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In the southern part of the town Drobeta Turnu Severin, Mehedinti County, there is a huge Iron Gates Museum, with a huge yard, on the left bank of the Danube River. In the eastern part of the museum, in its yard there is a very important site from the ancient Roman times, a Colonia, forming the huge Castrum of Drobeta. In the western part of the museum yard there are Roman Thermes, also very important.
Between the Thermes and the Castrum, specialists have begun digging for a future important building, but they have found an Amphitheatre!
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 28th November 2010
The discovery is very important, so very soon, the specialists from Bucharest will be here, for a better search of the area.
The evaluation of the Alexis Project is that the ancient building is very big, and very important for this site. It is an important find for the specialists from the Iron Gates Museum, just as Cioroiu Nou is for the Oltenia Museum.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 28th November 2010
Maps of the Drobeta Roman Castrum or Fortress, from the 2nd to the 6th Centuries, built by the Romans on the left bank of the Danube River.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 2006
Plans of the Drobeta Castrum, ca 1900.
Note that this is a more detailed version of the plan labelled "Cetatea Romana Drobeta" or "Roman Citadel at Drobeta" above.
Planşe din colecţia Pamfil Polonic aflate în arhiva Muzeului Naţional de Antichităţi - Institutul de Arheologie "Vasile Pârvan"
Photo: http://www.cimec.ro/Arheologie/ArhivaDigitala/4Pamfil%20Polonic/PolonicP_Varia_71planse/Planse_sumar.htm
View from the inside of the Castrum to the Iron Gates Museum, to the west.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 2006
Views of the Castrum.
Some of the pillars still stand.
The Castrum was a huge one, built because the Trajan's Bridge near it was the main way the Romans used to enter Dacia during the wars with the Dacs especially in the years 101-102 and 105-106.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 2006
In the second century, the Roman Emperor Traian asked Apolodor from Damascus to build a huge bridge from today's Serbia to ancient Dacia, near Drobeta Turnu-Severin.
This is one of the supports of the bridge on the Romanian side of the Danube, protected now by a concrete wall from the waters of the Danube.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 2006
Drawing circa 1900 of one of the bridge supports.
Planşe din colecţia Pamfil Polonic aflate în arhiva Muzeului Naţional de Antichităţi - Institutul de Arheologie "Vasile Pârvan"
Photo: http://www.cimec.ro/Arheologie/ArhivaDigitala/
A superb reconstruction of Traian's Bridge inside the Iron Gates Museum.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 2006
A superb reconstruction of Traian's Bridge inside the Iron Gates Museum.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 2006
A piece of wood used by the Romans to build the Traian or Apolodor bridge, found under water after 2000 years, on the left bank of the Danube.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 2006
General view of the Roman baths, just to the west of the Iron Gates Museum.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 2006
Inside the Roman Thermes, a huge place with cold water for the baths.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 2006
Drawings circa 1896 of an oven or furnace (possibly for heating water for the baths?) and a sketch of local houses.
Planşe din colecţia Pamfil Polonic aflate în arhiva Muzeului Naţional de Antichităţi - Institutul de Arheologie "Vasile Pârvan"
Photo: http://www.cimec.ro/Arheologie/ArhivaDigitala/
View from the Citadel of Turnu Severin towards Simian.
Planşe din colecţia Pamfil Polonic aflate în arhiva Muzeului Naţional de Antichităţi - Institutul de Arheologie "Vasile Pârvan"
Photo: http://www.cimec.ro/Arheologie/ArhivaDigitala/
This appears to be a plan and small sketch of the original Tower of Turnu Severin.
The city of Drobeta was originally called Drobetae by the Romans, and took its later name of Turnu Severin, or the Northern Tower, from a tower on the north bank of the Danube built by the Byzantines, which stood on a small hill surrounded by a deep moat. This was built to commemorate a victory over the Gauls and Marcomanni by the Roman emperor Septimius Severus (222-235).
Planşe din colecţia Pamfil Polonic aflate în arhiva Muzeului Naţional de Antichităţi - Institutul de Arheologie "Vasile Pârvan"
Photo: http://www.cimec.ro/Arheologie/ArhivaDigitala/
