Prehistoric and Roman era Sandstone statues dated to the early
Neolithic era indicate that the area has been inhabited for a very long time. Even more significant are the
Iron Gates Mesolithic (c. 13,000 to 5,000 BP) sites – in particular, the gorge of
Gospodjin Vir, which contains the major
archaeological site of
Lepenski Vir (unearthed in the 1960s). Lepenski Vir is often regarded as the most important Mesolithic site in
south-east Europe. The Danube was part of the
roman frontier and the Iron Gates were situated within the section of the
limes moesicus. East of the Great Kazan the
Roman emperor
Trajan built
the legendary bridge erected by
Apollodorus of Damascus. Construction of the bridge ran from 103 through 105, preceding Trajan's final conquest of
Dacia. (On the right (Serbian) bank, a Roman
plaque commemorates him). On the Romanian bank, at the
Small Kazan,
a likeness of Decebalus, Trajan's Dacian opponent, was carved in rock in 1994–2004.)
The Bulgarian Empire and the fall under Ottoman rule. The Iron Gates and the surrounding region were inside the Second Bulgarian Empire or Kingdom for over 450 consequent years before the ottoman turks invasion.
Ada Kaleh Perhaps the most evocative consequence of the Đerdap dam's construction was the flooding of an islet named Ada Kaleh. A former
Turkish exclave, it had a
mosque and a thousand twisting alleys, and was known as a
free port and
smuggler's nest. Many other ethnic groups lived there beside Turks. The island was about downstream from Orșova and measured 1.7 by 0.4–0.5 km. It was walled; the
Austrians built a fort there in 1669 to defend it from the Turks, and that fort would remain a bone of contention for the two empires. In 1699 the island came under Turkish control, from 1716 to 1718 it was Austrian, after a four-month siege in 1738 it was Turkish again, followed by the Austrians reconquering it in 1789, only to have to yield it to the Turks in the following
peace treaty. Thereafter, the island lost its military importance. The 1878
Congress of Berlin forced the
Ottoman Empire to retreat far into the south, but the island remained the property of the Turkish
sultan, allegedly because the treaty neglected to mention it. The inhabitants enjoyed exemption from
taxes and
customs and were not
conscripted. In 1923, when the Ottoman monarchy had disappeared, the island was given to Romania in the
Treaty of Lausanne. The people of that island (about 400-500) were formed of Muslim Turks with many other small communities (Romanian, Hungarian, German) also represented.
19th century's Hungarian initiatives By the early 19th century,
freedom of navigation on the Danube was regarded as important by many different states in the region and beyond. Allowing passage through the Iron Gates by larger vessels had become a priority. By 1831 a plan had been drafted to make the passage navigable, at the initiative of Hungarian politician
István Széchenyi. Not being satisfied with the solutions compiled by the Austrio-Hungarian government and the Austro-Turkish commission, the government of Hungary formed its own commission for the organization of the navigation through the Iron Gates. The project was finished in 1883. Appointed in 1883 and again in 1886, Minister of Trade and Transportation
Gábor Baross, Hungary's "Iron Minister", presided over modernization projects at Hungary's sea port in
Fiume (Rijeka), and regulation of the Upper Danube and Iron Gate. Works on the gorge section were done by the Hungarian Technical Administration over 11 years from 1889. The works were divided in two sectors, the upper and the lower Iron Gates. The channels in the upper section, at the town of
Orșova (the
tripoint between Austria-Hungary, Romania and Serbia at the time) were up to wide and deep, at the zero water level in Orșova. In the southern section, the channels were wide and deep, except for the Sip Channel, which was wide. In 1890, near Orșova, the last border town of Hungary, rocks were cleared by explosion over a stretch in order to create channels. A spur of the
Greben Ridge was removed across a length of over . Here, a depth of sufficed. On 17 September 1896, the
Sip Canal thus created (named after the Serbian
Sip village on the right bank) was inaugurated by the Austro-Hungarian emperor
Franz Joseph, the Romanian king
Carol I, and the Serbian king
Alexander Obrenovich. == Cultural references to the Iron Gates ==