 with a portion of 200 m; the Eastern one starts from the sea front of the Casino, on a length of 500 m. Three of four of its side (the eastern one, the southern one and the western one) have been provided with piers. The depths are of only 0, 50 m in the south – west side of the dock and of 3 m in the north – western area.
The history of the Constanța harbor is strictly connected with the one of the city. Although the first documentary certification of Constanța is late (the IInd century A.D.), the ancient Tomis is discovered, through the archeological evidence, even from the VIth century b. Chr.
The harbor – city was initially organized as an emporium – center of exchange between the Greek merchants and the autochthon populations. Tomis will adopt, during the course of time, all the evolutionary characteristics of a Greek polis. The Greek influence is kept until the Ist century b. Chr., when the territory situated between the Danube and the Black Sea enters under the Roman occupations. The first years of the Roman governance were recorded by the poet Ovidius.
The harbor has a prosper economic life in the following centuries, and the city takes over the name of the Emperor Constantin. The commercial exchange is developed preponderantly in the “Roman construction with mosaic”, admirable construction situated between the sea front of the city and the harbor installations.
In the Byzantine period, the evolution of the Tomis harbor will be marked by the numerous invasions of the migrating populations. The commerce is decreasing, the bargainers are searching for other markets, but the harbor isn’t forgiven, it being registered, thenceforth, in the publications and in the Ragusa, Venetian or Genovese maps. As a matter of fact, the harbor and other associated constructions will keep for a very long time the name “Genovese”, in the memory of the bargainers and of the navigators who came from this Italian city.
After a short period of Roman occupation, “until the Big Sea”, the territory from Dobrogea is occupied by the armies of the Ottoman Empire. In 1857 the Turkish authorities lease the construction of the harbor from Constanța and of the railway Cernavodă – Constanța to the English company “Danube and Black Sea Railway and Kustendge Harbour Company Ltd.” The harbor from Constanța benefits for the first time from the arrangements and relatively modern equipments.
After the Independence War, in the year 1878, Dobrogea comes back to Romania and, together with it, there appear the first preoccupations for the construction of a harbor which was going to fructify the strategic position of Constanța and the economical advance registered by the young state. In the opinion of King Carol I, the harbor from Constanța “will become one of the most significant of the Orient and a source of abundance for the entire world.” On the 16th of October 1896 there took place the official inauguration of the construction works and of modernizing the harbor from Constanța. The foundation stone was set by King Carol I.
The construction works started after the project of the engineer I.B. Cantacuzino and were continues with the proposed alterations by other two exceptional Romanian engineers: Gheorghe Duca and Anghel Saligny. In the year 1909, there was officialy inaugurated the harbor from Constanța.
Starting with 1967 there were started the expansion works of the harbor towards south. An important role for the development of the harbor was the construction of the Danube – Black Sea Channel, which was inaugurated in the year 1984.
