Giurgiu–Ruse

The Danube between Romania and Bulgaria

Giurgiu–Ruse: for 59 years, the only bridge between Romania and Bulgaria

Romania and Bulgaria share about 470 km of the Danube. From 1954 to 2013 one bridge crossed it, between Giurgiu, a Romanian river town south of Bucharest, and Ruse, the Bulgarian city opposite. Even now, with a second bridge upstream, the longest stretch of the whole Danube without a bridge, 307 km, runs from here upstream to Calafat in Romania and Vidin in Bulgaria.

Pick a year, or the year you were born, and see which bridges stood. ↓

Belgrade to the Black Sea, 1409 to 2026Bridges and dams across the lower Danube, year by year

Each light is a bridge or dam that carries a road or a railway across the river, from the year it opened. The red line is the river border between Romania and Bulgaria in the year shown; it exists from 1878, when Bulgaria became a principality.

Tap or click the river to pick a place. Grey outlines are today’s countries, for orientation, and their names appear only from 1878; the red line is the Romania–Bulgaria river border as it stood on 31 December of the year shown.

  • bridge or dam with a road or railway
  • not yet open, or closed that year
  • longest stretch with no fixed crossing
  • river border, Romania–Bulgaria (from 1878)
  • Roman bridge, ruined
  • army bridge, gone by the end of that year
Try the year you were born.

Today 10 fixed crossings join the banks between Belgrade and the Black Sea.

Between Romania and Bulgaria: two, at Calafat–Vidin and Giurgiu–Ruse.

At Giurgiu

There have been no routine checks on persons at the land border since 1 January 2025.

Read the story of these years

105 and 328Two Roman bridges, then no permanent bridge between Romania and Bulgaria for sixteen centuries

The Romans bridged the lower Danube twice. Trajan’s bridge at Drobeta, now Drobeta-Turnu Severin in Romania, was built in three years, 103 to 105, to the plans of Apollodorus of Damascus, upstream of the stretch Romania now shares with Bulgaria.27 Constantine the Great opened a second on 5 July 328, between Sucidava, near today’s Corabia in Romania, and Oescus, near Gigen in Bulgaria. By 367–369 it was probably already unusable.29

After that, no permanent bridge joined the two banks of this stretch until 1954. The bridge between Giurgiu and Ruse was the first between Romania and Bulgaria.54 On the map above, both Roman bridges are marked as ruins.

14th century to 1829A fortress on an island, and boats

The national archaeology register (RAN) dates the first mentions of Giurgiu’s medieval fortress to before 1386 and says it was destroyed before Mircea the Elder became prince. Mircea rebuilt it early in the 15th century, and a charter he issued on 11 May 1409 ends with the words “I, Mihail, who wrote this in the fortress of Giurgiu”.1112 Wikipedia gives 1395 for the first mention, from the Codex Latinus Parisinus; the register cites the same codex for an earlier date. The two do not agree, so no year is given here for a first mention.10

The Ottomans conquered the fortress between 1417 and 1420. The register adds that in 1427 Dan II of Wallachia retook it together with Pippo Scolari; Scolari had died in December 1426, so the date or the name is doubtful.1113 After the reign of Radu the Handsome, about 1475, it stayed Ottoman. Michael the Brave’s allies took it in 1595 (see below) and the Ottomans recovered it in 1597.14 Russian troops took the island fortress in 1771 and it returned to the Ottomans in 1774. In 1829 the Treaty of Adrianople gave Giurgiu back to Wallachia, the principality that later formed southern Romania; the Ottomans left the fortress, its walls were taken down and the townspeople reused the stone.11 In 1659 Mihnea III of Wallachia besieged and took the fortress, the last Wallachian attempt to hold it; an Ottoman punitive expedition occupied it again.15

One theory says Genoese merchants named the port for their patron saint, San Giorgio. The historian Nicolae Iorga argued that Giurgiu is simply an old Romanian form of George. The sources do not settle it.10 For centuries the way across was a boat. Armies sometimes threw a bridge of boats over the river for a single campaign, as in 1595; none of these bridges stayed.

1420–1426. The Ottomans hold the fortress, which they conquered between 1417 and 1420. You cross in a boat.

October 1595The army bridge lost in the retreat

In October 1595 the Ottoman grand vizier Koca Sinan Pasha withdrew from Wallachia to Giurgiu with his army, its booty and its animals, to cross the Danube to Ruse on a bridge of boats. Michael the Brave of Wallachia followed a day behind. Collectors set up at the bridgeheads to take the state’s fifth of the booty, which slowed the crossing.8

Accounts differ on the details. A study based on Ottoman chronicles says the grand vizier and most of the army were already across when Michael’s guns opened fire on the bridge on 24 October; the wooden bridge collapsed, and thousands of light cavalry (akıncı) in the rear drowned in the Danube.8 Wikipedia places the crossing on the night of 26 to 27 October.9 The same article says the army of Sigismund Báthory of Transylvania, with Wallachian and Moldavian allies, then took the Giurgiu fortress.9 No reliable total for Ottoman losses was found.

1595. An Ottoman army bridge on boats spans the river for a campaign, until it is destroyed in October.

1869 to 1954For 85 years, a railway reached each bank and no bridge joined them

The first railway in what is now Bulgaria opened in 1866, from Ruse to the Black Sea port of Varna.26 On the other bank, the 67 km line from Bucharest to Giurgiu was opened on 19 October 1869 by the calendar then used in Romania, 31 October in the Gregorian calendar.4

From then on two railheads faced each other across the water. Passengers changed to steamers. A regular ferry for railway wagons began in 1941, about 72 years later, and the bridge came in 1954, 85 years after the line reached Giurgiu.

1869–1882. A railway reaches each bank. Between them you take a steamer.

October 1883Where the Orient Express ran out of rails

A contract signed in March 1883 set up the Express d’Orient between Paris and “Giurgevo”, as the French called Giurgiu.6 The train ran from 5 June 1883, and on 4 October 1883 a special inaugural train left Paris with invited guests. At Giurgiu the passengers crossed the Danube to Ruse on a steam ferry, took another train to Varna and finished the journey to Constantinople on an Austrian Lloyd steamer, a little over 81 hours in all.7

The detour lasted about six years. From 1 June 1889 a through train ran from Paris to Constantinople by way of Serbia, without changing to a boat.7 How the express crossed Romania over the following century is told on a separate page.

1883–1888. The Orient Express ends at Giurgiu. Passengers cross to Ruse by steamer and take another train to Varna.

1940 to 1953A ferry for whole wagons

Ferry terminals were built at Ruse and Giurgiu in 1938–40, and freight trials began after they were finished in November 1940. On 10 June 1941 a regular railway service between Bulgaria and Romania opened: the ferry Sofia carried the wagons across, and passengers and luggage no longer had to change.30 The Sofia had three tracks on deck, with room for 15 wagons.30

1940–1953. A train ferry carries railway wagons across, from 1941 on a regular service.

20 June 1954A bridge built in two years, alone for 59

The bridge opened on 20 June 1954, 2,224 m long, with a road and a railway on two levels.4 Work was under way in 1952, to designs from the Soviet Union, and the bridge was named the Friendship Bridge.1716

For 59 years it was the only bridge Romania and Bulgaria shared, until the Calafat–Vidin bridge opened on 14 June 2013, 307 km upstream.19 Between them there is still no other. That is the longest stretch of the Danube, from its source to the sea, without a fixed crossing.23

1954–2006. One bridge carries the road and the railway. Border and customs checks on the bridge.

2007 to todayIn 2023, most vehicles crossing between the two countries crossed the Danube

Customs checks on the bridge ended when both countries joined the European Union in January 2007, and from 1 January 2007 the two border services did their checks in a single stop; passports were still checked.1618 On 1 January 2025 checks on persons at the land borders between Romania and Bulgaria were lifted.21

In 2023 Romania’s border police counted 3.95 million vehicle crossings on the border with Bulgaria. 3.30 million of them, 84%, were at the crossing points of its Giurgiu inspectorate, whose area is the river border: the counties of Dolj, Olt, Teleorman, Giurgiu and Călărași. The land crossings in Dobruja, such as Ostrov, belong to its Coast Guard.222425 The reports do not list the crossing points one by one, so the share rests on those areas.

2025–2026. There have been no routine checks on persons at the land border since 1 January 2025.

Every fixed crossing from Belgrade to the sea

Fixed crossings of the Danube’s main channel, Belgrade to the Black Sea, by year of first opening
OpenedCrossingCarriesBanks
26 September 1895 (14 September, Old Style)Cernavodă bridges 42railway from 1895; road and railway on a second bridge since 1987Romania
27 October or 10 November 1935 (sources differ)Pančevo Bridge, Belgrade 36 37road and railwaySerbia
20 June 1954Giurgiu–Ruse bridge (Friendship Bridge) 4road and railwayRomania–Bulgaria
22 December 1970Giurgeni–Vadu Oii bridge 35 41roadRomania
17 May 1972Iron Gates I dam 31 32road over the damRomania–Serbia
25 or 26 November 1976 (sources differ)Smederevo–Kovin bridge 39 40roadSerbia
28 December 2011Iron Gates II dam 33road over the dam, open to traffic since 28 December 2011Romania–Serbia
14 June 2013 (inauguration; traffic from 15 June)Calafat–Vidin bridge 19 20road and railwayRomania–Bulgaria
18 December 2014Pupin Bridge, Belgrade 38roadSerbia
6 July 2023Brăila bridge 34roadRomania

Distances between crossings are measured along the river. The Pančevo Bridge in Belgrade was out of use in 1941–42 and from October 1944 to November 1946, after wartime demolitions.

Quick answers

When did the Giurgiu–Ruse bridge open?

On 20 June 1954. It carries a road and a railway and is 2,224 m long.

How many bridges are there between Romania and Bulgaria?

Two: Giurgiu–Ruse (1954) and Calafat–Vidin (2013). From 1954 to 2013 Giurgiu–Ruse was the only one.

How did the Orient Express cross the Danube?

From 1883 it ran to Giurgiu. Passengers crossed to Ruse by steamer, took a train to Varna and went on to Constantinople by sea, until a through route by Serbia opened in 1889.

Are there routine border checks on the Giurgiu–Ruse bridge?

No. Checks on persons at the land border between Romania and Bulgaria were lifted on 1 January 2025.

The evidenceHow the map was made

The river is the centre line of the Danube’s principal channel on OpenStreetMap, side branches left out, from Belgrade to the mouth. Distances between crossings are measured along it, so they differ by a few kilometres from the official river kilometres, which are counted from the mouth; the stretch shared by Romania and Bulgaria measures 467.9 km this way against 471.55 km officially.21

A fixed crossing is a permanent bridge or dam that carries a public road or a railway over the principal channel. Bridges over side branches, footbridges and pipelines are left out; crossings less than 1 km apart count once, from the first. The list was drawn from Wikidata’s Danube crossings and checked against every bridge outline OpenStreetMap maps on this stretch.32 A year shows the river as it stood on 31 December, including the Romania–Bulgaria river border in force by treaty on that date: none before 1878, the Treaty of Berlin line from 1878, a shorter shared reach in 1913–1939 while Romania held Southern Dobruja (Treaty of Bucharest, 10 August 1913), and the earlier line again from the Treaty of Craiova (7 September 1940). Wartime occupations are not shown.434445

The two dams count from the day their roads opened to international traffic: Iron Gates I on 17 May 1972, the day after the plant was inaugurated, and Iron Gates II on 28 December 2011.313233 The scenes at Giurgiu are illustrations of the kind of crossing each period had, not of a particular day.

What is still open

  • Who ran the boats at Giurgiu before the railway age, and how many crossed.
  • The vessel and timetable of the 1883 steamer crossing, and whether the first express passengers left at Giurgiu or at Smârda station nearby.
  • Strengths and losses at Giurgiu in 1595, and the day the bridge fell: 24 October in one study, the night of 26 to 27 October in another account.
  • How long Trajan’s bridge stood: Wikipedia gives about 165 years; no scholarly source for that figure was found.

Sources

  1. Council Directive 2008/59/EC, Article 1: the Bulgarian section of the Danube, river km 845.650 to 374.100. eur-lex.europa.eu
  2. OpenStreetMap: the Danube (relation 89652, main stream) and bridge outlines, © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. www.openstreetmap.org
  3. Wikidata: everything that crosses the Danube (property P177). www.wikidata.org
  4. CFR Călători, The railway connection of the Capital with the East and the West: the Bucharest–Giurgiu line (1869) and the bridge (20 June 1954, 2,224 m). www.cfrcalatori.ro
  5. Economedia: the Giurgiu–Ruse bridge, the first Danube bridge between Romania and Bulgaria, 2,223.93 m. economedia.ro
  6. SNCF Archives: the March 1883 treaty for the Express d’Orient, Paris–Giurgevo. www.archives.sncf.com
  7. AHICF (Rails & histoire), 130 years of the Orient Express: the train of 5 June 1883, the inaugural train of 4 October 1883, the through route from 1 June 1889 (in French). www.ahicf.com
  8. Proceedings of IBAC 2012, vol. II, pp. 498–499: the Giurgiu bridge incident of October 1595, from Ottoman chronicles. dspace.epoka.edu.al
  9. Wikipedia, Battle of Giurgiu (1595). en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, Giurgiu: the name theories (San Giorgio, Iorga) and the date 1395 for a first mention. en.wikipedia.org
  11. National Archaeological Repertory (RAN), site 100530.01, Giurgiu medieval fortress (Insulă). ran.cimec.ro
  12. Documenta Romaniae Historica, B, vol. I (1966), no. 35: charter of Mircea the Elder, 11 May 1409, written in the fortress of Giurgiu. www.iini.ro
  13. Nádasdy Museum, Pippo Spano (Filippo Scolari): died at Lippa, 27 December 1426. nadasdymuzeum.hu
  14. Meryem Kaçan Erdoğan (2022): the fortress retaken by the Ottomans in 1597 (in Turkish). makale.isam.org.tr
  15. Valentin Sălaugeanu, The Giurgiu fortress (Episcopia Giurgiului): the Wallachian attempts to take it, Mihnea III in 1659. episcopiagiurgiului.ro
  16. Wikipedia, Danube Bridge (Ruse–Giurgiu): the name, the end of customs checks in 2007. en.wikipedia.org
  17. Scînteia tineretului, June 1954: construction under way in 1952, to designs from the Soviet Union. bibliotecadeva.ro
  18. Romanian Border Police, 30 December 2006: joint “one stop” control applicable from 1 January 2007. www.politiadefrontiera.ro
  19. KfW, ex-post evaluation of Danube Bridge 2 (Vidin–Calafat), 2019: opened in June 2013. www.kfw-entwicklungsbank.de
  20. Vidin–Calafat bridge operator: official inauguration on 14 June 2013 at 16:00, traffic from 15 June. www.vidincalafatbridge.bg
  21. Council of the EU, 12 December 2024: Council Decision (EU) 2024/3212 lifts checks on persons at the land borders with and between Bulgaria and Romania from 1 January 2025. www.consilium.europa.eu
  22. Romanian Border Police, evaluation of 2023 (traffic at the border with Bulgaria) and the Giurgiu inspectorate’s 2023 evaluation. www.politiadefrontiera.ro
  23. Romanian Border Police, evaluation of 2023, national tables. www.politiadefrontiera.ro
  24. Romanian Border Police: the Giurgiu territorial inspectorate covers the counties of Călărași, Giurgiu, Teleorman, Olt and Dolj. www.politiadefrontiera.ro
  25. Romanian Border Police, Coast Guard activity in 2023: the road crossing points in Constanța county, Ostrov among them. www.politiadefrontiera.ro
  26. BTA: the Ruse–Varna railway, 1866. www.bta.bg
  27. Drobeta-Turnu Severin municipality, About Drobeta-Turnu Severin: the bridge built in three years (103–105) to the plans of Apollodorus of Damascus. primariadrobeta.ro
  28. Wikipedia, Trajan’s Bridge: the bridge’s lifespan of about 165 years. en.wikipedia.org
  29. Opriș et al., Cercetări Arheologice 29/2 (2022): Constantine’s bridge at Sucidava, opened 5 July 328, unusable by 367–369. cercetari-arheologice.ro
  30. Dunavmost (Ruse): the ferry that made the first railway link between Ruse and Giurgiu, regular from 10 June 1941. www.dunavmost.com
  31. Romanian Border Police: the Porțile de Fier I crossing, open to international road traffic since 17 May 1972. www.politiadefrontiera.ro
  32. Novosti: half a century of Đerdap 1, in operation from 16 May 1972. www.novosti.rs
  33. România TV, 28 December 2011: the Porțile de Fier II border crossing opens. www.romaniatv.net
  34. European Commission, 6 July 2023: the Brăila bridge opens to traffic. ec.europa.eu
  35. AGIR, Univers Ingineresc: four decades of the Giurgeni–Vadu Oii bridge. www.agir.ro
  36. Kurir: the Pančevo Bridge put into service on 27 October 1935 (in Serbian). www.kurir.rs
  37. Vreme: the Pančevo Bridge opened and the first train ran on 10 November 1935 (in Serbian). vreme.com
  38. Government of Serbia: the Pupin Bridge officially opened on 18 December 2014. www.srbija.gov.rs
  39. SDCafe: the Smederevo–Kovin bridge put into service on 26 November 1976 (in Serbian). sdcafe.rs
  40. Podunavlje: a commemoration dated 25 November 1976 for the Smederevo–Kovin bridge (in Serbian). www.podunavlje.info
  41. Flacăra, 1987: the Giurgeni–Vadu Oii bridge inaugurated on 22 December 1970. www.bibliotecadeva.ro
  42. Tănase, Buletin SLI nr. 3: the Cernavodă railway bridge inaugurated on 14/26 September 1895. www.animv.ro
  43. Treaty of Berlin, 13 July 1878, Articles 2 and 46: Bulgaria’s northern frontier follows the Danube to a point east of Silistra, where Romania’s Dobruja frontier ends. de.wikisource.org
  44. Treaty of Bucharest, 10 August 1913, Article 2: the new frontier begins at the Danube above Turtucaia. documentsdedroitinternational.fr
  45. Treaty of Craiova, 7 September 1940: the frontier restored to the pre-1913 line, immediately downstream of Silistra. legislatie.just.ro
  46. Natural Earth, countries at 1:50 million. www.naturalearthdata.com