Decebal: the guardian of the Iron Gate

Decebal: the guardian of the Iron Gate

The largest carved sculpture in the whole of Europe is in an unexpected place. The figure of the last king of Dacian - Decebal, is carved into the cliffs of the Djerdap gorge. This almost 43 meter high sculpture (just a 6 meters less than Statue of Liberty) is the eternal guardian of the Iron Gates of the Danube.

Decebal ruled in the first century AD. He successfully resisted Roman expansion for a long time. He was remembered as the unifier of the Dacian tribes. It is interesting that up to the Roman emperor Trajan, the powerful Roman Empire paid tribute to Decebal and not the other way around. In Romania, which considers its nation the successors of the Dacians, Decebal has the status of a national hero.

In the artistic play, the Decebal sculpture is located on the Romanian side of the Danube, directly opposite an monument to his greatest enemy - Trajan's Table on the Serbian side of the Danube. However, that conflict is just an artistic game - Romanians and Serbs have been living in great harmony and friendship for centuries, especially in this region.

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