Target groups / Asociate Partners

”Gavrilă Simion” Eco-Museal Research Institute, Tulcea (ICEM)

Str. Progresului, no. 32, 820009, Tulcea, icemtl@icemtl.ro, https://www.icemtl.ro/acasa/, tel./fax 0240513231

The institution is subordinated to the Tulcea County Council.

          The first museum institution in Tulcea County started its activity on May 1, 1950, in a space arranged in the house of the Avramide family. On the same occasion, the first permanent exhibition was presented. It contained panels on the origin of life on earth and human evolution, a collection of rocks and minerals collected from local quarries and several other panels with samples of wood species from the forests of Dobruja.

         The District Museum of Tulcea was reorganized starting with 1955, the institution being run from that moment by Professor Gavrilă Simion. He briefly outlined time the thematic ideas of the new permanent exhibition: natural sciences, with the fields of petrography, ornithology and zoology; archeology and numismatics; plastic art.   

          During 1962-1964, the space of the Tulcea Museum was reorganized in the form of a beautiful exhibition dedicated exclusively to the natural sciences. Thus, on July 8, 1964, the new Danube Delta Museum reopened to the public. The shape and originality of the exhibition were highly appreciated nationally. Through bio groups, dioramas and the aquarium, everything that was characteristic of the Danube Delta was represented successfully as something unique.

          The Ministry of Culture granted the museum no less than three steps, the institution reaching category III A. Starting with the 60s and 70s, new archeological sites were opened, such as Babadag, Enisala, Orgame / Argamum, Beroe, etc. The tradition of archeological research has been cultivated and supported over time by the management of the institution, later being opened new research and archeological bases in the cities of Halmyris, Noviodunum, Ibida or Celic Dere.

          Due to the increase of the collections, new sections and museum points are opened: the household of Peasant preserved in situ from Enisala (1971), the Art Museum (1972), the Babadag Museum of Oriental Art – Panaghia House (1973), the Museum of History and Archeology (1975), the Museum of Ethnography and Folk Art (1989) and from the 90’s – the Early Christian Monument from Niculițel, the Old Lighthouse Museum from Sulina (2003), the Enisala Fortress (2007) and the Halmyris Fortress (2008).

         Since 1971, the Danube Delta Museum has been the host and organizer of large-scale scientific events of national and international importance. The reports presented there and the scientific works provided let to the first issues of Peuce magazine (since 1971), which the museum still publishes. In 1976, the museum in Tulcea, in collaboration with the profile institutes in Bucharest, hosted the Second International Congress of Thracology, the Congress of the Romanian Limes, and the Epigraphy Congress. In the following years he would become the organizer of several large-scale scientific events.

        The possibilities of the region at the mouth of the Danube for an inexhaustible range of multidisciplinary studies have imposed new forms of thinking in museology as well. In this sense, the organization of a database for each of the fields was initiated: natural sciences, history, archeology, numismatics, in a word a complex monitoring activity of the entire Istro-Pontic region. In order to organize unitary research in all fields that contribute to the knowledge of the environment, ancient civilizations or those of newer eras, for their conservation and capitalization not only scientific but also cultural-educational, it was planned to establish the Institute of Eco-Museum Research. The Eco-Museum Research Institute, Tulcea was established based on Decision no. 188 / 19.03.1993 of the Permanent Delegation of the Tulcea County Council, by reorganizing the “Danube Delta” Museum, and by Government Decision no. 863/14 October 2015, the change of the name of the Eco-Museum Research Institute Tulcea was approved in the Eco-Museum Research Institute “Gavrilă Simion” Tulcea.

       ICEM-Tulcea aims at fundamental and applied research in order to capitalize on the scientific, educational, cultural, tourist and protection of the natural and cultural heritage, especially the North Dobruja.

       The institution carries out the following specific activities: research by fields and with an interdisciplinary character for the identification, conservation and capitalization of the scientific and eco-museum of the cultural and natural heritage; elaboration and implementation of eco-museum research and capitalization projects, with internal or external financing, specific to the object of activity; scientific mapping and monitoring of natural and landscape reserves, historical monuments, archaeological sites, ethnographic and urban architectural monuments, artistic monuments and industrial heritage; organization of scientific and exhibition events, cultural events and educational programs; publishing specialized scientific publications in order to disseminate the results of the research activity; scientific collaboration with other profile institutions from the country and abroad (universities, research institutes, museums, non-profit associations), in the research fields specific to the institution, in order to carry out scientific and cultural projects and programs; studying, investigating, conserving, evaluating and classifying the mobile cultural heritage in the regard of the assessment for capitalization scientific, eco-museum and educational; the development of the cultural heritage of the institution through research activities, field collection of the exhibits, donations or acquisitions; providing specialized advice and assistance in the fields of competence: archeology, history, art, ethnography, natural sciences, restoration and conservation of the movable and immovable cultural heritage and protection of the environment; involvement, through curricular programs developed together with higher education institutions in the country and abroad, in the training and specialization of students, master students, doctoral students in the fields: archeology and history, natural sciences, ethnography, art; making cultural-educational materials, promoting cultural values and local tradition, etc.

        The organizational structure of the institution in services, offices and compartments, the hierarchical relations, coordination, subordination and control within the institution are established by the organizational chart. The governing bodies of ICEM Tulcea consists of: the Scientific Council, the Board of Directors, the Manager and the Director. The functional structure of ICEM-Tulcea is the following: a. The Museum of History and Archeology, which includes: the Bureau of Preventive Archeology; the Archaeological base Center for Pre- and Protohistoric Studies at Celic Dere; the Old Lighthouse Museum from Sulina; the Enisala Medieval Fortress; the Museum Paleochristian Niculițel; the Murighiol Tourist Information Point – Halmyris Fortress; the Jurilovca Tourist Information Point – Orgame/Argamum Fortress; the Archaeological bases from Slava Rusă – Ibida Fortress and Isaccea – Noviodunum Fortress; b. the Danube Delta Ecotourism Museum Center; c. The Museum Complex of the North-Dobrogean Cultural Heritage, which embodies: the Art Museum; the Avramide House (House of Collections); d. The Museum of Ethnography and Folk Art, which is part of it: the Panait Cerna Memorial House from Cerna; The peasant farm preserved in situ from Enisala; the Panaghia House in Babadag; e. the Restoration-Conservation Movable Laboratory and the Real Estate Heritage; f. the Heritage-Documentation Office; the Financial Accounting, the Administrative and the Public Procurement Service; g. the Human Resources Department; h. the Legal Department.

        Publications: Peuce. Studies and Research in History and Archeology, Danube Delta, DobroArt, Istro-Pontica Library (series of monographs).

ICEM-Tulcea is involved in numerous collaboration protocols with research institutes, museums, universities, NGOs in Romania and abroad, such as: the “Vasile Pârvan” Institute of Archeology, the UMR 5602 GEODE Toulouse, the Institute of Archeology of the Romanian Academy the Iaşi branch, University of Bucharest, the ”Alexandru I. Cuza” University of Iași, the National Heritage Institute, the National Museum of Romanian History, the Bucharest Museum, the National Danube Delta Research and Development Institute, the National Research and Development Institute for Marine Geology and Geoecology, the Ludwing-Maximilians-Universität München, the Sassari University, the ”Dunărea de Jos” University, Galaţi, Aix-Marseille University, the ”Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism from Bucharest, the Romanian Ornithological Society, the Balkan History Association, the ”Paul Păltănea” County Museum of History from Galați, the Museum of Viticulture and Pomiculture from Golești, the Museum of National History and Archeology from Constanța, the ”Grigore Antipa” National Museum of Natural History from Bucharest, the “Francisc I. Rainer” Institute of Anthropology from Bucharest, the State University of Moldova, the ASTRA Museum from Sibiu and others.

Bibliography on the institution:

Baumann, V.H. 1972, Activitatea de cercetare științifică a Muzeului Deltei Dunării din Tulcea. Perspective, Revista Muzeelor 3, 229-233.

Simion, G. 1972, Muzeul Deltei Dunării. Scurt istoric al evoluției sale, Revista Muzeelor 3, 200-202.

Simion, G. 1972, Planul organizării unui complex muzeal la Tulcea, Revista Muzeelor 3, 203-222.

Simion, G. 2000, La a Cincizecea Aniversare, în Iacob, M., Oberländer-Târnoveanu, E., Topoleanu, F. (eds.), Istro-Pontica. Muzeul Tulcean la a 50-a aniversare. Omagiu lui Simion Gavrilă la 45 de ani de activitate 1955-2000, Tulcea, XI-XXV.

Simion, G. 2006, Despre Muzee – Muzeologie – Muzeografie, Chişinău.