Chipul lui Decebal

History

Romanian-Italian businessman Iosif Constantin Drăgan bought this cliff face on the Danube in 1992 and commissioned a sculpture of Decebalus, the Dacian king who twice fought Rome to a standstill before being defeated by Trajan in 106 AD. Sculptor Florin Cotarcea led a team of twelve who spent six years dynamiting the rock into shape and four more carving the detail, finishing in 2004 after a decade of work; an inscription below reads "DECEBALUS REX — DRAGAN FECIT" ("King Decebalus — made by Drăgan"). At 55 meters tall, it's the tallest rock relief in Europe, larger than Mount Rushmore's faces, carved into the gorge directly across the river from the Tabula Traiana — the Roman plaque commemorating Trajan's victory over the same king. The two monuments now face each other across the water, one Roman and ancient, one Romanian and modern.