Reșca - Romula / Cetate and Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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.

   Read the complete Reșca - Romula / Cetate write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Reșca - Romula / Cetate is where the day begins. Next is Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort.

2. 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.

   Read the complete Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort comes up about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor.

3. 3. Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor

   Out on the flat Romanian plain east of the Olt river, the village of Crâmpoia sits among endless fields of wheat, maize and sunflowers, and its name has a place in Roman history. A Roman earthen fort near the village stood on the Limes Transalutanus, the frontier line that the Romans built east of the Olt in the early third century, running from the Danube northward toward the Carpathians, a long earthen rampart with forts and watchtowers. The local name Reduta Tătarilor, the Tatars' redoubt, reflects a common habit in Romania of attributing old earthworks to the Tatars or other invaders, long after the Romans were forgotten. The site is part of the UNESCO-listed frontier of Dacia.

   Read the complete Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor. Next is back through Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort.

4. 4. back through Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort, late in the day. Next is Reșca - Romula / Cetate.

5. 5. Reșca - Romula / Cetate

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Reșca - Romula / Cetate write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Reșca - Romula / Cetate. That is the ride.