Let's travel together #295 - Cetatea Trascăului (Trascău Fortress)

It's been a while since I last shared a fortress explored in my beloved home country, so I thought that I should dedicate this entire day to writing and now sharing my last discovery in terms of leftovers of history.

This was, actually, the very last place we explored last year during our yearly roadtrip around Romania before heading home. And honestly, I couldn't ask for a better ending since this kind of places makes you realize a bit more of how lucky you are to be part of the 21st century rather than those years when being alive was rather luck than bliss.

I won't try being modest, as I always had a guilty pleasure in learning about history from genuine parts or places of the past, hence why I covered pretty much all the fortresses in my country. This is also a reason why I share so rarely these days posts from citadels in comparison with what I was doing one or two years ago. But a discovery is still a discovery, and would be a great loss not to share it further if you have the chance to. So, here we go!

As in most of the cases, we used GPS to reach the fortress, but the coordinates stopped pretty early from what we had in mind during our research. So even if there was a marked trail for this purpose, we decided to continue the unpaved road for a bit longer to approach the fortress that was already visible. However, we stopped after just a few more tens of meters due to the path that became harder and harder to drive on, being mostly ruined because of tractors used by locals for farming activities.

So we only needed to walk for a bit taking the curve to the right until the road ended and we began a proper hike towards the citadel, basically following the shortest way towards it even if it turned out a lot more challenging than we thought.

The pictures attached above are the best proof to realize how easily you can be fooled by a fortress placed on top of a mountain that covers a large surface and somehow makes you think that it's a lot closer to you than it actually is.

But as we rarely step back from challenges only if there's a real danger ahead, we decided to keep going, even if the weather was pretty cold and rainy, and it was going to take us a while until meeting the part of history we had on our bucket list for a couple of years.

Since it was our last discovery from that roadtrip, we decided to take advantage of the occasional breaks during the hike that became more often with every few tens of meters hiked that started to be on a lot more inclined surface than before, as it was going to be an effort and experience we will have to wait at least one more year before enjoying again.

As some of you might know, we take a yearly roadtrip around Romania that happens in the autumn and which is very complex with lots of stops and discoveries with every day that passes from a total of 7-14 days.

Being the last day of our roadtrip, also meant the day when our energy was barely at the minimum based on the previous days when we'd put more effort into hiking and reaching our destinations.

So with small steps that honestly felt like would never make us reach our destination, we slowly felt like the scenery was approaching more now. But only after two failed attempts following unmarked trails thinking that we can reach it faster than others. What a joke!

We ended up checking images on Google from the top to see its whole structure which was unable to notice from our level. Then we looked for the areas where the fortress wall was broken and we could make our way in. This is also because we are talking about a pretty wild fortress that was never renovated and there was no guide around or proper indication to reach it.

Cetatea Trascăului also known as Cetatea Colţești based on the village is located in, dates since 1291 but due to various changes in terms of those leading it, as well as invasions and battles in history, it ended up being demolished and built again for various times, the last version which can also be seen in 2024 dating since the 18th century.
The initial plan for building the fortress was to serve as a habitable fortress and a refuge area where the important people of that century leading this part of the country to be safe during possible invasions.
Not even its placement wasn't picked randomly as it was built on the peak of a mountain but which had all the way towards it very steepy and with lots of calcareous ground that would slow the enemies reaching it, saving enough time to get ready for a possible attack.
Sadly, these aspects didn't keep safe the fortress, nor the locals of the villages nearby which dealt with many losses both material and in human terms after the Tatar invasion from 1241 that ruined more parts of Europe, including, Austria, Kyev (Ukraine), UK, and Poland.
The reason for all this was a crazy mind inside the leader of that nationality which started with Russia first, then the UK and Poland, and then thought about having the whole of Europe!

Either way, even if that ended up more or less in the favour of the Tatar nation, the ruins of Trascău Fortress are standing still even in the 21st century, making you feel that it will last forever if it managed to get through so many hard battles in the past.

Click on the images to see them in full resolution

If the path towards the fortress was pretty challenging, the path inside this one was not less impressive, talking now about very inclined and narrow alleys to follow, but which contributed to adding a bit more authenticity to the overall atmosphere.

Either way, there was literally nothing that could possibly make us turn back now since we forced our limits for a bit making our way towards this one. So we made our way through narrow holes in the wall of the fortress and then looked for a place where to rest for a bit, admire the view, and then begin our exploration.

Since there were quite a few other tourists up there, we searched for a place where to be just us so we could enjoy everything in silence and in our own pace rather than feeling the pressure of moving away if anyone was going to take a picture to the breathtaking view we could notice from our angle.

The big stone you see in the pictures is actually known as Piatra Secuiului and I'm going to get ready a post about it as well, one day. But in short, it's one of the most impressive and beautiful stones I've ever seen, and even though it wasn't the first time meeting it, it was not less impressive than the first time we had our connection.

After we took a well-deserved break, we made our way to the first tower which was the single one looking like a tower because of having the others demolished, and I was the only one that dared to enter inside.

For some reason, since I was a kid I had this urge to enter any places I find during our trips to find out what was on the inside whether it was a cave, a tower, an abandoned house or anything else that in general is abandoned and that's it. Basically a place that doesn't represent any interest anymore for most people.

Click on the images to see them in full resolution

From my research, this tower should also shelter on one of its walls a commemorative plate for the ones who initially built the fortress. This was added a bit later, in the 19th century when things started chilling and the invasions seemed like being stopped.

However, during our visit, there was literally no plate sadly. It might have been stolen or simply taken away since the fortress belongs now to the public domain, or even because it was a region mostly dominated by Hungarians and there is an endless battle between those who are still living in Romania and the Romanians themselves. Nothing it's impossible, but we were still unable to find a proper explanation for not finding it anymore.

From this point, we continued exploring the fortress which seemed a bit harder to access further due to the ruins covering the way, the steepy paths or even the thing that there wasn't much to see around anymore.

There were quite a few more walls standing still that offered a great path to walk in feeling like you become part of history for a while, but being a wild area that wasn't maintained with the passage of time, there were also plenty of huge thistles that would stop you from making your way in between.

Actually, the single proper parts of the fortress that can be explored, are the lateral towers which resisted the best both in front of invasions but also in front of the passage of time.

They also represent one of the best spots from where to admire the beauty surrounding this part of history, which used to supervise everything in order to keep people safe, but now it's only a place from where to take nice pictures and enjoy a minimalist world in silence.

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The full address of Cetatea Trascăului is Colțești 517611 and in order to reach it you have to follow all the way towards the center of the Colţești village where you can spot a reformed Church. That's also where the marked trail begins, but if you are looking for less crowded paths with unique scenery, then consider walking a bit further from this one until you face a large valley with the fortress on top of it. Then it's your own decision which way to follow, but we made it as close as possible to the left side of the fortress so we can see it entirely from the beginning.

Other articles from my Romania Tour 2023:

• The Blue Lagoon of Cluj (Laguna Albastră)
• Ciucaș Waterfall... or beer? (Cascada Ciucaș)
• The Sequoia Tree from Romania
• Șapte culori ale Pământului (The 7 Colors of the Earth, Romania)
• Lacul Tarzan (Tarzan Lake of Romania)
• Gresiile de pe Stânca Dracului (The Devil's Rock)
• Cetatea Trascăului (Trascău Fortress)

more coming soon...

^{Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences. At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe. Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (260+ articles written on this field), but also abording other topics as well, like game reviews, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 550+ blog posts. Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, editing, cooking, and doing various sports activities.}

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