The rock sculpture of Decebalus () is a colossal carving of the face of Decebalus (r. AD 87âÂÂ106), the last king of Dacia, who fought against the Roman emperors Domitian and Trajan.
The sculpture is located near the city of OrÃÂova, in MehedinÃÂi County. It was made between 1994 and 2004, on a rocky outcrop on the river Danube, at the Iron Gates, which form the border between Romania and Serbia. The Dacian king's sculpture is the tallest rock relief in Europe, at in height and in width.
It was commissioned by Romanian businessman Iosif Constantin DrÃÂgan and it took 10 years for twelve sculptors to complete it. The lead artist sculptor was Florin Cotarcea, from OrÃÂova. According to DrÃÂgan'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 six years involved dynamiting the rock into the basic shape, and the remaining four years were devoted to completing the detail.
Under the face of Decebalus there is a Latin inscription which reads "DECEBALUS REXâÂÂDRAGAN FECIT" ("King DecebalusâÂÂMade by DrÃÂgan"). The carving was placed opposite an ancient memorial plaque, carved in the rock on the Serbian side of the river facing Romania. The plaque, known as the Tabula Traiana, records the completion of Trajan's military road along the Danube and thus commemorates the final defeat of Decebalus by Trajan in 105, and the absorption of the Dacian kingdom into the Roman Empire. DrÃÂgan 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.
DrÃÂgan was a leading figure in the protochronism and Dacianism movements, nationalist ideologies which attempted to portray Romania as the major cradle of civilisation and which identified Romania with the Dacians and an ancient Thracian 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 DrÃÂgan in his book and journal Noi, tracii ("We, the Thracians").
The FundaÃÂia EuropeanÃÂ DrÃÂgan, DrÃÂgan's foundation, states that "Giuseppe Costantino Dragan is a strong supporter of the theory that the original 'flame' of civilization started on the ancient territory of Romania and argues as much in his work". DrÃÂgan saw the sculpture as a signpost to the cradle of civilisation. He is quoted saying, "Anyone travelling towards 'Decebal Rex Dragan Fecit' is also travelling towards the origins of European civilization and will discover that a United Europe represents the natural course of history".
Michael Palin in his 2007 book New Europe described the colossal head:
Nick Thorpe in The Danube: A Journey Upriver from the Black Sea to the Black Forest writes,
It has been compared to the Argonath, a pair of statues standing either side of the River Anduin at the northern entrance to a lake named Nen Hithoel in the fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. The Argonath appears prominently in the film ' (2001).