Corabia - Sucidava / Celei and Reșca - Romula / Cetate
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
142 km
Riding-time estimate
2 h 55
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 Corabia it runs 142 km to Corabia; allow about 2 h 55 of riding. On the way it passes Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort, Reșca - Romula / Cetate and back through Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort. It crosses from Bulgaria into Romania - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Corabia - Sucidava / Celei
At Celei, a few kilometres from Corabia on the Danube, the Romans built a bridge. It is a thing worth pausing over, because the bridge was built in AD 328, in the time of Constantine the Great, and it linked the Roman fortress of Sucidava on the northern bank with the province on the other side. The bridge was nearly two and a half kilometres long, one of the grandest engineering projects of the late empire, and it gave Rome a way to project power across the river long after the rest of the frontier had begun to crumble. A later emperor, Justinian, rebuilt Sucidava in the sixth century, and the fortress was in use for a very long time.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Corabia - Sucidava / Celei is where the day begins. Next is Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort.
2. Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort
Slăveni is farm country, and the fort here is the sort of ruin you have to meet halfway. "La Cetate" simply means "at the fortress", the name locals gave to a rise in the fields long before anyone excavated it, and what remains of the Roman auxiliary fort is mostly a matter of banks, ditches and the shape of the ground rather than standing walls. If you expect a Hadrian's Wall photograph you will be disappointed; if you like imagining a few hundred soldiers watching a very flat horizon, you will be fine.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort comes up about 49 km into the recorded legs. Next is Reșca - Romula / Cetate.
3. Reșca - Romula / Cetate
Romula was once among the more important towns in Roman Dacia, and the ground at Reșca, in Olt county, is where it stood. The settlement grew near the river Olt on the road between the Danube frontier and the interior, and it rose to the rank of a colony in the later empire; the later name, Romula Malvensis, ties it to the province of Dacia Malvensis that was formed in the third century. Today you see fields, a few low mounds, and the faint outline of an old fortification, with finds from the site kept in nearby museums rather than at the roadside.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Corabia - Sucidava / Celei. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Corabia - Sucidava / Celei to Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort
Corabia - Sucidava / Celei → Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort to Reșca - Romula / Cetate
Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort → Reșca - Romula / Cetate is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Reșca - Romula / Cetate to back through Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort
Reșca - Romula / Cetate → back through Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort to Corabia - Sucidava / Celei
back through Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort → Corabia - Sucidava / Celei is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.