Iron Gate (Danube)
Encyclopedia
The Iron Gates
The Iron Gates ( ˈport͡sile de ˈfjer; ( d͡ʑě̞rdaːp or d͡ʑě̞rdaːpskaː klǐsura; ; ; ; ; , transliterated: Zhelezni vrata) is a gorge on the Danube
River. It forms part of the boundary between Romania
and Serbia
. In the broad sense it encompasses a route of 134 km (83 mi); in the narrow sense it only encompasses the last barrier on this route, just beyond the Romanian city of Orşova
, that contains two hydroelectric
dam
s, with two power stations, Iron Gate I Hydroelectric Power Station and Iron Gate II Hydroelectric Power Station.
The gorge lies between Romania in the north and Serbia in the south. At this point, the river separates the southern Carpathian Mountains
from the northwestern foothills of the Balkan Mountains
. The Romanian, Hungarian, Slovakian, Turkish, German and Bulgarian names literally mean "Iron Gates" and are used to name the entire range of gorges. An alternative Romanian name for the last part of the route is Defileul Dunării, "Danube
Gorge". In Serbia, the gorge is known as Đerdap (Ђердап), with the last part named Đerdapska klisura. The Romanian side of the gorge constitutes the Iron Gates natural park, whereas the Serbian part constitutes the Đerdap national park.
The first narrowing of the Danube
lies beyond the Romanian isle of Moldova Veche and is known as the Golubac gorge. It is 14.5 km long and 230 m (755 ft) wide at the narrowest point. At its head, there is a medieval fort at Golubac
, on the Serbian bank. Through the valley of Ljupovska lies the second gorge, Gospodin Vir, which is 15 km long and narrows to 220 m (722 ft). The cliffs scale to 500 m and are the most difficult to reach here from land. The broader Donji Milanovac forms the connection with the Great and Small Kazan gorge, which have a combined length of 19 km (12 mi). The Orşova valley is the last broad section before the river reaches the plains of Wallachia
at the last gorge, the Sip gorge.
The Great Kazan (kazan meaning "boiler") is the most famous and the most narrow gorge of the route: the river here narrows to 150 m and reaches a depth of up to 53 m (174 ft). East of this site the Roman
emperor Trajan
had the legendary bridge
erected by Apollodorus of Damascus
. Construction of the bridge ran from 103 through 105, preceding Trajan's conquest of Dacia
. On the right bank a Roman plaque
commemorates him. On the Romanian bank, at the Small Kazan, the likeness of Trajan's Dacian opponent Decebalus was carved in rock
from 1994 through 2004.
Significantly older treasures have been unearthed in the geographically less spectacular gorge of Gospodin Vir: in the 1960s the archaeological survey
Lepenski Vir
was unearthed, the most significant in southeastern Europe. The sandstone
statues from the early neolithic
are particularly splendid. Along with the other surveys that can be found in the Iron Gates, it indicates that the region has been inhabited for a very long time.
. In German
, the passage is still known as the Kataraktenstrecke, even though the cataracts are gone. Near the actual Iron Gates the Prigrada rock was the most important obstacle until 1896: the river widened considerably here and the water level was consequently low. Upstream, the Greben rock near the Kazan gorge was notorious.
In 1831 a plan had already been drafted to make the passage navigable, at the initiative of the Hungarian politician István Széchenyi
. Finally Gábor Baross
, Hungary's "Iron Minister", completed the financing for this project.
In 1890, beyond Orşova or Orsova in Hungarian,(Ursa in Romanian) being the last border town of Hungary, rocks were cleared by explosion over a 2 km (1.2 mi) stretch to create an 80 m (262 ft) wide and 3 m (10 ft) deep channel. A spur of the Greben Mountains was removed across a length of over 2 km (1.2 mi). Here, a depth of 2 m (7 ft) sufficed. On 17 September 1896, the Sip Channel thus created (named after the Serbian 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.
The results of these efforts were slightly disappointing. The currents in the channel were so strong that, until 1973, ships had to be dragged upstream by locomotive
. The Iron Gates thus remained an obstacle of note.
The construction of the joint Romanian-Yugoslavian mega project that would finally tame the river commenced in 1964. In 1972 the Iron Gate I Dam was opened, followed by Iron Gate II Dam, in 1984, along with two hydroelectric power station
s and two sluices.
The construction of these dams gave the valley of the Danube below Belgrade
the nature of a reservoir, and additionally caused a 35 m rise in the water level of the river near the dam. The old Orşova, the Danube island Ada Kaleh (below) and at least five other villages, totaling a population of 17,000, had to make way. People were relocated and the settlements have been lost forever to the Danube.
The dam's construction had a major impact on the environment as well—for example, the spawning
routes of several species of sturgeon
were permanently interrupted.
That said, the flora and fauna, as well as the geomorphological
, archaeological and cultural historical
artifacts of the Iron Gates have been under protection from both nations since the construction of the dam. In Serbia this is done with the Đerdap National Park (since 1974, 636.08 km² (245.6 sq mi)) and in Romania by the Porţile de Fier National Park (since 2001, 1156.55 km² (446.5 sq mi)).
is probably the most evocative victim of the Đerdap dam's construction. A Turkish
enclave, 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 3 km (1.9 mi) downstream from Orşova and measured 1.7 by 0.4-0.5 km. It was walled; the Austria
ns 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, and the island came under the control of Austria-Hungary
, though it remained the property of the Turkish sultan
. The inhabitants enjoyed exemption from tax
es and customs
and were not conscripted
. In 1923, when the Ottoman monarchy had disappeared, the inhabitants chose to join Romania.
The Ada Kaleh mosque
dated from 1903 and was built on the site of an earlier Franciscan
monastery
. The carpet, a gift from the Turkish sultan, has been located in the Constanţa
mosque since 1965.
Most Ada Kaleh inhabitants emigrated to Turkey
after the evacuation of the island. A smaller part went to Dobrogea, another Romanian territory with a Turkish minority.
The Iron Gates ( ˈport͡sile de ˈfjer; ( d͡ʑě̞rdaːp or d͡ʑě̞rdaːpskaː klǐsura; ; ; ; ; , transliterated: Zhelezni vrata) is a gorge on the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
River. It forms part of the boundary between Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
and Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
. In the broad sense it encompasses a route of 134 km (83 mi); in the narrow sense it only encompasses the last barrier on this route, just beyond the Romanian city of Orşova
Orsova
Orșova is a port city on the Danube river in southwestern Romania's Mehedinți County. It is one of four localities in the county located in the Banat historical region. It is situated just above the Iron Gates, on the spot where the Cerna River meets the Danube.- History :The first documented...
, that contains two hydroelectric
Hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...
dam
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
s, with two power stations, Iron Gate I Hydroelectric Power Station and Iron Gate II Hydroelectric Power Station.
The gorge lies between Romania in the north and Serbia in the south. At this point, the river separates the southern Carpathian Mountains
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe...
from the northwestern foothills of the Balkan Mountains
Balkan Mountains
The Balkan mountain range is a mountain range in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The Balkan range runs 560 km from the Vrashka Chuka Peak on the border between Bulgaria and eastern Serbia eastward through central Bulgaria to Cape Emine on the Black Sea...
. The Romanian, Hungarian, Slovakian, Turkish, German and Bulgarian names literally mean "Iron Gates" and are used to name the entire range of gorges. An alternative Romanian name for the last part of the route is Defileul Dunării, "Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
Gorge". In Serbia, the gorge is known as Đerdap (Ђердап), with the last part named Đerdapska klisura. The Romanian side of the gorge constitutes the Iron Gates natural park, whereas the Serbian part constitutes the Đerdap national park.
Gorges
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
lies beyond the Romanian isle of Moldova Veche and is known as the Golubac gorge. It is 14.5 km long and 230 m (755 ft) wide at the narrowest point. At its head, there is a medieval fort at Golubac
Golubac
Golubac is a village and municipality in north-eastern Serbia, on the right side of the Danube river. It is bordered by Romania to the east, Veliko Gradište to the west and Kučevo to the south...
, on the Serbian bank. Through the valley of Ljupovska lies the second gorge, Gospodin Vir, which is 15 km long and narrows to 220 m (722 ft). The cliffs scale to 500 m and are the most difficult to reach here from land. The broader Donji Milanovac forms the connection with the Great and Small Kazan gorge, which have a combined length of 19 km (12 mi). The Orşova valley is the last broad section before the river reaches the plains of Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
at the last gorge, the Sip gorge.
The Great Kazan (kazan meaning "boiler") is the most famous and the most narrow gorge of the route: the river here narrows to 150 m and reaches a depth of up to 53 m (174 ft). East of this site the Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
emperor Trajan
Trajan
Trajan , was Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born into a non-patrician family in the province of Hispania Baetica, in Spain Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in Spain, in 89 Trajan supported the emperor against...
had the legendary bridge
Trajan's bridge
Trajan's Bridge or Bridge of Apollodorus over the Danube was a Roman segmental arch bridge, the first to be built over the lower Danube. For more than a thousand years, it was the longest arch bridge in the world, in terms of both total and span length...
erected by Apollodorus of Damascus
Apollodorus of Damascus
Apollodorus of Damascus was a Greek engineer, architect, designer and sculptor who flourished during the 2nd century AD, from Damascus, Roman Syria. He was a favourite of Trajan, for whom he constructed Trajan's Bridge over the Danube for the 105-106 campaign in Dacia. He also designed the Forum...
. Construction of the bridge ran from 103 through 105, preceding Trajan's conquest of Dacia
Dacia
In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...
. On the right bank a Roman plaque
Commemorative plaque
A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other vertical surface, and bearing text in memory of an important figure or event...
commemorates him. On the Romanian bank, at the Small Kazan, the likeness of Trajan's Dacian opponent Decebalus was carved in rock
Statue of Decebalus
The Statue of Dacian king Decebalus is a 40-meter high statue that is the tallest rock sculpture in Europe. It is located on the Danube's rocky bank, near the city of Orşova, Romania....
from 1994 through 2004.
Significantly older treasures have been unearthed in the geographically less spectacular gorge of Gospodin Vir: in the 1960s the archaeological survey
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
Lepenski Vir
Lepenski Vir
Lepenski Vir is an important Mesolithic archaeological site located in Serbia in the central Balkan peninsula. It consists of one large settlement with around ten satellite villages. The evidence suggests the first human presence in the locality around 7000 BC with the culture reaching its peak...
was unearthed, the most significant in southeastern Europe. The sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
statues from the early neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
are particularly splendid. Along with the other surveys that can be found in the Iron Gates, it indicates that the region has been inhabited for a very long time.
Channel
The riverbed rocks and the associated rapids made the gorge valley an infamous passage in shippingShip transport
Ship transport is watercraft carrying people or goods . Sea transport has been the largest carrier of freight throughout recorded history. Although the importance of sea travel for passengers has decreased due to aviation, it is effective for short trips and pleasure cruises...
. In German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, the passage is still known as the Kataraktenstrecke, even though the cataracts are gone. Near the actual Iron Gates the Prigrada rock was the most important obstacle until 1896: the river widened considerably here and the water level was consequently low. Upstream, the Greben rock near the Kazan gorge was notorious.
In 1831 a plan had already been drafted to make the passage navigable, at the initiative of the Hungarian politician István Széchenyi
István Széchenyi
Széchenyi committed suicide by a shot to his head on April 8, 1860. All Hungary mourned his death. The Academy was in official mourning, along with the most prominent persons of the leading political and cultural associations...
. Finally Gábor Baross
Gábor Baross
Gábor Baross , Hungarian statesman, was born at Pružina near Trencsén on 6 July 1848, and educated at Esztergom. He was for a time one of the professors there under Cardinal Kolos Vaszary. After acquiring considerable local reputation as chief notary of his county, he entered parliament in 1875...
, Hungary's "Iron Minister", completed the financing for this project.
In 1890, beyond Orşova or Orsova in Hungarian,(Ursa in Romanian) being the last border town of Hungary, rocks were cleared by explosion over a 2 km (1.2 mi) stretch to create an 80 m (262 ft) wide and 3 m (10 ft) deep channel. A spur of the Greben Mountains was removed across a length of over 2 km (1.2 mi). Here, a depth of 2 m (7 ft) sufficed. On 17 September 1896, the Sip Channel thus created (named after the Serbian village on the right bank) was inaugurated by the Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Joseph, the Romanian king Carol I
Carol I of Romania
Carol I , born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was reigning prince and then King of Romania from 1866 to 1914. He was elected prince of Romania on 20 April 1866 following the overthrow of Alexandru Ioan Cuza by a palace coup...
, and the Serbian king Alexander Obrenovich.
The results of these efforts were slightly disappointing. The currents in the channel were so strong that, until 1973, ships had to be dragged upstream by locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
. The Iron Gates thus remained an obstacle of note.
Dams
Hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...
s and two sluices.
The construction of these dams gave the valley of the Danube below Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
the nature of a reservoir, and additionally caused a 35 m rise in the water level of the river near the dam. The old Orşova, the Danube island Ada Kaleh (below) and at least five other villages, totaling a population of 17,000, had to make way. People were relocated and the settlements have been lost forever to the Danube.
The dam's construction had a major impact on the environment as well—for example, the spawning
Spawn (biology)
Spawn refers to the eggs and sperm released or deposited, usually into water, by aquatic animals. As a verb, spawn refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, also called spawning...
routes of several species of sturgeon
Sturgeon
Sturgeon is the common name used for some 26 species of fish in the family Acipenseridae, including the genera Acipenser, Huso, Scaphirhynchus and Pseudoscaphirhynchus. The term includes over 20 species commonly referred to as sturgeon and several closely related species that have distinct common...
were permanently interrupted.
That said, the flora and fauna, as well as the geomorphological
Geomorphology
Geomorphology is the scientific study of landforms and the processes that shape them...
, archaeological and cultural historical
Cultural history
The term cultural history refers both to an academic discipline and to its subject matter.Cultural history, as a discipline, at least in its common definition since the 1970s, often combines the approaches of anthropology and history to look at popular cultural traditions and cultural...
artifacts of the Iron Gates have been under protection from both nations since the construction of the dam. In Serbia this is done with the Đerdap National Park (since 1974, 636.08 km² (245.6 sq mi)) and in Romania by the Porţile de Fier National Park (since 2001, 1156.55 km² (446.5 sq mi)).
Ada Kaleh
The isle of Ada KalehAda Kaleh
Ada Kaleh was a small island on the Danube populated mostly by Turks that was submerged during the construction of the Iron Gates hydroelectric plant in 1970. The island was about 3 km downstream from Orşova and measured 1.75 by 0.4–0.5 km....
is probably the most evocative victim of the Đerdap dam's construction. A Turkish
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
enclave, it had a mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
and a thousand twisting alleys, and was known as a free port
Free port
A free port or free zone , sometimes also called a bonded area is a port, port area or other area with relaxed jurisdiction with respect to the country of location...
and smuggler's nest. Many other ethnic groups lived there beside Turks.
The island was about 3 km (1.9 mi) downstream from Orşova and measured 1.7 by 0.4-0.5 km. It was walled; the Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
ns 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
Peace treaty
A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, that formally ends a state of war between the parties...
. Thereafter, the island lost its military importance. The 1878 Congress of Berlin
Congress of Berlin
The Congress of Berlin was a meeting of the European Great Powers' and the Ottoman Empire's leading statesmen in Berlin in 1878. In the wake of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, the meeting's aim was to reorganize the countries of the Balkans...
forced the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
to retreat far into the south, and the island came under the control of Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
, though it remained the property of the Turkish sultan
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
. The inhabitants enjoyed exemption from tax
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
es and customs
Customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...
and were not conscripted
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
. In 1923, when the Ottoman monarchy had disappeared, the inhabitants chose to join Romania.
The Ada Kaleh mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
dated from 1903 and was built on the site of an earlier Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
. The carpet, a gift from the Turkish sultan, has been located in the Constanţa
Constanta
Constanța is the oldest extant city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanța County and the largest city in the region....
mosque since 1965.
Most Ada Kaleh inhabitants emigrated to Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
after the evacuation of the island. A smaller part went to Dobrogea, another Romanian territory with a Turkish minority.
Literature
- The pre-historic settings of the Earth's ChildrenEarth's ChildrenEarth's Children is a series of speculative alternative historical fiction novels written by Jean M. Auel set circa 30,000 years before present. There are six novels in the series...
book series focuses in on difficulties traveling through or around the Iron Gates in both the second ("The Valley of HorsesThe Valley of HorsesThe Valley of Horses is a historical fiction novel by Jean M. Auel. It is the sequel to The Clan of the Cave Bear and second in the Earth's Children series.-Plot summary:...
") and fourth ("The Plains of PassageThe Plains of PassageThe Plains of Passage is an historical fiction novel by Jean M. Auel published in 1990. It is the sequel to The Mammoth Hunters and fourth in the Earth's Children series.-Plot summary:...
") novels during scene sequences detailing travel adventures whilst the protagonists navigate between the upper and lower Danube valleys. - The book Between the Woods and the Water by Patrick Leigh FermorPatrick Leigh FermorSir Patrick "Paddy" Michael Leigh Fermor, DSO, OBE was a British author, scholar and soldier, who played a prominent role behind the lines in the Cretan resistance during World War II. He was widely regarded as "Britain's greatest living travel writer", with books including his classic A Time of...
describes a night on the now submerged island Ada Kaleh and a trip by ferry through the Iron Gates, in August, 1934.
Film
- The 2003 film Donau, Duna, Dunaj, Dunav, Dunarea contains several minutes of film of the Iron Gates.
See also
- Commissions of the Danube RiverCommissions of the Danube RiverSee Internationalization of the Danube River for events before 1856.The Commissions of the Danube River were authorized by the Treaty of Paris after the close of the Crimean War...
- Danube River Conference of 1948Danube River Conference of 1948The Danube River Conference of 1948 was held in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, to develop a new international regime for the development and control of the Danube in the wake of World War II...
- Defile (geography)Defile (geography)Defile is a geographic term for a narrow pass or gorge between mountains or hills. It has its origins as a military description of a pass through which troops can march only in a narrow column or with a narrow front...
- Energy in Romania