On its way from Serbia to the Black Sea, the Danube forms the border between Bulgaria and Romania for several hundred kilometres. Shortly before the river reaches the sea, an elevation in the Dobrogea region directs the river for about 300 kilometres to the North before it arrives at the Black Sea. Since the nineteenth century, plans were developed to correct “nature’s mistake” by building a Danube‒Black Sea Canal to connect directly to the Constanța seaport. Both Austrian and British enterprises distanced from their ambitions quickly due to the extreme technical challenges. After the Second World War and the establishment of the communist regime in Romania, the plans were reassessed to use the construction site as a forced labour camp to eliminate the old elites. Again, the canal project was deemed unrealisable after a few years, and work was halted until Nicolae Ceauşescu made the canal his prestige project in the 1970s. Mobilising the military and numerous volunteers eventually allowed him to inaugurate the two branches in 1984 and 1987.

The canal was supposed to establish the communist dictator as an essential actor in world trade. However, comparing the canal to projects of similar sizes, like the Suez Canal or Panama Canal, makes it appear somewhat irrelevant today. Nevertheless, the appeal of pushing the right buttons to split mountains still has not fallen out of fashion among authoritarian leaders worldwide.