Kilia

Kilia, a town of S. Russia, in the government of Bessarabia, 100 m. S.W. of Odessa, on the Kilia branch of the Danube, 20 m. from its mouth. Pop. (1897), 11,703. It has steam flour-mills and a rapidly increasing trade. The town, anciently known as Chilia, Chele, and Lycostomium, was a place of banishment for political dignitaries of Byzantium in the 12th-13th centuries. After belonging to the Genoese from 1381-1403 it was occupied successively by Walachia and Moldavia, until in 1484 it fell into the hands of the Ottoman Turks. It was taken from them by the Russians in 1790. After being bombarded by the Anglo-French fleet in July 1854, it was given to Rumania on the conclusion of the war; but in 1878 was transferred to Russia with Bessarabia.