
The name of the village comes from Turkish, Yeni Sale meaning “New Village”.
Enisala is one of the oldest Romanian settlements, where human presence continuity is attested both by archaeological and historical sources from the prehistoric times until now.
Archaeological research revealed traces of inhabitation from Aeneolithic epoch, Bronze Age, Iron Age, one of the largest Gaeto-Dacian necropolis, a Getic settlement, a Dacian-Roman necropolis, two Roman-Byzantine fortifications, a Medieval fortress.
From all these historical vestiges, the most impressive monument in Enisala remains the medieval fortress, which name is lost. This fortress dominates the landscape, being built on the highest promontory between Babadag Lake and Razim Lake. The fortification was built for economical and strategic reasons, in XIII-XIV centuries. It was part of the Genoese chain of colonies which contained the towns Chilia and Likostomion from Danube Delta, White Citadel from Nistru river’s mouths, Caffa and Balaclava from the south of Crimea.
Between 1397 and 1416, when Mircea the Old ruled Wallachia, Enisala fortress was part of the Wallachia’s defence system. After the conquest of Dobrudja by Turks, an Ottoman military garrison has been installed in the fortress. Afterwards, Turkish domination advanced beyond Danube’s mouths as far as White Citadel and Chilia and sandy cordons which separate Razim Lake from Black Sea have been formed. The fortress didn’t respond any more to the Turkish economical and strategic interests, fact which determined its abandonment.
In the XV century, at the time of Dobrudja’s conquest by the Ottomans, the locality was populated by Romanians. Archaeological excavations revealed a cemetery from XV-XVIII centuries which belonged to this Romanian Christian population.
In XV-XVI centuries, Yeni Sala is mentioned by the Turkish chronicles which describe the fights with Romanian rulers for the fortress conquest. This fact proves once again that the settlement was inhabited before the instauration of the foreign domination in the territory between Danube and Black Sea.