Ciceu is a name that carries more history than its size suggests. The ruins of Ciceu Castle stand on a high hill in the north of Transylvania, in the border country of Bistrița-Năsăud and Cluj counties, in the hill country between Dej and Bistrița. In the fifteenth century the fortress and its estate were granted by the Hungarian crown to Stephen the Great, the ruler of Moldavia, along with the castle of Cetatea de Baltă, a rare case of a prince from beyond the Carpathians holding lands inside Transylvania. Little remains of the castle today, though the walls on the hilltop still give an idea of its position.
The ride titles point to Corabia-Ponița and Bologa-Grădiște, which are archaeological sites in the hills nearby. Bologa is a village with a ruined fortress, on the road between Cluj and Oradea, in a different valley. The word grădiște, which turns up on the map all over Romania, usually marks an old hillfort, and the landscape is full of them, from the Iron Age Dacians to the medieval period.
The countryside is the best of the matter. It is a country of beech and oak woods, steep pastures, hay barns and small farmsteads. Roads are narrow and winding, with sharp bends and some rough patches, and a rider can go for an hour without meeting another vehicle, apart from a horse cart or a flock of sheep. The weather is changeable, and summer thunderstorms are fierce, with the temperature dropping after rain. Late spring and early autumn are the best times, with September particularly beautiful when the beech woods begin to turn.
The reliable stops are Dej, a small industrial town on the Someș, and Cluj-Napoca, the great city of the region, which is some distance south. Carry water and a snack, and a phone with a map downloaded in advance, as the signal in the valleys is patchy.
Stand on the hill and look over the hills for a while. The old lords knew what they were doing when they picked it.