The last stop for today is at the famous Tropaeum Traiani in the small vilage of Adamclisi. It is famous in Romania at least even though it celebrates to victory of the Romans vs the Dacians. And even though what we see today is a reconstruction of the original based on best guesses, there wasn’t a lot left except rubble at the time of the reconstruction. But even so it is quite impressive and we assume it was even more so during the Antiquity, giving pause to any invading army. Or maybe not as it was sacked twice and then abandoned, so who knows.
You cannot enter the monument, not sure if there is anything to see inside. But you can walk around it and enjoy the reliefs, at least those that were found during the reconstruction.
Behind it is the active, more or less, archaeological area. There are a few pits to see and there is a nice view of only the top of the monument, quite interesting that we went only a few tens of feet away and already you cannot see the full monument.
From the Tropaeum Traiani we drive to the close by fort, Civitas Tropaensium, the walled city near which the monument was built. The city was colonised with Roman veterans of the Dacian Wars and was raised to municipium status. All is now in ruins of course but the ruins are impressive enough even though they do not seem that extensive.
There are some interesting structures in the ruins that we explore, like the canal through the center of the city and the basilicas including one that must have been quite impressive. But it is getting late and we want to meet with some friends later in the day so on we go towards Constanta and the Romanian riviera.
First we stop at the AirBnB, it is quite nice, on two levels with two entrances affording privacy to both us and our relatives. And then we call our friends and they decide to stop by to pick us up.
We meet them near the Black Sea at a waterfront restaurant, it is great to see friends that we haven’t seen for quite some time. We settle at the table and order and then we exchange news and gifts and just spend the evening enjoying the company.
The food is looking good and we are quite hungry so it tastes great, we are not sure if we would have liked it as much otherwise. But then our meeting unfortunately has to end as we have to return to the AirBnB as tomorrow we have to continue exploring Dobrogea.
Returning to the AirBnB we are discovering quite a few unique monuments and fountains of horses and dolphins. While we understand the dolphins, we are near the sea after all, what about the horse? Our friends do not know either so that is a mystery for another time. Back at the AirBnB we fall asleep almost immediately as we are quite tired after a long day driving and exploring.
