Sarmizegetusa Regia Dacian Fortress

Info

The Dacian fortress Sarmizegetusa Regia is located in the Orăştie Mountains, at 1200 m altitude, in the southern part of Transylvania, Hunedoara County. You can get here from Orăştie or from Călan, following the direction of Costeşti.

The road gets you up to 1 km away from the fortress, and afterward you will have to walk on a paved road for about 10 minutes up to the site.

If you want to take special photos, you should avoid weekends and generally summer when the site is full of visitors.

The site is closed during winter (December-February).

Entrance fee: Yes.

Discover

The Sarmizegetusa Regia fortress, the largest Geto-Dacian fortification in Romania, represented the military, religious, craft and political core of the pre-Roman Dacia.

Built in the second half of the first century B.C. from massive stone blocks, the Dacian capital fascinates today with its paved roads and sewerage systems, which are complemented by the mysterious religious sanctuaries for which it was linked to the Stonehenge sanctuary in the UK.

The fortress consists of three parts: the civil settlement, located on the terraces, the citadel and the sacred area. Out of the sanctuary complex (seven of them in total) were preserved the stone basis of a column upon which stood either wooden columns or andesite.

Conquered by the Romans in 106 A.D. the fortress was largely destroyed, but its ruins remain shrouded in mystery, concealing invaluable treasures such as the famous Dacian bracelets that can now be admired at the National History Museum of Romania or the bronze mold discovered in 2013 and exhibited at the Dacian and Roman Civilization Museum of Deva.

Due to its universal historical importance, Sarmizegetusa Regia Fortress remains an attraction that must be visited by both tourists and passionate of history or archaeology.

Did you know?

The most famous of the seven sanctuaries was the Great Circular Sanctuary, proof that the Dacians knew very well the mysteries of astronomy and could accurately calculate the time.

Conservation facts

Discovered in 1923 by a team of archaeologists, the ruins of the Dacian fortress of Sarmizegetusa Regia, along with five other nearby fortresses, were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999.

Because of the indifference of the authorities, it has been robbed for many years by treasure seekers.

In 2011, the works for parking facilities threatened the integrity of the site, the wall of the fortress being in danger of collapsing.

Currently the site is managed by the Hunedoara authorities that understood its importance.