Dacian Fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains

General

The six fortresses of the Orastie Mountains have been built in the 1st centuries B.C. and A.D. for protection against the Romans. They are now part of UNESCO World Heritage. The most renowned of these fortresses is Sarmisegetusa, capital of the Dacian Kingdom, under the reign of Decebal, the famous Dacian King. The fortress is a complex of sanctuaries. Their is a dispute concerning the period in which it was built. Some say that is was raised in the 3rd century B.C. and other archeologists sustain that it is at least 600 years older. The reason of the dispute is the striking resemblance of the Big Rounded Sanctuary with Stonehenge. It is believed that the same architect conceived both of them, with just one difference, the one from Orastie being smaller. Sarmisegetusa was conquered by the Romans in 106 A.D. It was almost completely destroyed and today you can see the remains of it. They were discovered by prof. D.M. Teodorescu, in 1923. The ruins offers it's visitors the image of a Roman city, a dramatic picture of an innovative civilization. In 1982, a museum was opened, where there are exposed objects in silver and bronze, ceramics, statues of the Roman gods, coin, funeral stones, medallions, mosaics and others.

The place itself is extremely worth visiting as it is not only a surviving example of once powerful culture of pre-Roman Dacian state. It's a "must" between Romanian touristic objectives.