Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie and Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
147 km
Riding-time estimate
3 h 07
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Cornuțel it runs 147 km to Cornuțel; allow about 3 h 07 of riding. The stops in between: Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe, Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu and back through Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie
Caput Bubali, the head of the buffalo, is a wonderfully odd Roman name, and it belongs to a station on the road that carried troops and supplies north from the Danube into the heart of Dacia after Trajan's conquest. The hill known as Cetățuie, near the villages of Brebu and Cornuțel in the Banat, holds the earthworks of a fort that guarded this route as it threaded through the hills towards Tibiscum, the important Roman centre near Caransebeș. It is part of the Dacian frontier group listed by UNESCO in 2024, and like much of it, it needs a little imagination and a good eye for ditches and banks.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie is where the day begins. Next is Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe.
2. Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe
Zăvoi lies in the valley of the Bistra, a river running east to west between the Poiana Ruscă mountains to the north and the Țarcu range to the south, and for most riders it is a waypoint on one of the best roads in western Romania: the old route from Caransebeș in the Banat over the Iron Gate of Transylvania to Hațeg and the Roman capital of Dacia at Sarmizegetusa. The Romans used this corridor too. The road between their fort at Tibiscum, near Caransebeș, and the colony of Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa passed through the valley, and Agnaviae was a station along it, where travellers and couriers stopped to rest. Today little remains above ground, but the line of the valley is unchanged.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu.
3. Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu
After conquering Dacia in AD 106, the emperor Trajan founded a new capital for the province in the Hațeg basin, and named it Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa, borrowing the name of the Dacian royal capital in the Orăștie mountains to the north-east. The city grew into a prosperous centre, with a forum, temples, baths, and an amphitheatre that could seat thousands, and its ruins, partly excavated, lie in fields beside the modern village of Sarmizegetusa. The site has a museum, and you can walk around the forum and the amphitheatre, imagining the gladiatorial games that once filled it.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie to Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe
Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie → Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe to Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu
Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe → Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu to back through Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe
Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu → back through Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe to Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie
back through Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe → Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.