The Roman Ruins at Porolissum

The Roman Ruins of Porolissum

This past weekend Nancy and I returned from a trip to Salaj county, which is just north of Cluj county. We were invited to visit new friends from Canada and were treated with great hospitality and good food. Doug works for Michelin at a tire cord plant the company has established in Zalau. We had met him and his wife Emily during the after Thanksgiving feast that was hosted by three Peace Corps volunteers in that city.

The highlight of the trip, other than the great food and company, was a drive up to the Roman ruins that lie about 12 kilometers outside of town. Established as the boundary of the Roman Empire in the era of 100 AD the remains of the fortress and city now stand alone on a hillside surrounded by the quiet goings on of the Romanian countryside. The stones are visited by more sheep than people and the day we were there the frost clung to the trees and the grass.

Part of the structures have been rebuilt, but it seems as if the rebuilding has been halted for some time now. There are signs in both English and Romanian and one can get a feel for what must have been back when this land was known as Dacia and the city held some 25,000 inhabitants. The city was constructed as a fortress on the border between civilization and barbarism. The amphitheatre was large enough to hold over 5,000 and was the second most impressive sight. It was the remains of the Roman road that linked me to that long past time, nearly two thousand years ago. The original stones were in their original positions, worn from the carts wheels which passed over them. One could see the remains of the track wind up over the hills headed toward Rome.

Modern day Romanians are proud of the heritage and connection with the Roman Empire. The language is Latin based and not Slavic. Romanians will point out to you the similarity between their language and Italian.

There are many other sites and traces of the Roman Empire around the country; these at Porolissum neither rare nor unique, but still a reminder of the ancientness of this land.