Danube Gorges (Cazanele Dunării)
The Danube narrows into a limestone canyon on the Serbian border, and the road runs along the water the whole way through it. The Decebalus head — 40 m of rock carved into a face, the tallest such carving in Europe — looks down from the Romanian bank, with the little Mraconia monastery on the shoreline just before it. The last hour is the reason to go: cliffs on both sides, the river turning from a kilometre wide to a few hundred metres, and pull-ins where you can stop and look. It is the longest of the four trips, so leave early.
The journey
| Distance | 215 km from Craiova |
|---|---|
| Driving time | about 3 h 15 each way |
| Road | DN6 west, then DN57 along the river |
What you pass
| 35 km · Filiași | Jiu bridge, the DN66 turn north |
|---|---|
| 90 km · Strehaia | monastery walls beside the road |
| 115 km · Drobeta-Turnu Severin | the Danube opens out; Roman bridge piers and the water tower |
| 150 km · Porțile de Fier I dam | the dam wall and the lake behind it |
| 165 km · Orșova | bay, harbour, the round Catholic church |
| 190 km · Mraconia monastery | white walls right on the water |
| 195 km · Decebalus head | the carved face in the cliff |
Out of the window
Flat Oltenian farmland to Filiași, then low Mehedinți hills, the Motru coal country off to the north, and the Danube itself from Drobeta onwards — first wide and slow, then squeezed between cliffs.
Dubova, Mehedinți County