Cugir - Bătrâna and Costești - Grădiște

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Cugir - Bătrâna

   South of the town of Cugir, the land rises into the Șureanu mountains, a sprawling range of beech and spruce forests, high meadows and rounded summits in the heart of the Southern Carpathians. This is the country of the Dacians, the people who ruled much of present-day Romania before the Roman conquest in the early second century. Their capital, Sarmizegetusa Regia, and a ring of mountain fortresses lie in the Orăștie mountains to the west, and they are listed by UNESCO as the Dacian Fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains. Bătrâna, on the high ground above the Cugir valley, belongs to the network of ancient sites scattered across these hills, where Dacians and Romans watched each other across the ridges.

   Read the complete Cugir - Bătrâna write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Cugir - Bătrâna is where the day begins. Next is Costesti -Blidaru.

2. 2. Costesti -Blidaru

   Blidaru is the Dacian fortress that makes you rethink what you know about the people Rome conquered. It stands on a steep hill above the village of Costești, in the Orăștie mountains of Transylvania, and its walls are built of precisely cut limestone blocks, laid in the Dacian style called murus dacicus, with timber ties inside to absorb shocks. The builders learned from Greek masonry, and the result is a fortress with strong corner towers and a small square citadel, built on a terrace carved out of the mountain. It was one of the defences guarding Sarmizegetusa Regia, the Dacian capital, a few valleys away, and the group of Dacian fortresses of the Orăștie mountains was listed by UNESCO in 1999.

   Read the complete Costesti -Blidaru write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Costesti -Blidaru comes up about 77 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bănița - Jigoru Mare.

3. 3. Bănița - Jigoru Mare

   High on a limestone outcrop above the village of Bănița, in the hills of south-western Transylvania, stand the ruins of a Dacian fortress. Bănița is one of the six Dacian fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains listed by UNESCO in 1999, part of the defensive system built around the capital of the Dacian kingdom, Sarmizegetusa Regia, in the first century BC and the first century AD. The kingdom's last great ruler, Decebalus, held out against Rome in two hard wars before Trajan's legions finally conquered Dacia in 106, an event recorded in stone on Trajan's Column in Rome.

   Read the complete Bănița - Jigoru Mare write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 154 km into the recorded legs you reach Bănița - Jigoru Mare. Next is Costești - Grădiște.

4. 4. Costești - Grădiște

   The kings of Dacia put their holy places and their fortresses on the tops of mountains, and the best of them lie in the Orăștie Mountains of Hunedoara county, where six fortresses were built in the first century BC and first century AD to defend the heart of the kingdom. Costești is the entry point. The fortress of Costești-Cetățuie, on a steep hill above the valley of the Orăștioara, and its neighbour Blidaru, stood on limestone ridges with thick walls of carefully dressed stone, murus dacicus, a technique that combined stone facing with timber lacing. The Dacians fought Rome in two wars, in AD 101-102 and 105-106, under their king Decebalus, and the Romans eventually took and destroyed the fortresses, stripping the hills of their defences. UNESCO listed the group in 1999.

   Read the complete Costești - Grădiște write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Costești - Grădiște, about halfway. Next is back through Bănița - Jigoru Mare.

5. 5. back through Bănița - Jigoru Mare

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Bănița - Jigoru Mare write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Bănița - Jigoru Mare sits at 310 km, about halfway. Next is back through Costesti -Blidaru.

6. 6. back through Costesti -Blidaru

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Costesti -Blidaru write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Costesti -Blidaru comes up about 390 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cugir - Bătrâna.

7. 7. Cugir - Bătrâna

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Cugir - Bătrâna write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Cugir - Bătrâna closes the day.