CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
A 290 km round trip from Geoagiu - roughly 7 h 36 in the saddle. On the way it passes Costesti-Cetatuie, Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel, Luncani-Piatra Rosie and Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Warm water has drawn people to this corner of the Mureș valley for at least two thousand years. Below the hill of Dealul Urie, near the spa town of Geoagiu-Băi, the Romans built Germisara, a fort on the hill at Cigmău and a bath settlement around the hot springs a few kilometres away, and soldiers and settlers from across the empire came to soak their aches in the thermal pools. Excavations in one of the old spring basins brought up a remarkable hoard of votive offerings, including small gold plaques dedicated to the healing gods and the nymphs, thrown into the water by grateful bathers. The ruins of the fort on Dealul Urie are low and grassy, but the setting, above a broad river plain with mountains on both sides, makes the climb worthwhile.
Read the complete Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie is where the day begins. Next is Costesti-Cetatuie.
The Dacians built their strongholds high in the Orăștie mountains, and the fortress of Costești-Cetățuie was one of the gateways to their heartland. Standing on a steep hill above the valley of the Grădiștea river, it was protected by walls built in the Dacian style, the murus dacicus, with large cut stone blocks bound by timber beams, and by earthen ramparts and palisades. It guarded the road up the valley to Sarmizegetusa Regia, the capital of King Decebalus, which the Romans captured in the wars of 101 to 106 that turned Dacia into a province. The fortresses of the Orăștie mountains are listed together by UNESCO.
Read the complete Costesti-Cetatuie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Costești-Cetățuie comes up about 33 km into the recorded legs. Next is Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel.
Grădiștea de Munte is where the Dacian capital stood, and the hills around it hold the remains of Sarmizegetusa Regia, the mountain city that Decebalus ruled from about AD 87 until the Roman legions broke it in 106. The site lies high in the Șureanu mountains, around twelve hundred metres up, on a series of man-made terraces cut into the slope. The most striking remains are the sacred zone, with circular sanctuaries of stone and wood pillars and a large round altar of andesite, often called the sun disc, which may have served as a calendar or a place of sacrifice. Whatever it was, it is a place with presence, set among dark conifers and mountain meadows.
Read the complete Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 51 km into the recorded legs you reach Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel. Next is Luncani-Piatra Rosie.
Piatra Rosie, the Red Rock, is one of the six Dacian fortresses of the Orastie Mountains and, arguably, the most awkward to reach, which is exactly how its builders wanted it. The fortress stands on a steep hill above the village of Luncani, with its walls stepping up the slope in terraces, built in the characteristic Dacian way, from dressed stone blocks laid with timber beams. It was part of a defensive chain that protected the Dacian capital, Sarmizegetusa Regia, which lies higher in the mountains. UNESCO listed the group in 1999.
Read the complete Luncani-Piatra Rosie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Luncani-Piatra Rosie, about halfway. Next is Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains.
Two thousand years ago, on a ridge in the Orastie Mountains, a king built a capital whose walls were a puzzle that Roman engineers had to solve with blood. The Dacians were a people of the Carpathians, farmers, shepherds and ironworkers, who under their king Burebista and later Decebalus built a powerful state that frightened Rome. To protect it, they built a ring of stone fortresses on hilltops in these mountains, using a technique called murus dacicus, a wall of dressed stone blocks with a core of rubble and timber ties, which could stand up to attack. The six fortresses, including Sarmizegetusa Regia at the heart, Costesti and Blidaru, Luncani-Piatra Rosie and others, were listed by UNESCO in 1999.
Read the complete Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains sits at 81 km, about halfway. Next is back through Luncani-Piatra Rosie.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Luncani-Piatra Rosie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Luncani-Piatra Rosie comes up about 192 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 238 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel. Next is back through Costesti-Cetatuie.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Costesti-Cetatuie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Costesti-Cetatuie, late in the day. Next is Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 290 km.
Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie → Costesti-Cetatuie is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Costești-Cetățuie → Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel → Luncani-Piatra Rosie is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Luncani-Piatra Rosie → Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains → back through Luncani-Piatra Rosie is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Luncani-Piatra Rosie → back through Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel → back through Costesti-Cetatuie is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Costesti-Cetatuie → Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.