Visiting Decebal’s Statue near Orsova: Everything You Need to Know

One of the main attractions on the Danube river in the south-western part of Romania – if not THE attraction – is the rock sculpture of Decebalus near the city of Orsova.

The humongous carving is 42.9 meters-tall (141 ft) and represents the face of Decebalus, the last king of the Dacians, the ancestors of the Romanians.

Also known as Decebal’s Statue or simply “Decebal’s head” in Romania, this huge rock sculpture is situated some 25 kilometers away from Orsova, in the Mraconia river valley. Check it out below:

Decebal's statue near Orsova

It appears that Romanians love big things – see The Palace of the Parliament or the People’s Salvation Cathedral for other mammoth structures here. The Rock Sculpture of Decebal is the largest sculpture on a river bank in the world.

Where is the statue of king Decebalus?

Getting to see this rock sculpture is not extremely easy if you don’t own a car since there are no direct buses or trains going there.

From the nearby cities of Orsova, Baile Herculane or even Drobeta Turnu Severin (and probably even places that are father away from the rock sculpture of Decebalus) you can find companies that offer tours to the area – which are a good choice, especially since they also include other must see attractions nearby, like a cruise on the Danube.

If you want to get there yourself, you can check out the exact location of the Decebal statue marked here on Google Maps.

This impressive rock sculpture is actually the tallest rock relief in Europe and can be seen from the Danube itself and even all the way over from Serbia if you happen to pass by.

But, of course, nothing beats getting up close and personal: there are boat tours that take you to the base of the huge sculpture or you can see it from a nearby bridge. We took the second option, and it’s still pretty impressive as you can see below:

When was the statue of Decebalus made?

This rock statue of Decebal was built between 1994 to 2004 by Romanian businessman Constantin Dragan. 12 sculptors worked for 10 years to build this impressive sculpture.

While many people seeing it for the first time believe that it’s some sort of amazing, antique work of art of the Dacians, it is unfortunately not. But this doesn’t make it less impressive, since it still is the larges in the world.

It’s funny that the person who commissioned it wanted to make sure that everybody knew that it was him who paid for it.

He had the following inscription in Latin carved at the base of the sculpture: “Decebalus Rex – Dragan Fecit” (which translates to “The King Decebalus – Made by Dragan”.

You can easily walk closer to the Decebal Statue, but if you want to get to the base of it, you must hop on a boat…

More things to know about Decebal’s statue in Romania

An interesting thing about the statue is that it has never been completed: what we can see today is just 70% of the original plan, but for some reason work on it hasn’t continued since 2004. But even so it looks really nice and impressive.

Within walking distance, there is also the Mraconia Monastery – a very small church that’s pretty unimpressive actually, but worth getting into since you’re already there, especially because there’s really nothing else to do (unless you decide to hop on a boat to see the Cazanele Mici and other attractions on the Danube).

The small Mraconia Monastery was still being renovated when we visited.
There’s nothing truly spectacular about it, but it’s free to visit and just steps away from Decebal’s head
The views in front of the Monastery are breathtaking, though…

I was actually extremely surprised – and not a pleasant surprise that was – when we tried to find something to eat there.

We rode the car to the nearby Mraconia, which should be considered a sort of a resort on the valley, but there were no restaurants in the area. The road itself was horrible – a dirt road full of holes and no actual signs.

There are several pensions and villas that you can rent there, but they all seem to be self-catered. Anyway, they were all closed when we visited so we can’t know for sure.

All but one. When we entered, we found ourselves in the middle of a big party organized by a large group. Somebody quickly came and told us that they had rented the villa.

They didn’t offer any of the goodies they were barbecuing either, which was a shame. (Just joking, of course!)

Make sure to take a second or two to take in the beautiful views!

We saw on the other side of Mraconia a place that seemed to be open for business and with some tables outside and tried to get there.

But we had to cross some roads in a forest with no indicators whatsoever. We roamed around a bit and always ended up on a dead end, so we eventually decided it was too much of a hussle.

So we took a final look at the impressive statue of Decebal and headed over to Orsova, where we were sure we could find something good to eat.

A final look at Decebalus

It was really disappointing to see this Romanian way of dealing with one of the most popular attractions in the country and the fact that there was absolutely no place to grab something to eat nearby (unless you consider 25 kilometers away nearby).

When we got there, we saw dozens of cars and tens of people – coming and going – and I am sure we were not the only ones who wanted to eat. An incredible missed opportunity here to generate some extra cash!

But all in all, missing food-aside, it was a really good experience and seeing that huge, impressive statue is truly worth it.

If you don’t have a car to get there, I would really recommend to include it in a tour of the area – most likely leaving from Orsova by boat since there are even more goodies to see along the Danube side.

I also know that if you visit Baile Herculane (some 20 kms away from Orsova), you can book tours to the statue and other local attractions from there and prices are always affordable.

Because, as impressive as this statue is, you can’t really spend more than a maximum of 30 minutes staring at it and the beautiful surroundings.

My wife and son enjoying the restaurant’s terrace in Orsova
The restaurant had some great views as well!

But if you do get the chance to be in the area, do so for sure. The nearby Dubova village is also growing a lot lately as an impressive touristic attraction, with many hotels and pensions and villas opening up for business and offering some amazing deals: great views, great accommodation and a great time overall near the Danube.

Visiting Decebal's Staue in Romania - Orsova

That’s where you would most likely find something to eat as well – but we didn’t want to risk anymore, especially since I was already a bit upset following my trip through the woods and the dirt roads there.

Calin
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7 thoughts on “Visiting Decebal’s Statue near Orsova: Everything You Need to Know”

  1. That thing looks mighty impressive! Such a shame like you said that someone hasn’t opened an eatery or something like that close by. People will always be hungry :-). We notice that at the malls etc..people window shop, but they actually spend money on food. I would love to sail down that part of the Danube like we did in Budapest.

    Reply
    • Yup, food comes first – everything else second :)) There are indeed some nice sights around, including a beautiful monastery that you can only reach by boat and that’s might impressive. There are cruises down the Danube leaving from Germany, so it is doable 🙂

      Reply
  2. As large sculptures in natural rock formations go, that one isn’t so bad. I hope there is some regulation of what can and can’t be sculpted into a natural cliff. This one has turned into a tourist attraction as intended. Too bad the businesses catering to tourists are so underdeveloped. I am reminded of the time I went on a long hike with my first wife to a small town where the German poet Friedrich Schiller found refuge after he had angered his patron. There was a nice little museum in the house he had stayed in. We were quite famished by the time we finished the museum only to discover the one restaurant in town had been closed shortly after German reunification. That was one long unhappy trudge all the way back to where we had come from!

    Reply
    • Indeed, unlike many of the massive things built in Romania and elsewhere, this one looks really good, actually. Probably regulations are tighter now than back when creating this started… but at least it turned out fine. Too bad indeed that they couldn’t turn it into a completed project – not just the sculpture itself, but the surrounding area too.

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  3. Dragan died in 2008, so I think that there were other reasons involved. This whole thing was highly political with various interests in stake so probably things stopped being profitable after a point…

    Regarding eating or touristic options – there are indeed a lot of things that can be done. We’ve actually been there last year (and I kept forgetting to write about it) but I believe that there was some sort of a van selling water and juice and maybe some bagged snacks, but I am not 100% sure about this.

    I remember reading a while ago people complaining that there are no actual ports in the area, while on the other side of the Danube, in Serbia, over the same distance they have 5 ports…

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