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and it took 10 years for twelve sculptors to complete it. The lead artist sculptor was Florin
Cotarcea, from Orșova. According to Drăgan's website, the businessman purchased the rock in 1992, after which the Italian sculptor Mario Galeotti assessed the location and made an initial model. The first
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As we move into the Kazan Gorge, where a small valley enters the Danube from the
Romanian shore, an enormous head is carved into the rock together with the Latin inscription 'Decebalus Rex - Dragan Fecit'. It turns out to be less ancient than I thought, in fact it dates from the 1990s. The carved
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Upstream from the church, the bulbous features of
Decebal, moustachioed and wide-eyed, have been carved into the rock face, forty meters high and twenty five wide. The ancient Dacian leader stares across the river at the opposite cliff...The cliff, rising above his head into the wooded slope,
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figure, Decebalus, was a Dacian king who took on the armies of
Emperor Trajan and is regarded as a great Romanian folk hero. Dragan, more prosaically, is a rich businessman who paid for it to be carved. On this slightly ominous note of resurgent nationalism, we pass into the gorge itself.
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Under the face of
Decebalus there is a Latin inscription which reads "DECEBALUS REX—DRAGAN FECIT" ("King Decebalus—Made by Drăgan"). The carving was placed opposite an ancient memorial plaque, carved in the rock on the
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empire that supposedly dominated central Europe. In this ideology, Dacia, the pre-Roman name of
Romania, was the inheritor of this Thracian culture, a view expounded by Drăgan in his book and journal
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movements, nationalist ideologies which attempted to portray
Romania as the major cradle of civilisation and which identified Romania with the Dacians and an ancient
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131:. Drăgan wanted the Serbs to carve a giant head of a Roman Emperor, as if confronting Decebalus on the opposite side of the river, but the Serbs refused.
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Katherine
Verdery, National Ideology under Socialism. Identity and Cultural Politics in Ceaușescu's Romania, University of California Press, 1991
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six years involved dynamiting the rock into the basic shape, and the remaining four years were devoted to completing the detail.
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and thus commemorates the final defeat of
Decebalus by Trajan in 105, and the absorption of the Dacian kingdom into the
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in Europe, at 55 m (180 ft) in height and 25 m (82 ft) in width.
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259:"Fundatia Europeana Dragan, DECEBALUS REX DRAGAN FECIT, History of the monument"
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to preserve the independence of his country, which corresponds to present-day
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provides him with the illusion of a large forehead or a pointed wizard's hat.
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The Danube: A Journey
Upriver from the Black Sea to the Black Forest
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The Danube: A Journey Upriver from the Black Sea to the Black Forest
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side of the river facing Romania. The plaque, known as the
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447:Monuments and memorials completed in the 2000s
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16:Colossal carving in Mehedinți County, Romania
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442:Buildings and structures in Mehedinți County
365:Official website: Dragan European Foundation
106:It was commissioned by Romanian businessman
86:, which form the border between Romania and
316:History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness
70:The sculpture is located near the city of
241:Donau: von Regensburg zum Schwarzen Meer
55:, who fought against the Roman emperors
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47:) is a colossal carving of the face of
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239:Daniela Schily, Matthias Eickhoff,
139:Drăgan was a leading figure in the
422:Monuments and memorials in Romania
243:, DuMont Reiseverlag, 2010, p.237.
221:List of colossal sculpture in situ
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320:Central European University Press
261:. Decebalusrex.ro. Archived from
51:(r. AD 87–106), the last king of
94:king's sculpture is the tallest
179:described the colossal head:
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412:Outdoor sculptures in Romania
417:Stone sculptures in Romania
37:rock sculpture of Decebalus
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45:Chipul regelui dac Decebal
160:Fundația Europeană Drăgan
216:Seven Wonders of Romania
322:, Budapest, 2001, p.105
108:Iosif Constantin Drăgan
357:Sculpture of Decebalus
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388:44.64118°N 22.29125°E
335:. Palinstravels.co.uk
291:Yale University Press
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155:("We Thracians").
393:44.64118; 22.29125
211:Tourism in Romania
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333:"Palin's travels"
173:in his 2007 book
31:Full frontal view
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135:Significance
129:Roman Empire
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312:Lucian Boia
189:Nick Thorpe
153:Noì, tracii
96:rock relief
406:Categories
379:22°17′29″E
376:44°38′28″N
339:2014-08-15
269:2014-08-15
227:References
176:New Europe
84:Iron Gates
145:Dacianism
82:, at the
49:Decebalus
23:Side view
205:See also
195:writes,
149:Thracian
102:Creation
57:Domitian
41:Romanian
117:Serbian
65:Romania
125:Danube
92:Dacian
90:. The
88:Serbia
80:Danube
72:Orșova
61:Trajan
74:, in
53:Dacia
158:The
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59:and
35:The
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