Trajan's Table

In his march to the treasures of the Danish king Decebal, Roman emperor Trajan in the early second century AD leaves a permanent mark in the vicinity of Kladovo. It breaks through the djerdap moat for the Via Traiana military route, with the construction of the Sip Canal makes the Lower Gorge navigable, elevates the Pontes fort and bridges the Danube with a Traian Bridge of 1100 m, which has been considered the longest bridge in history for almost a thousand years. He recorded his endeavors on the Traian board, the most inaccessible part of the entire Traian Danube road, which can only be seen today from the Danube. There is a six-line Latin inscription on the board, which, after the Emperor’s name and all titles, states that the path was made by cutting down mountain cliffs and supporting brackets. On the sides, Trajan’s board is held by two winged creatures, with dolphins above. The kneeling figure of a bearded man and the last two lines of text have been erased over time, and they are known thanks to researchers’ sources. In order to protect it from sinking by the Djerdap reservoir, in 1969 Trajan’s board was raised 20/25 m just above its original location. Cutting and fixing the whole block – a stone monolith, Trajan’s board and a part of a Roman road about 300 t in weight, was a construction undertaking.

Trajan’s board is a cultural monument of great importance.