Dinogetia Fortress, Garvăn

Dinogetia Fortress stands on the Bisericuța hill, an isolated rise in the Danube floodplain, about 2 km north-north-west of the village of Garvăn, Jijila commune, in the north-western corner of Tulcea County. The city of Galați lies about 11 km away, on the opposite bank of the Danube. The first settlement here was Geto-Dacian. The geographer Ptolemy mentions Dinogetia, and bricks stamped by the legion V Macedonica, the Classis Flavia Moesica fleet and several cohorts show that a Roman fortification existed at Bisericuța as early as the 1st to 3rd centuries, though its walls have not been found. The enclosure visible today was most likely rebuilt under Diocletian (284-305); its bricks bear the stamp of the legion I Iovia Scythica. In the 4th century a presumed praetorium, a basilica and an aristocrat's house (domus) were built inside, and baths outside the walls, about 100 m to the north-east. The fortress was rebuilt under Anastasius and Justinian, burned during the invasion of Zabergan's Kutrigurs in 559 and ceased to exist in the last decade of the 6th century. After the victory of John Tzimiskes at Dorostolon (971), a settlement grew up here that lasted until the second half of the 12th century. Excavations were begun by Gheorghe Ștefan in 1939 and continued from 1949 by a team of archaeologists. Today you can see parts of the enclosure wall, defensive towers, the 4th century main gate, the baths and the ruins of a small stone church with fresco-painted walls from the Byzantine period. Access is from the DN22E national road between Garvăn and I. C. Brătianu. The Dinogetia thematic trail of the Măcin Mountains National Park Administration (red dot waymark, 4 km) starts at the entrance to the fortress and climbs the Crăcănele and Bugeac hills, with views over the Măcin Mountains, La Lățime pond and Galați. Along the trail you can see steppe grassland with Dobrujan endemic plants such as the Dobrujan catchfly (Silene compacta), the dwarf pink (Dianthus nardiformis) and the Dobrujan bellflower (Campanula romanica), and birds of prey such as the long-legged buzzard and the short-toed snake eagle. The archaeological site "Dinogetia Fortress" is a historic monument of national importance, LMI code TL-I-s-A-05795 (RAN code 160635.03), comprising the 10th to 12th century medieval fortress, the Romano-Byzantine fortress, the civil settlements and the necropolis. The thematic trail is part of the awareness work for the Special Protection Area for birds ROSPA0073 Măcin-Niculițel. Did you know that the finds from Dinogetia include a bronze balance inscribed with the name of Flavios Gerontios, prefect of Constantinople under Emperor Justinian?