Galați County

Galați (ɡaˈlat͡sj) is a county (județ) of Romania, in Moldavia region, with the capital city at Galați, between 45°25'N and 46°10'N latitude, 27°20'E and 28°10'E longitude. It borders the counties of Vaslui, Vrancea, Brăila, Tulcea. To the east it borders the Republic of Moldova, the border crossing points being Galați-Giurgiulești (road and broad gauge railway) and Oancea-Cahul (road). It was established in 1968, through the territorial reorganization of the former Galați Region, which included a territory similar to that of the current Brăila and Galați counties, plus the northern part of Tulcea county. Galați County is part of the South-East Development Region (together with the counties of Vrancea, Buzău, Brăila, Constanța and Tulcea), of the Lower Danube Euroregion (together with the counties of Brăila and Tulcea, with the Cahul and Cantemir districts in the south of the Republic of Moldova and with the Odesa region in the west of Ukraine) as well as the Free Economic Zone Galați-Giurgiulesti-Reni (Romania-Moldova-Ukraine). Codex Latinus Parisinus from 1395 mentions a "Caladda at the bend of the Danube", a Genoese port of call where it could dock. The name Galata, a neighbourhood of Constantinople and another former Genoese port of call, has the same origin. The Romanian academic world mostly adheres to this Italian origin dating back to the 14th century: caladda in Genoese means "mooring hold", and the Genoese had numerous such places on the shores of the Black Sea and on the banks of the Danube, including, in present-day Romania, Giurgiu and Licostomo, near Chilia Veche. The discovery of the thesaurus of Barboși (southern quarter of the city of Galaţi, on the left bank of the Siret river), composed of 3,700 silver coins bearing the Greek inscriptions Gallati and Kallatiasy, will tip the scales towards the theory supported by Vasile Pârvan and Carl Patsch, which is the basis of the name of the Roman province Galatia in Asia Minor. The name Galați is also known as Kalas in Turkish, Γκαλάτσι in Greek and גאלאץ in Hebrew.