Hârșova is a seven-millennia-old locality. In the south-eastern part of the town, on the bank of the Danube, there is a Neo-Eneolithic settlement developed in the form of an elevation of approx. 12 m as a result of the successive destruction and rebuilding of clay houses. Research here has identified a human community that engaged in hunting, fishing, farming and animal husbandry. Commercial exchanges with communities in much more distant spaces have been identified through research. The following ages are well illustrated. Several settlements from the Bronze and Iron Ages can be found on the hearth of the locality. In antiquity, the communities here experienced the greatest development. These were in close connection with the cities on the western coast of the Black Sea (Histria and Tomis, in particular). The Roman era strongly marked the history of the people here. Most likely, in the second half of the 1st century BC, the fortification known in Roman sources as Carsium was built (a toponym of Thracian origin related to the rocky appearance of the area, from which derives today's Slavicized name of locality). The point of view according to which the current name derives from the words hîrsîz-ova, which means thieves' ford, is completely erroneous and unrealistic from a topographical point of view. In the documents of the caddies from the period of Ottoman rule, the fortress is named Harisova, and on German maps from the 17th-18th centuries we find it with the names Chirschowa, Hirsowe, Kersova, and in the 19th century, Hirsowa. In the 17th century, the famous traveler Evlia Celebi, who visited the locality, specified that the name comes from the expression odovan hîrs geliyor, which translates as the bear (hîrs) comes from the sès (plain). These words were spoken by the sultan at the conquest of the fortification. The defenders of the fortress used bear skins to scare the Turks. Then the sultan cried out; Odovan hîrs is coming! , thus sealing its name. The fortress was destroyed during the great invasions and rebuilt as many times.
In 1651 Evlia Celebi made a description of it: it had 1600 houses, windows, baths, bazaar and was protected by a wall of 3000 steps. Shortly before its destruction, the fortress is immortalized in a drawing, after which the famous lithographs are made, by A. von Saar, in 1826. In the 19th century, the Transylvanian Mocans arrived here and built the modern city. Its center was on the bank of the Danube. Around the port, quays, warehouses, banks are being built, and on the hill to the west, a monumental school and a church to match. The school also housed a museum, the first regional museum of Dobrogea. During the First World War the city was completely burned. Great destruction was also done in the Second World War. The era of the communist regime marked the beginning of the city's decline.
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