THE DANUBE SHORE touristic area is the “messenger” of the Banat tourism and includes the longest and most beautiful gorge in Europe – the Danube Gorge (135 km), from Baziaş to the dam of the Iron Gates Storage Lake (The Mouth Valley) built between 1964 and 1971.
After gathering its waters from 6 countries (Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Serbia) and passing through four capitals (Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade), as if eager to share what it has seen, the Danube River enters our country on the territory of Caraş-Severin County, at Baziaş, and crosses 60 km along the edge of the county at the border with Serbia to continue its journey through the Mountainous Banat (120 km) up to Orşova, forming the gorge that bears its name.
This unique charming land, bounded to the west by the Nera River and to the east by the Cerna River, at the Danube Cauldrons, is called by the locals “The Danube Gorge“.
The area comprises the two harbour cities, New Moldova and Orşova, and extends westwards to the border crossing point Romania – Serbia, from Naidăş.
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The river waters have dug into the granite and limestone this spectacular gorge with depression basins and succeeding narrow sectors. Thus, right after Coronini, the banks of the river are very close, to 500 m and the side walls rise to over 100 m. Near the Almăj Mountains, near Dubova, there are the Big Cauldrons (3,8 km), where the width of the Danube reaches 200-250 m and the walls guarding it exceed 200 m in height. After Dubova Bay, the Danube flows through the Small Cauldrons on a length of 3.6 km, where the banks get closer, to 150 m.
From the port-city of New Moldova there are trips that can be made along the Upper Danube Gorge:
• Towards the Danube Cauldrons, by road and by boat;
• To Baziaş, on the road.
From the Orşova harbour city trips can be made along the Lower Danube Shore:
• Towards the Danube Cauldrons, by road and by boat;
• To the Iron Gates, on the road.
The scenery is fascinating throughout the Danube Cluster, and the area of the Danube Cauldrons has been declared a unique monument of nature in Europe
Access ways:
E 70: Timişoara – Orşova (190 km)
DN 57: Orşova – New Moldova (84 km) and New Moldova – Grădinari (66 km)
DJ 581: Resita – Grădinari (39 km)
If you visit the area, either by car or by boat, there are 10 wonderful sights to see:
1. The Big Cauldrons and the Small Cauldrons of the Danube (Mehedinţi County), which stretch for about 9 km between Plavişeviţa and Eşelniţa, separated by the Dubova Bay (1,4 km);
2. The Decebal’ Statue from Mraconia Bay, the highest rock sculpture in Europe (40 m);
3. Tabula Traiana on the Serbian bank at the exit of the river from the Cauldrons, as a testimony of the Roman roads built during the Emperors Tiberius, Domitian and Trajan;
4. The Roman’s Roads (I) with the Villa Rustica vestiges from Gornea – Sicheviţa and traces of the Roman Mudava Fortress from the New Moldova’s harbour.
5. The Babacaia Rock from Coronini with its legends;
6. Water mills with buttens from Sicheviţa and the Village Museum from Gornea ;
7. The Almaj and Locvei Mountains with the Iron Gates Storage Lake, which stretches along the Danube River in the south of Mountainous Banat. It was built between 1964-1971, in cooperation with Serbia (then Yugoslavia), having the maximum depth of 60 m at the Danube Cauldrons. The Island of Ada-Kaleh sank in its waters.
- The “Iron Gates” Natural Park, where you can find on the Upper Shore the following: The Micro-delta of Balta Nerei at the mouth of the Danube, Swallows’ Precipice from Pojejena, Valea Mare Botanical Reserve near New Moldova, with unique Mediterranean and Sub- Mediterranean flora, The Fly Hole Cave and Ghindiei Hole Cave with fragments of cave art from the Palaeolithic and Neolithic.
On the Lower Shore you can visit: Ponicova Cave and Veterani Cave, which is said to have been the sanctuary of the most important god of the Dacians, Zamolxes;
9. The lake village of Berzasca and medieval vestiges: Tricule fortress from Sviniţa (Mehedinţi County), Drencova Fortress and Cula Fortress from Coronini;
10. The “St. Sava” Orthodox Monastery from Baziaş, “Mraconia” Monastery from Dubova (Mehedinţi), the “Immaculate Conception” Catholic Church from Orşova and the “Saint Ana” Monastery from Orşova (Mehedinţi), as well as the ” St. Archangels ” architectural monument and Byzantine church painting from Berzasca.