Things to see and do Drobeta Turnu Severin

They bear witness to the importance of the site during the Roman period. What remains of the walls of the castrum, which must have been 3 m high and 1.5 m thick, allows us to guess the rooms and the four towers. This fortress was used to control the river and the bridge that spanned it. Of this Trajan Bridge (Podul Traian), named after the Roman Emperor who decided to build it, only one pillar remains. An architectural feat for the time, it was built between 103 and 105 to facilitate the invasion of Dacia by the Romans. Upstream, there are ruins of thermal baths.

15 km west of Turnu Severin, in Gura Văii, the 55 m high and 441 m long Iron Gates Dam is a bridge to Serbia, a hydroelectric power plant and a set of locks. It was built in the 1960s in collaboration with the former Yugoslavia. You can visit a small museum retracing the history of this construction, which has totally changed the region: villages, roads, railways have been swallowed up.

Right next to the Roman ruins, this museum exhibits various collections. The historical collection provides details about the city in Roman times, while the ethnographic section gives an insight into the folklore and peasant interiors of the department of Mehedinţi, of which the city is the capital. The scientific collection provides an insight into the specific flora and fauna of the Danube, especially the birds. Opposite the museum stands a statue of the architect Apollodore of Damascus, who built the Roman bridge.

The Art Museum occupies a beautiful corner building adorned with Baroque stucco, Art Nouveau elements, mosaics and stained glass windows. Here you can admire beautiful nudes by Theodor Pallady, a famous Romanian painter, as well as sculptures and works by female painters such as Rodica Maniu and Magdalena Rădulescu. You'll also see collections of icons and religious art, pieces of Brâncovenesc art and modern and contemporary decorative art. The museum closed in March 2019 for a major renovation project.