Danube Delta Museum

Aquariums and exhibits on the Danube Delta's flora and fauna

The Danube Delta Museum — part of the Eco-Tourism Museum Centre — is the essential first stop in Tulcea before you head out onto the water. The ground floor is given over to dioramas of the delta's main habitats: reed beds, willow forests, sand dunes, freshwater lakes. The aquarium downstairs has around 100 species of native fish, including sturgeon and a vast wels catfish.

Upstairs you find ornithology exhibits with mounted specimens of all the major delta birds — Dalmatian pelicans, white-tailed eagles, glossy ibis — and a small section on the delta's traditional Lipovan fishing villages. Two hours here will make the boat trip that follows considerably more rewarding. Captions are in Romanian and English.

things to do museum
A story
The museum's basement aquarium displays around 100 species of fish from the delta and the lower Danube, including the prehistoric-looking sturgeon — once the basis of a major caviar industry on this coast, now critically endangered after a century of overfishing. The exhibits are arranged like a long walk through the delta's ecosystems.