Video the village where Ceausescu reinvented him on Burebista. Is surrounded by the most famous Dacian fortresses

The village of Costești from Hunedoara was in the 1980s a place dedicated to the homage of the Dac Burebista. Over time, the settlement at the foot of two great Dacian fortresses became a tourist landmark of Romania.

A monumental gate of stone, adorned with frescoes depicting two Dacian warriors, announces the travelers traveling on the Orăștie Road – Sarmizegetusa Regia (DJ 705A) that they stepped into the Dacian citizens of the Orăștiei Mountains.

The entrance gate in this territory loaded with history was erected in the 1980s, on the outskirts of Costești in Hunedoara county, an former isolated settlement of shepherds and forests on the Grădiști Valley, today inhabited by about 400 people.

Burebista’s inheritance, reinvented by the Ceausescu regime

Near the gate, a fortress from the BCA was built in the same period, next to one of the old tourist cottages in the Șureanu Mountains, and on the opposite slope, a cloth of silver trees to form the figure “2050” reminds of the ambition of the communist president Nicolae Ceausescu to associate his image with the legendary king.

The year 1980 had been declared by the communist regime as a festive one, dedicated to the “2050 years since the creation of the first centralized and independent state, under the leadership of Burebista”. The authorities in Orăștie and the neighboring villages – a area considered by some historians as the “cradle of the state of Burebista” – were mobilized to contribute to the success of the string of festivities.

At the same time, several Dacian cities in the Orăștiei Mountains have gone through extensive restoration processes, which have made substantial changes. Costești village, 15 kilometers from Orăștie, turned into a vast film set, where hundreds of people participated in the creation of the Burebista historical film.

On the hill of the Dacian Costești Fortress – considered by historians like Hadrian Daicoviciu the royal residence of Burebista – the local authorities cleared the forest to plant a series of silver fir trees in the form of the “2050” figure, as a homage to the Dacian king.

“Becoming, by 82 BC or shortly before, the head of a tribes union from southwestern Transylvania with the center in the Costeşti Fortress, Burebista has transformed it into a state-of-type political composition in the process of extending its authority on an increasingly vast territory and on an increasing number of autochthone tribes.”Said Hadrian Daicoviciu. But other historians of the time challenged his assumptions.

The citadel from the BCA located in the valley, on the right bank of the water of the Grădiștii, was then used as a scene for the shows dedicated to “the creation of the first centralized and independent state”. Over time he was degraded, but there was a children’s playground. The clip of trees in the form of the figure “2050” has also resisted the passage of time and is still visible in the middle of the deciduous forest.

On the footsteps of the former railway to the Dacian fortresses

Costești village changed its archaic appearance from the communist period, when it was at the end of a road that started from Orăștie, on the Grădiștii Valley, accompanying the route of an old forest railway line.

From Costești, the road to Sarmizegetusa Regia became impractical. However, until the 1980s, when it was decommissioned, the trainings loaded with logs wore tourists to the foot of the old Dacians.

“It was always crammed on the train, dozens of people went up, to pick raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, which they were selling at the collection centers at Valea Rea and Anineş. They did not pay anything, as we did not pay. There were no tickets, but no travelers. They descended and helped to load the tender, in fact a sheet of sheet, with coal.recalled Cornelius Ionescu, a former explorer of the Dacian land.

The terrace of the railway was swallowed by the forest or left the new road to Sarmizegetusa Regia. The Grădiștii Valley has also passed through extensive changes.

Tourist village at the entrance to the Dacian fortress land

In recent years, a lot of holiday homes and tourist villas, camping and leisure areas have taken the place of modest houses of animal breeders or former meadows, once wandered by herds. From place to place, blueberries and fruit shrubs have found a favorable land for extension.

Above, the forests cover the hills that house some of the most valuable vestiges of the Dacian flowering era (1st century BC – 1st century AD). On the peaks, a few pastoral hamlets remained almost deserted, surrounded by the vast forest.

“I did not lack tourists, and in the summer, the pensions are full. On weekends, we see how they go up or descend to Sarmizegetusa Regia and we expect them to stop us, to taste our Dacian pies. The village has changed a lot lately, especially after the road to Sarmizegetusa was modernized. It will bring more people here. says a local from Costești.

Beyond the Dacian gate, on the shore of the Grădiștii, the locals welcome tourists with “Dacian pies” on the hearth, traditional dishes and thematic souvenirs.

Grădiștii Valley, nucleus of the Dacian community

Once a year, the village of Costești becomes a meeting place for farmers and sheep breeders, on the occasion of the Turkish holiday. In the rest of the year, tens of thousands of tourists cross him, animated by the desire to rediscover the most famous places of the Dacians.

The Grădiștii Valley from Hunedoara county, crossed by the road of about 40 kilometers between Orăștie and Grădiștea Muncelul (Sarmizegetusa Regia), was intensely inhabited in antiquity. In the village of Costești, some households overlap over ancient ancient settlements, whose vestiges (Dacian ceramics, iron wolves, graphite vessels, remnants of housing and ovens) attest the importance of the place in the Dacian and Roman times.

Also in Costești, tourists can discover the remains of a quadrilateral Roman military settlement – a high “Castellum”, according to archaeologists, on the ruins of an old Dacian settlement. But this site is less known and harder accessible than the famous Costești fortress, on a hill, about two kilometers from the center of the village.

Costești Fortress, from the time of King Burebista

The settlement kept traces of large constructions from the Dacian period: walls, bastions, observation towers, palisades, a water tank and more sanctuaries.

The fortress was erected between the second century BC. And the beginning of the next century and would have been the residence of King Burebista, also having the role of military fort. Numerous defensive structures can be observed today in the UNESCO site, but its emblems remain the two tower-tower, about 100 meters from each other, in the highest area of ​​the fortress.

“The one who chose the place of the fortress on Cetățuie Hill knew, of course, to correctly appreciate the advantages offered by this peak (561 meters), located at the point where the valley suddenly narrows, dominating the area and benefiting from excellent visibility until Mureș.“, The note of the archaeologist Ioan Glodariu (1940–2017), former coordinator of the archaeological site of the Dacian cities in the Orăștiei Mountains.

In the immediate vicinity of the fortress were two smaller Dacian fortifications, raised on the Hall Cetățuia and Ciocuța hills, which had the role of strengthening the defense capacity of the fortified ensemble.

The Dacian fortress Blidaru

Another path starts from Costești to the Dacian fortress Blidaru, about an hour of walking. The fortress, built in the 1st century BC, on the peak of a hill at an altitude of 705 meters, had a trapezoidal shape and walls erected in the Murus Dacicus technique, with thicknesses up to three meters and heights that, in ancient times, reached five meters.

The fortress included six powerful defense towers, an interior tower and eight casemates. At the foot there was a civil settlement, and in the surroundings several solitary towers were identified, which occupied the surrounding slopes.

Dacian fortresses at the end of the mountain road

From the village of Costești, the road of about 20 kilometers penetrates deep into the mountains, on the Grădiștii Valley, crossing the village of Grădiștea de Munte – and he rich in archaeological vestiges. On the banks of the river, archaeologists identified the terraces arranged by the ancient inhabitants for lifting the households.

In the same area were discovered routes and portions of Dacian roads, numerous artificial terraces, as well as the places where the Dacian workshops and blacksmiths operated.

For the last four kilometers, the road climbs steep on the White Valley, crossing the forest that hides the ruins of the Dacian fortress (video), stopping at the foot of Sarmizegetusei Regia (Video).

From the center of Costești village, another asphalted road climbs abruptly through the forest to Târsa, a picturesque village from the Șureanu Mountains, crossed by Via Transilvanica.

The road then descends into the Luncanilor Valley, the place of the Dacian fortress Piatra Roșie and of the Cioclovina Cave.

Another road crosses the hills, descending to Călan. The road represents the shortening used by tourists who go to the Dacian fortresses, starting from Huendoara and Hațeg.