Constantza

The first physicians settled at Constanţa after the arrival of the British company (DBSR) and the construction of the Cernavodă – Constanţa railway. Local inhabitants used the medical services of Doctor Papasaul, known as the quarantine doctor, Doctor Irvin Bolton, the physician of the DBSR, Kefalas and his son Trasivul Kefalas or the Italian Lorenzoni, who established a “hospital” or infirmary in a building belonging to DBSR. A certain Vallindas settled at Constanţa in 1868, and in 1871 Doctor Cicilianopoulos opened a pharmacy together with Dimitrie Kefalas, the second son of Doctor Kefalas. In 1878 there were four pharmacies at Constanţa, belonging to Bolton, Vallindas, Cicilianopoulos and Kefalas, medical stores that also served as dispensaries. Other physicians were Gheorghe Cuianos, specialised in orthopaedics, and Stavru Atanasiu, a dentist also involved in the vaccination of people. There were also several midwives who came from Constantinople [1].

After 1878 the first Romanian physicians to settle at Constanţa were military doctors. Doctor Corvin was the doctor of the commune and of the harbour. At the same time, Drăgănescu was appointed doctor of Constanța County. A military hospital existed at Constanţa during this period, hosted in May 1883 in a building of DBSR [2].

A civil hospital was quartered in a private building since 1879 [3]. According to contemporary description, it consisted of eight rooms, out of which four wards for men (with ten beds) and one for women (with five beds). It had no bathrooms and no proper medical facilities. However, as it was the only civil hospital in the county of Constanţa, it was always full, and the municipality of Constanţa paid a quarter of its budget for the expenses of this establishment. In 1892 the authorities started the construction of a proper hospital on Carol Street, the building being done by entrepreneur Ştefan Pisculici. The new hospital was completed and fully fitted a year later. It had two wards with 20 beds, an administrative pavilion, one for contagious diseases, a pavilion for autopsies, an ice house, outbuildings (kitchen, laundry, the administrator’s house). During the winter it also hosted homeless and poor persons. Contemporary sources considered it as a rather hygienic and spacious institution. The hospital was served by the town doctor and by 13 assistants, and at the beginning of the 20^th century it had 35 beds. In a decade of activity it received 452 patients, out of whom 359 were cured [4].

Later, this hospital was demolished and “Dr Sion” Communal Hospital was erected on its place in 1908–1909. Initially this hospital had 16 beds, then 20 beds, and as medical staff it had a doctor, a vaccinating under-surgeon, a midwife and two servants [5].

As the city developed, more and more doctors settled themselves at Constanţa. During the summer prestigious physicians came from Bucharest and opened seasonal cabinets in Constanţa, such as it was the case of Dr Paulman, “specialist in women’s diseases, in nerve, skin and syphilitic diseases” [6].

Archival sources:

Serviciul Judeţean Constanţa al Arhivelor Naţionale (The National Archives, Constanţa Branch), Primăria municipiului Constanţa (The Municipality of Constanţa), files starting with 1878.

[1] M. D. Ionescu, Tomi – Constanţa (Constanţa: Tipografia Lucrătorii Asociaţi, 1931), 71–72.

[2] Marin Ionescu Dobrogeanu, Cercetări asupra oraşului Constanţa. Geografie şi istorie (Bucharest: Tipografia şi Fonderia de Litere Thoma Basilescu, 1897), 52.

[3]Din tezaurul documentar dobrogean, edited by Marin Stanciu (Bucharest: Direcţia Generală a Arhivelor Statului din RSR, 1988), 77–78.

[4] Ionescu, Cercetări, 43; Mihail Măldărescu, Din istoricul oraşului Constanţa, first edition (Constanţa: Tipografia ziarului Dobrogea Jună, 1935), 13; Constantin Boncu, Natalia Boncu, Constanţa. Contribuţii la istoricul localităţii (Bucharest: Editura Litera, Bucureşti, 1979), 77–78; Din tezaurul, 128, 162–163; Constantin Şerban, Victoria Şerban, “Începuturi de modernizare în oraşul Constanţa (1878–1900)”, Comunicări de istorie a Dobrogei (Constanţa: Muzeul de Istorie Naţională şi Arheologie, 1980), vol. I, 65; Aurelia Lăpuşan, “Mihail Coiciu (Koiciu)”, in vol. Studii istorice dobrogene, edited by Valentin Ciorbea (Constanţa: Ovidius University Press, 2003), 143–144.

[5] Şerban, Şerban, Începuturi, 65.

[6] Mariana Cojoc, Constanţa – port internaţional. Comerţ exterior al României prin portul Constanţa 1878–1939 (Bucharest: Cartea Universitară, 2006), 69.

References

Cojoc, Mariana, Constanţa – port internaţional. Comerţ exterior al României prin portul Constanţa 1878–1939 [Constanţa – International Port. Romania’s Foreign Trade through the Port of Constanţa 1878–1939] (Bucharest: Cartea Universitară, 2006).

Din tezaurul documentar dobrogean, edited by Marin Stanciu [Tresure of Documents on Dobrudja], edited by Marin Stanciu (Bucharest: Direcţia Generală a Arhivelor Statului din RSR, 1988).

Ionescu, M. D., Cercetări asupra oraşului Constanţa. Geografie şi istorie [Researches on the City of Constanţa. Geography and History] (Bucharest: Tipografia şi Fonderia de Litere Thoma Basilescu, 1897).

Lăpuşan, Aurelia, “Mihail Coiciu (Koiciu)”, in vol. Studii istorice dobrogene [Historical Studies on Dobrudja], edited by Valentin Ciorbea (Constanţa: Ovidius University Press, 2003), 135–155.

Măldărescu, Mihail, Din istoricul oraşului Constanţa [From the History of Constanţa City], first edition (Constanţa: Tipografia ziarului Dobrogea Jună, 1935).

Şerban, Constantin, Şerban, Victoria, “Începuturi de modernizare în oraşul Constanţa (1878–1900)” [Beginnings of Modernisation in Constanţa City (1878–1900)], Comunicări de istorie a Dobrogei [Papers on the History of Dobrudja] (Constanţa: Muzeul de Istorie Naţională şi Arheologie, 1980), vol. I, 57–70.