COSTESTI - CETATUIE
“Cetatuie” hill (561m), with its citadel on top of it, is a remarkable look-out point which enabled long range surveillance. It is strategically located at the varied ancient entrance to the massive, where the Apa Gradistei valley suddenly becomes narrow.
The citadel’s defence system was based upon the succession of three types of fortifications: an earthen wall, a three metre thick stone wall flanked by three towers and a double palisade surrounding the southern part of the heights.
The highest plateau provided the base for the two residence towers built on stone blocks and bricks. It could be accessed by monumental stairs. Also, here were the garrison soldiers’ barracks as well as the watch tower.
General layout:
1 – Access road; 2 – Earthen wall; 3 – Enclosure wall; 4 – Observation towers; 5 – Residence towers; 6 – The stone foundation of the watch tower; 7 – Rectangular sanctuaries; 8 – Reservoirs.
On the terraces sanctuaries, water systems and other features have been identified. The time period of the building and flowering of the Dacian settlement on “Cetatuie” hill, as well as the entire complex of settlements and citadels in the Orastie Mountains, extends from the Burebista period and continues on through several consecutive periods (the first century B.C. to the first century a.D.). After being destroyed as a result of the second Daco-Roman war (105 – 106 a.D.), the citadel was never rebuilt.
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