After we left the port city of Orsova, we’ve drove towards Moldova Veche. In order to reach Moldova Veche you have to drive through the Iron Gates, right next to the mighty Danube river. The entire scenery is very beautiful along the Danube and you have many opportunities to capture some amazing travel and landscape photos.
Basically the Iron Gates is a gorge on the river Danube which starts near Moldova Veche, to be more precise, it starts at the Golubac medieval fortress located on the Serbian side and it ends at the Iron Gate II hydroelectric dam. This is also the border between Romania and Serbia, so don’t be surprised if you see border police cars in the Iron Gates.
Incoming storm in the Iron Gates
After almost 15 minutes of driving from the port city of Orsova, we made a short stop to admire and photograph the beautiful Danube river. After a couple of landscape photos, we spotted a smaller Serbian ship cruising on the river packed with tourists. We have decided to wait a couple of minutes for the ship to get closer to us. Probably this ship was heading towards the Iron Gates. As you can see the Danube is surrounded by large and steep mountains emerging from the river both on the Romanian and the Serbian side.
Large cliffs in the Iron Gates gorge
This shot was taken between the port city of Orsova and the rock sculpture of Decebalus. Right after this place the Danube river narrows and you will have the occasion to admire steep cliffs emerging from the Danube. On the other side of the river is Serbia and basically the river is the border between Romania and Serbia. If you drive from this place towards Moldova Noua, you will enter in the place called the Small Kazan where the Danube has a width of 150 m.
Mraconia monastery
The beautiful monastery is located near the amazing rock sculpture of Decebalus. As you can see the Mraconia monastery was built right next to the Danube. Before the bridge on the right side, you can find the sculpture of Decebalus.
The sculpture of Decebalus near Orsova
To those who don’t know, Decebalus was the last king of Dacia who fought against two Roman emperors. The sculpture of Decebalus is located about 18 km away from the city of Orsova in Romania. The road from Orsova to the Decebalus sculpture is pretty good and the entire scenery is really nice especially in the Iron Gates where the road was built next to the Danube river. This sculpture was finished in 2004 and it can be found near Danube river at the Iron Gates. I heard that this sculpture is the tallest one in Europe. This place is very popular in Romania so if you are in the area so don’t forget to check it out.
The Danube at Dubova
After we left the rock sculpture of Decebalus, almost 5 km away there is the small village of Dubova. I’ve decided to take a few photos from the car. Here is one of my best photo of the Danube from Dubova. You can see large cliffs emerging from the water. This is a pretty popular tourist destination especially in the summer.
The mighty and blue Danube
After a few shots in Dubova, the time has come to leave the village and drive on. After a few miles, to road starts to climb a smaller mountain and on the other side of the mountain the Danube starts to widen and it looks very amazing from the top of the mountain. This shot was captured also from the car because I didn’t find any parking place near the spot where I’ve wanted to capture this photo.
After the village of Sivita
After we left the Romanian village of Sivita, we find a parking place near the road and I’ve decided to capture some photos of the Danube. On the left side you can see the Serbia and on the right side of the Danube you can see Romania.
Bridge between two steep cliffs
When we drove through the amazing Iron Gates, we decided to make a short stop near the Romanian village of Cozla. The village is located right next to the Danube. At the place where we stopped, on the Serbian side of the Iron Gates I saw an interesting bridge which was basically built between two steep cliffs. Also over there, the road was built much higher then on the Romanian side. Probably the views on the Serbian side are even amazing then on the Romanian side.
Wind farm in the Danube Gorge
After more then two hours of driving from the Romanian port city of Orsova, we had decided to make a short and final stop in the Danube gorge. After a quick bite, I grabbed my camera from my car and I’ve started photographing the scenery. Since I saw in the distance a large wind turbine farm I decided to include those wind turbines in a photograph. I heard that you can actually drive up to those turbines but since I didn’t had enough time, I had to skip that small detour. Probably from those large hills you can see even better the Danube gorge.
Near Golubac fortress
Behind those large cliffs from the background of photo, the Danube starts to widen. Basically the Danube gorge or the Iron Gates starts from those large cliffs located both on the Serbian and the Romanian side. On the left side of the Danube, behind those cliffs are located the ruins of the old medieval fortress of Golubac. If you drive along the Danube towards Moldova Veche you’ll have the chance to see and admire the Golubac fortress.
Empty road in the Iron Gates
After almost two hours of driving from the port city of Orsova, we had reached the end of the Iron Gates gorge. After the place where this photo was taken, the Danube river starts to widen even more. You should know that almost the entire road in the gorge is very winding but the scenery is really amazing and sometimes scary especially in those sections where the road is next to the Danube river. I bet that you will have plenty of opportunities to capture some amazing photos in the Iron Gates gorge.
