DES JOURS ET DES NUITS, AU TEMPS DES QUARANTAINES DANUBIENNES (1834)
Études balkaniques (Sofia) 2025, N 3, pp. 638 – 658, DOI: https://doi.org/10.62761/645.EB.LXI3.05
Virginia BLINDA 
Institute for South-East European Studies, Romanian Academy, Romania
Abstract: (DAYS AND NIGHTS DURING THE DANUBIAN QUARANTINES (1834). In the 1830s, after the establishment of the quarantine system along the Danube line, the decontamination period spent by travellers who intended or needed to enter in Wallachia generally fluctuated from 4 to 21 days. The Danube quarantines were designed as medical barriers to prevent and block the spread of contagious diseases in the country, such as plague or cholera. Crossing the Danube from the Bulgarian or Serbian territories to Wallachia was conditioned by a sanitary isolation whose interval was decided based on both the social and professional status of « the travellers » – habitants, merchants, soldiers, visitors, important persons, high ranking officials -, and the level of sanitary alerts from the Balkan territories. For this reason, cross-border social mobility was strictly supervised and regulated based on special protocols. The collections of documents from the funds belonging to the National Archives of Romania from Bucharest were the main sources that formed the basis of this study.
Keywords: Danube, quarantines, rules, travellers, Balkans, 1834