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Near Costesti-Cetatuie, on a 250 meters high knoll, lies the fortress from Costesti-Blidaru. The rectangular plan, the bulwarks placed at the corners, the entrance - placed in a bulwark - and an inhabitable tower, they all point out the same Hellenistic influence, despite the fact that the technique of building the fortress' walls do not completely conform to that influence. Due to this deviation from the rule they built , made of shaped stone, without those blocks that were placed perpendicularly on the direction of the wall. During a second phase, the defence work was enlarged - its area being doubled -, behind the northern and the western walls of the precincts, shaped stone walls being, alternating with unshaped stone walls tied with earth. They represented provision storehouses, their floors being used as combat platforms. During the same period, a little lower than the defence work, a tank was built, strictly following Vitruvius' principles.

The Greek letters that were on the walls of the inhabitable tower, as well as on the southern wall, represent signs of quarry marking. The supervision of the ways of access was provided from the height of those 14 towers. Not far from the defence work there were two sanctuaries. West of Blidaru [...] there is the fortress from Luncani-Piatra Rosie. First, the precincts walls were simultaneously built on an arranged plateau. They were provided with five bulwarks - four at the corners and one on the tract of the western wall -. During this same phase, two big constructions and a sanctuary were also built, the large building from the precincts, too, - which we call ''barrack'' - and three isolated towers. During a subsequent phase, two of them have been linked, at the basis of the plateau, by unshaped stone walls, tied with earth. The access inside the fortress - through a bulwark -, the monumental stone stair and the rectangular plan of the ensemble are of Hellenistic inspiration, while the unshaped stone walls reveal the Dacian technique, inspired by the Hellenistic one. Having in view the fact that the defence works from Varful lui Hulpe were not deliberately, archaeologically studied, the last explored fortress was that of Sarmizegetusa. Watchtowers supervised the ancient road, 20 km. long, from Costesti-Blidaru to this place, [...]. The capital city of the Dacian kingdom, Sarmizegetusa, stretched over an area of 6 km., the constructions being placed on terraces, some of which are sustained by walls, 14 meters high. During the ancient age, the town was made of three different areas: two civilian districts and, between them, the defence work and the sacred zone; the whole ensemble was provided with water pipes, sewers, paved roads, stairs etc.

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Last update: March 24 1999 ; webdesign: Cornelia Calin