Iron Gates
The Iron Gate ( Serbian: Djerdap, Ђердап; . Rum Portile de Fier ) is a transverse valley of the Danube. It is located in the southern Carpathian Mountains ( Erzgebirge between the Serbian and the Banat Mountains ) on the border of Romania to Serbia. Until his defusing 1972 in connection with the power plant Iron Gate 1, it was considered the most dangerous for the shipping section of the Danube river, which could not be passed without local knowledge to pilot.
Location
The Iron Gate is one of the most impressive Taldurchbrüche Europe. On cazan and Kazan (German tank ) between the cities Orşova and Donji Milanovac damming up of the Danube is reduced to 200 meters wide and 80 meters deep. On both sides of the Danube Protected Areas have been established - in Serbia, the National Park Đerdap, on the Romanian side of the Iron Gates Natural Park ( Parcul Natural Portile de Fier ).
The most famous cities in the vicinity of Iron Gate next Orşova are Moldova Nouă, Drobeta Turnu Severin (Romania) - which also has a museum tells the story of the power plant " Portile de Fier " - and Golubac, Donji Milanovac tekija and Kladovo in Serbia.
Power plants
In the area of the Iron Gate, the two hydroelectric power plants Iron Gate 1 and Iron Gate 2 Serbia are planning a third, small power station Iron Gate 3
History
Prehistory
Serbian archaeologists have discovered the remains of about 9,000 year-old settlement in the east of the country in 2005. The site is located in an inaccessible cave above the Danube. Until now, remains of fireplaces and flat stones that were used as anvils been excavated. In addition, numerous bones were found of fish and other animals. The site is located not far from Lepenski Vir, a site dating from the Mesolithic, where in the 1960s, a more than 8,500 -year-old settlement with tombs and ornate sculptures was discovered.
Roman Ruins
A well-known Roman Fund is the rock-cut the Iron Gate Tabula Traiana on the Serbian side of the Danube. It is a panel that made Attach the occasion of the completion of road construction in the lower gorge of the Danube, the Roman Emperor Trajan in the year 100. On both sides of the panel doppeltgeränderten floating dolphins are shown above hovers an eagle with open wings, right and left are three sechsblätterige roses carved in relief in the stone. In the construction of the power plant, the panel was offset to get them. Today, it is only visible from the water.
In the years 102 to 105 of the important Roman architect Apollodorus of Damascus, built in Drobeta Turnu Severin Taldurchbruch at the Trajan and prolonged by a strategically important Roman road across the former border river beyond. The bridge, which was the longest of the ancient world, was soon used for the invasion of Dacia during the Second Dakerkrieg 105/106. With the annexation of Dacia as a Roman province the frontier of the Roman Empire was pushed across the Danube.
Regulation in the 1890s
Already in the 1830s first rock blasting were carried out to improve the fairway on behalf of Austria. At the Berlin Congress of 1878 Austria - Hungary had been entrusted with the regulation of the Danube at the Iron Gates route. The Hungarian government allowed the construction work to perform under the direction of Ernst Wallandts in the years 1890-1896 with high costs and overcoming major technical difficulties. The regulated stretch of the Danube at the Iron Gate was opened by emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria on 27 September 1896. Present were also the neighboring sovereigns, the kings of Serbia and Romania.
The regulation works consisted of an almost 8 km long, 3 m reaching below the lowest level of the level of channel through the rapids on the Serbia -facing side of the Danube. The channel was divided into two parts, one about 6 km long, extending into the area of Kazanfelsenge ( the Turkish word Kazan means cooking kettle ) leading gutter under water, which is marked by buoys, and an approximately 1700 m long outcropping lower part, the 12 m high embankments was edged out of rock blocks to 150 m wide. To prepare the upper channel portion had 253,000, 400,000 m³ of the lower rocks are blown up. However, the high flow speed in this " Iron Gate channel" or in Serbian " Sip - channel " hampered the ascent of that steamships considerable, so that there two tugs were deployed to the bias power.
Treidelbahn
Until the 1960s, a built in World War Treidelbahn was operated on Yugoslavian, right bank of the Danube. This railway line is not connected to the European railway network was used to pull cargo ships upstream.