"Commercial and political needs demand the establishment of a Black Sea port": Infrastructure development, opportunities and anxieties in an Eastern European periphery (1860s–1870s).

This article examines the history and ultimate failure of the "Jibrieni project," an ambitious 19th-century Romanian initiative to build a Black Sea seaport near Jibrieni (now Prymorske) in Southern Bessarabia, linked to the mainland by canal and railway infrastructure. Despite unanimous political support from Romanian elites, the project faced financial difficulties, competing regional infrastructure developments, and opposition from imperial powers concerned about their own economic and geopolitical interests. The seaport was intended to enhance Romania's economic independence by providing an alternative to Danube navigation, which was seasonally unreliable and controlled by foreign powers, while also strengthening national security and territorial integration of Southern Bessarabia. Ultimately, shifting priorities favored railway investments and the loss of Southern Bessarabia in 1878 led Romania to develop the port of Constanța as its primary Black Sea outlet, fulfilling the original strategic aims of the Jibrieni project under different circumstances.