Pursuing the doctoral research on the Romanian shrinking cities, the proposed paper would like to investigate further on the case of the derelict small cities by the Danube, which, together with the historical and new mono-industrial cities, resorts and agrarian towns, I labeled in 2013, following an interdisciplinary study, as representing the most interesting categories of decline. In the context of a forbidden relationship to the water during communism (viewed as a possible escaping place) and regarding the waterfront today as one of the main unexploited qualities of the cities, a possible urban catalyst, the paper mainly aims to identify the place that the Danube River currently occupies in the urban life. The three main topics that the paper aims to follow, that bear a territorial, economical, political, architectural, and anthropological perspective are: The Danube and the territory, The Danube and the city, and The Danube and the people.