The Evangelia from Costinesti is the most well-known shipwreck from the Romanian Black Sea coast. It had been a business vessel, constructed by the shipyard that designed the renowned Titanic, Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Ireland, and launched as early as May 28th, 1942 under the name of "Empire Strength".

Later it was known as "Saxon Star", "Redbrook" and lately "Evangelia", its' last operator being the "Hanton Embinas Andros" company from Greece.

On the night of October 15, 1968, early in the morning, on a dense haze, Evangelia sailed very close to the shore and beached between two rocks at thereabouts 200 m from coast, near the Costinesti village, in the place where it lies today. The place in which the vessel got stuck is a highly rocky one which could have made the rescue operations costly and maybe also risky. Evangelia, which was an extremely aged ship at that time, had been left by the staff and thus became the property of the Romanian state.

The shipwreck's story is quite dubious and many tales appeared with time. The most famous one was that the ship belonged to the famous Greek Aristotle Onassis who would likely plan the wreck of the vessel to collect the insurance coverage. Deliberately wreckage theory could be reinforced by arguments that, at the time of the disaster, even though fog had been really heavy, the sea had been very calm the navigation equipment were functioning perfectly. The former communist government remained quiet in regards to the conditions of the wreck. Official reports of the time are not reliable, especially because they mentions that the event occurred at 1.5 nautical miles from shore, while the shipwreck lies at a shorter distance.

In the following decades, the shipwreck has fascinated an increasing number of tourists, thus leading to the local tourism development. Today, the shipwreck is one of the main badges of the Costinesti holiday resort. Though it is within a pronounced state of degradation, the Evanghelia shipwreck obstinate to keep on the surface, nearly in the same status in which it beached.

In case you pay a visit to Costinesti, lease a small boat to pay a visit to the shipwreck in the morning at sunset - it's impressive. You could find many overnight accommodation possibilities through many hotels, guesthouses and villas nearby. Although the season is between May until late September, the best time for visiting Costinesti is in July and August, when all restaurants, bars and discos are open and the water is pretty warm.