Middle AgesDuring the early Middle Ages, the Iron Gates region continued to be an important area of economic and major strategic interests. It was for more than once that political interests prevailed in front of the economical ones.
Medieval Severin Fortress - N-E Tower
The 12th and 13th centuries turned the Iron Gates area into a field of permanent fighting operations between Hungarian kings and Bulgarian tzars, between Hungarians and Byzantines and between all of them and the legitimate rulers of these places, the Romanian princes and voivodes. Due to these interests, the Iron Gates region is, for several centuries, the centre of European politics.
Remains of Severin metropolitan seat
It was at the end of the 13th century that the western knights erected the Severin Fortress on top of the remains of an older Roman fortress. At the same time, the Hungarian knigship created here the Severin Banate, an administrative and military unit focusing upon the Tartar and Bulgarian dangers coming on the Danube towards Central Europe.
Polygonal construction - SV Tower of Drobeta Camp
The foundation of the feudal state -whose name was ,,Tara Romaneasca" (Walachia) - under the reign of Basarab I, allowed the Severin Fortress to become a Wallachian possession. The Wallachian ruler Mircea cel Batran (1386-1418) strenghtened and enlarged the fortress, coined money in the Severin Fortress and favored both Romanian and foreign tradesmen (who were) going through the Schela Cladovei Customs.
Medieval pottery
The subdual of the Severin Fortress by the Turks and its final destroying opened the way to the Turks towards Central Europe. In 1541, half of Hungary's surface was turned into a Turkish province.
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