Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis and Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
444 km
Riding-time estimate
11 h 02
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.
444 km from Gostavăţu to Gostavăţu, about 11 h 02 of riding. It goes by way of Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor, Izbășești - Valea Albă, Stolniceni - Buridava Romană and Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis
The Olt river rises in the Carpathians and runs south through Romania to the Danube, and in Roman times it was a boundary. The frontier here, called the Limes Alutanus after the Roman name for the river, ran along the Olt on its journey through the plains of Oltenia, and forts were placed at intervals to watch for raiders. Slăveni stands on that line, and the site on our list, a fort known as La Cetate, is beside a cemetery where the people who served there were buried. The nearby site of Romula, a Roman city that became a provincial capital, was a short distance away.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis is where the day begins. Next is Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor.
2. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor comes up about 48 km into the recorded legs. Next is Izbășești - Valea Albă.
3. Izbășești - Valea Albă
Between Pitești and Slatina, in the south of Romania, the land falls away from the Carpathian foothills towards the great Danube plain in a series of long, low ridges cut by streams. It is farming country, with fields of maize and sunflowers, orchards, vineyards and small villages strung along the valleys. Izbășești and the valley called Valea Albă, the White Valley, lie in this landscape near the small town of Stolnici, and the site recorded here is one of the many archaeological traces in the area, though there is probably little to see on the ground.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 94 km into the recorded legs you reach Izbășești - Valea Albă. Next is Stolniceni - Buridava Romană.
4. Stolniceni - Buridava Romană
South of Râmnicu Vâlcea the Olt river leaves the mountains and broadens across a valley of orchards and villages, and on the terraces above it at Stolniceni lie the remains of Buridava, a Roman military settlement whose name the Romans borrowed from an older Dacian centre nearby. It sat on the Limes Alutanus, the frontier road along the Olt that guarded the eastern edge of Roman Dacia, and soldiers stationed here left inscriptions, bricks stamped with unit marks and the foundations of baths. The site is part of the Dacian frontier listing inscribed by UNESCO in 2024.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Stolniceni - Buridava Romană, about halfway. Next is Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari.
5. Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari
The Olt is the river that cuts through the Carpathians, and wherever a river does that, an army will want to sit beside it. At Păușa, near Călimănești, the Romans built a small fort called Arutela to guard the road through the Olt valley, part of the defensive line that protected their province of Dacia after Trajan's conquest at the start of the second century. The fort's remains lie by the river, partly lost to floods and later works, and are included in the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listing for Dacia, added by UNESCO in 2024.
Stolniceni - Buridava Romană → Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari to back through Stolniceni - Buridava Romană
Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari → back through Stolniceni - Buridava Romană is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Stolniceni - Buridava Romană to back through Izbășești - Valea Albă
back through Stolniceni - Buridava Romană → back through Izbășești - Valea Albă is 92 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Izbășești - Valea Albă to back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor
back through Izbășești - Valea Albă → back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor to Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis
back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor → Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.