Muncel - Cărămidă and Ilișua - Țibleș

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Muncel - Cărămidă

   In northern Transylvania, where the Someș river winds through low hills between Dej and Beclean, the Roman Empire once ran out of land and patience. The province of Dacia, conquered by Trajan in the early second century, had a long and complicated frontier, and in 2024 parts of it were added to the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire. Muncel–Cărămidă is one of those components, a small military site above the valley near Poiana Blenchii, part of a network of watchtowers and forts that guarded the northern edge of the province. The big fort of Porolissum, near Zalău to the west, with its reconstructed gate, gives you a sense of what the bigger garrisons looked like.

   Read the complete Muncel - Cărămidă write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Muncel - Cărămidă is where the day begins. Next is Dumbrăveni - Măgura.

2. 2. Dumbrăveni - Măgura

   In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a fortress on a hill above the Someș valley near Ciceu belonged not to the rulers of Transylvania but to the princes of Moldavia, on the far side of the Carpathians. Stephen the Great received the castle of Ciceu and its estates as compensation from the Hungarian king, and the Moldavian princes held it for decades, a curious enclave in the middle of Transylvania. The castle was later destroyed, and only ruins remain on the hill above Ciceu-Corabia, but the story gives a sense of how fluid borders and loyalties were in this part of Europe.

   Read the complete Dumbrăveni - Măgura write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Dumbrăveni - Măgura comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ilișua - Țibleș.

3. 3. Ilișua - Țibleș

   Ilișua is a small village near Uriu in the valley of the Someș Mare, and in Roman times it was the site of a fort guarding the northern frontier of Dacia. The fort, known in antiquity as Arcobara, housed a cavalry unit, and archaeologists have uncovered its walls, gates and buildings, along with inscriptions and finds now displayed in museums in the region. Like the other sites of the Roman frontier in Romania, it is part of a nomination for UNESCO world heritage, and like most of them, it is now largely fields and grassy banks, with little to see above ground but a great deal of history beneath.

   Read the complete Ilișua - Țibleș write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 52 km into the recorded legs you reach Ilișua - Țibleș. Next is back through Dumbrăveni - Măgura.

4. 4. back through Dumbrăveni - Măgura

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Dumbrăveni - Măgura write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Dumbrăveni - Măgura, late in the day. Next is Muncel - Cărămidă.

5. 5. Muncel - Cărămidă

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Muncel - Cărămidă write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Muncel - Cărămidă. That is the ride.