If your steps take you to Mraconia, about 15 km West of Orsova, be sure not to miss Decebalus’ head, considered to be the tallest sculpture in Europe. It is carved directly into stone and it represents the last king of the Dacians, the indigenous people that lived in the teritory of modern Romania before it was conquered by the Romans, and one of the forefathers of this nation.

Decebalus’ head stands 55 m tall and, inevitably, reminds of the famous Mount Rushmore from the United States of America. The eyes are 4,3 m long, the nose is 7 m long and 4 meters wide. This dimensions and its almost inaccesible position are arguments why so many people come to admire it every year. Some calculations reveal that it is only 6 m shorter that the Statue of Liberty and 8 m taller than Jesus’ statue from Rio de Janeiro.

The place of the statue was not accidentally chosen, because on the other side of the Danube, on the Serbian shore there is an ancient inscription, carved in stone, named “Tabula Traiana”, celebrating the Roman’s army march against the Dacians and emperor Trajan’s victory against king Decebalus in 105 A.D. This section of the Danube’s course, called Cazane (between Dubova and Ogradena, including, of course, Mraconia) was always considered one of the most dangerous and spectacular. Dangerous because the river’s crossing between the mountains caused the appearance of water swirls that had claimed many sailor lives, spectacular because the landscapes and the experience of fighting the waves are truly breathtaking. Mraconia itself is a testimony as the name can be translated as ”hidden place”, or ”dark waters”.

Just as the monument from the USA, Decebalus’ head dates from modern times, extremely recent actually. The initiator of this project was Iosif Constantin Dragan (1917 – 2008), a wealthy Romanian businessman, who was very much in love with the Tracian and Dacian civilizations and who wrote a couple of books about them, asserting that their role in universal history was more important than that from the official versions. His ideas are still controversial, but no one can deny that investing more that a million Euros to realize Decebalus’ head was an extraordinary gift to the Romanian people. Of course, he had to take as much the credit as it can be for this – at the base of the monument it is carved `Dragan Fecit – Dragan made it`.

He had also promised to the mayor of Cluj that he will build a identical replica of the Column of Trajan from Rome, that depicts the story of the war between Dacians and Romans. His death in 2008 left this promise unfulfilled.

The sculpture was executed between 1994 and 2004, by a team of 12 men, lead by the Romanian sculptor Florin Cotarcea. As a comparison, Mount Rushmore took 14 years (1927 – 1941) and 300 men, until it was revealed to the public. The rock where Decebalus’ head stands now is a place only accesible by boat. Dynamite was indispensable and not very sophisticated eqiupments could be used, and they were carried to the top by foot, in bags of almost 50 kg each. The climbing sculptors worked in two shifts every day, from March until October every year and had to face the incredible heat of the summer, the danger of falling into the deepest waters of the Danube and the menace of the vipers. One worker was bit by such a creature one day, but was immediately taken care of.

Decebalus’ nose was the trickiest part of the project, as one big piece of rock fell apart, and the Dacian kings’ nostrils had to be stregtened with iron armature and concrete.

Author: Iulian Fira

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