A watchman on a Roman tower had a simple job and a lonely one. He stood on a wooden platform on a hill, looked along the frontier and waited. If he saw a raiding party coming, he lit a signal fire or beat an alarm, and the next tower along the line repeated it. The men who did this were not Romans from Italy but auxiliaries, soldiers recruited in the provinces, from Gaul, Syria, Thrace or Britain, who served twenty-five years and received citizenship at the end. The second of the two sites at Dealul La Frasini in the Mes hills belongs to that system on the Dacian frontier, and it was recognised by UNESCO in 2024 as part of the Dacia Porolissensis frontier.
The hill sits among low forested ridges and pastures near the village of Starciu, in the county of Salaj, in north-western Romania, in a country where Romanian and Hungarian villages lie side by side. Hay is still cut by hand in many meadows, and haystacks stand in the fields on poles until the winter. In the woods are oak, hornbeam and beech, with hazel scrub at the edges and plenty of mushrooms in autumn.
The roads are minor, narrow and not always well surfaced. They wind over the ridges, and in places the asphalt gives out to gravel. Expect a horse cart or a flock of sheep around any corner. Fuel is available in Crasna and Zalau, and you should not count on any in the villages. Phone signal can drop in the valleys.
Winters are cold and snowy, summers are warm with thunderstorms, and the best times to ride are May to June and September to October. Early morning mist hangs in the hollows, and the whole country has a pastoral calm.
It is worth stopping at the first village shop to buy bread, cheese and a bottle of local water, since the hills do not offer much else. If someone invites you in for a glass of palinca, the strong plum brandy, accept with grace and then ride slowly.