Beneath the calm waters along the Orșova quay sleeps an entire town. The old city was submerged at the end of the 1960s, when the Iron Gates dam raised the level of the Danube by about 35 metres. Its residents rebuilt their streets higher up, around a wide bay where the Cerna River joins the Danube. Travellers who disembark here therefore set foot in a young town, born of a sacrifice, set at the entrance to the most impressive gorge on the entire Danube.

A bay born of a dam

The new Orșova stretches out like an amphitheatre around its body of water, backed by the first heights of the Almăj Mountains. The promenade along the bay invites an aimless walk: fishing boats bob near the pontoons, Romanian families stroll at the end of the day and the wooded hills are reflected in the still water. Nothing monumental here, but a particular light, that of a great river taking its ease before threading its way between the mountains.

The Cazane gorges

The real reason for this stop lies upstream. Boat excursions regularly leave Orșova for the Cazane, the narrowest section of the Iron Gates, where the Danube slips between limestone walls dropping sheer into the water. The Great Cazane stretch for about four kilometres, the Small Cazane for three. As you sail, your gaze moves from the cliffs to the caves piercing the rock, then to the small Mraconia monastery, set at water level in a sheltered cove. Many river ships also sail through these gorges: the passage then ranks among the highlights of the entire itinerary.

Decebalus and the Roman memory

In a cove near the gorges, a stone face some forty metres high emerges from the cliff. Carved between 1994 and 2004, this portrait of Decebalus, the last king of the Dacians, is the tallest rock sculpture in Europe. Almost opposite, on the Serbian bank, a Roman plaque engraved nearly two thousand years ago, the Tabula Traiana, recalls the passage of Trajan's legions on their way to conquer Dacia. Two monuments nineteen centuries apart thus face each other above the same water, summing up on their own the historical depth of this corridor.

Ada Kaleh, the vanished island

The waters of Orșova keep another secret. A few kilometres downstream once stood Ada Kaleh, a Turkish island with its bazaar, its mosque and its lanes where Turkish delight and tobacco were sold. The rising waters covered it in 1970 and its residents scattered. Local guides still speak of it with palpable emotion, photographs in hand, and this memory adds a singular resonance to every glance cast over the water.

History clearly loves this riverbank: it was near Orșova that the royal crown of Hungary, known as the Crown of St. Stephen, was secretly buried from 1848 to 1853, during the unrest that followed the Hungarian revolution. The anecdote amuses passengers as much as it sheds light on the strategic position of this bend in the river, contested over the centuries by the Roman, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires.

Tips for the port call

• Excursions to the gorges and the Decebalus statue are booked in advance, through the ship or local operators on the quay.
• Bring a windbreaker for boat outings: the wind rushes through the gorge, even in summer.
• The waterfront promenade is easily explored on foot from the landing, with no elevation gain.

When it is time to return on board, as the ship resumes its course between the walls of the Iron Gates, everyone grasps what this landscape cost and what it offers. Orșova does not hold travellers with its monuments: it stays with them for a long time through its stories, those of a displaced town, a sunken island and a king with a face of stone who still watches over the river.