Geoagiu / Drumul Romanilor and Monastery of Horezu
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
599 km
Riding-time estimate
17 h 54
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Geoagiu it runs 599 km to Geoagiu; allow about 17 h 54 of riding. On the way it passes Costesti-Cetatuie, Comărnicel II, Voineasa - Crac-Găuri and Monastery of Horezu. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,600 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Scenic road chapters
Romania Transalpina
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 36 km this is Romania Transalpina, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
Length
36 km
Named road
Romania Transalpina
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Geoagiu / Drumul Romanilor
The Romans loved hot water, and at Geoagiu-Băi, in the hills above the Mureș valley, they found it: thermal springs that fed baths at the settlement of Germisara, where soldiers and officials came to bathe and dedicated altars to the nymphs and gods of the waters. The Roman pools carved into the travertine are still visible, and the modern spa uses the same springs. Drumul Romanilor, the Romans' road, recalls the routes that linked the forts and towns of Dacia, and the area is part of the World Heritage listing of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Dacia.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Geoagiu / Drumul Romanilor is where the day begins. Next is Costesti-Cetatuie.
2. Costești-Cetățuie
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Costești-Cetățuie comes up 39 km in. Next is Comărnicel II.
3. Comărnicel II
The Retezat range rises to the south, its granite peaks carrying snow into early summer, and the whole area belongs to Hunedoara county, a land of old mining, Dacian history and shepherds who still move flocks through the hills.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
78 km in you reach Comărnicel II. Next is Voineasa - Crac-Găuri.
4. Voineasa - Crac-Găuri
North of the Jiu Valley, the land rises steeply into the Șureanu and Parâng mountains, a wild region of high ridges, deep valleys, spruce forests and alpine meadows. Crac-Găuri lies up in this high country, linked by name to the old routes that crossed the mountains in Roman times, when Dacia was a province and soldiers watched the passes between the Transylvanian basin and the south. Little is visible today, and the remoteness is half the attraction: this is mountain land, where shepherds bring their flocks to high pastures in summer and the forest stretches for miles.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Voineasa - Crac-Găuri, about halfway. Next is Monastery of Horezu.
5. Monastery of Horezu
Constantin Brâncoveanu, prince of Wallachia at the end of the seventeenth century, was a wealthy, cultured ruler who built churches, palaces and monasteries across his principality, and Horezu was his masterpiece. Founded in 1690, the monastery sits in a quiet valley in the foothills of the Căpățânii mountains, surrounded by walls, with a church at the centre of a courtyard lined with arcaded cells. It is the finest example of the Brâncovenesc style, a blend of Byzantine, Renaissance and Baroque, with carved stone, painted interiors and elegant porches, and it was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1993. In 1714, Brâncoveanu and his four sons were executed by the Ottomans in Istanbul; the Romanian Orthodox Church later canonised them as martyrs.