Let's travel together #317 - Fortress of Bologa (Cetatea Bologa)

Even if our trips has drastically slowed down in the last couple of years and after the Roadtrip from 2022 completely missing I promised to myself I won't let this happen anymore, it looks like the situation will repeat in 2024.

As a kid, I hardly understood that having trips is not a common thing and it's not as easy as my parents implemented in my head by being most of the time on the road and roaming Romania from North to South, from East to West, from a very early age.

But as ages are passing and leaving their marks on every single person in this world, I can say about myself that I like the way I'm growing up becoming wiser and understanding everything a lot better now that I am also an adult.

In fact, you can travel 300 days per year and don't know how to be grateful for those moments or appreciate the opportunity less than people who only have one or two trips per year treat those aspects. So based on these thoughts, I am really happy to still have a few memories from Roadtrip 2023 stored in my computer, and be able to return with one new discovery in my beloved country, Romania.

A while ago, some of you who have been on the chain for already some time, might remember that some of the most common discoveries in my country were the fortresses/citadels.

Since the waterfalls, caves, and literally anything offered by nature can be pretty much considered as being endless, it's no the same with the historical remains that obviously are very hard to be maintained with the passage of time and they are a lot less.

That's also the reason why I slowed down this kind of posts because I can proudly say that there are very few fortresses that I haven't seen in my country yet, so anytime I get to discover a new one, feels like a blessing for me. And stopping at Cetatea Bologa was definitely one of those days.

Fortress of Bologa was first mentioned under the name of Sebuswar in 1304, but its beginnings took place a lot earlier, being raised on the ruins of a roman castrum known as Resculum that is amongst the oldest such construction in Romania.
Resculum dates since 106 A.C. and it played a major role in history to protect the borders of the Roman Empire.
The more Romans tried to create a better defending on the borders of their empire, the more attention Resculum gained that even though it came with some invasions from foreign troups, it also helped in bringing people from Greece and Britania that added their marks on the bricks that consolided the walls back then.
Some of these can be still seen in the place called “Grădişte” that is fairly close to the fortress, but since we didn't know about those aspect when we visited Bologa, we failed stopping there as well.

Either way, after Resculum retired in glory being way too damaged by all the marks left of historical events, on the place that represented home for the roman castrum was raised The Fortress of Bologa that can be still seen in 2024 in a pretty good shape if you ask me.

A thing that I have learned after seeing so many historical places and most likely fortresses, is that these places are really hard. While it's more likely to discover a castle or some royal house standing still, fortresses become a lot rarer due to being required lots of restorations done regularly to keep them alive with the passage of time. Yet a thing that is a delicate subject for Romania that has plenty of real treasures given to oblivion that sooner or later will fall.

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Happily, this is not the case for The Fortress of Bologa that looks more than decent on the outside, giving us hopes to see it fairly nice on the inside too.

The shape of the initial fortress was maintained pretty much the same, there not being too many spots where you can observe bricks resting on the ground which is the first sign that it's been a while since the last restoration.

However, the biggest surprise came when we made our access inside the citadel and were welcomed with a really beautiful view.

Along with the walls that seem stronger than ever, there are lots of aspects that reveal the human intervention which, in this case, comes with happy ending.

Long and powerful stairs, lots of benches, a large informative panel and trash cans, are just some of the additions that were brought to the historical place that look a lot more welcoming for the tourists who come by and are encouraged to stay for a while, reconnect with the past and possibly have a drink or eat something enjoying the view.

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The view you can spot from the bottom of the fortress is beautiful, but having the construction placed inside of a forest, this can be hardly enjoyed during the summer or whenever the trees have more leaves.

We had our trip in October 2023, which we think it's the best time to visit The Fortress of Bologa being able to see the surroundings, not meet lots of tourists, but also enjoy a decent weather without being forced to face the abnormal heat Romania has lately.

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For an even better view, you can make your access to the main tower that is renovated the most, coming with lots of additions to make your way to the top safe and enjoyable.

While the floor and windows were locked with iron details to stay safe, the actual ladder making your access to the top facile remained original.

Such as, we are speaking of a circular ladder composed inside the wall of the tower that doesn't come with any other materials used than the brick, which is also very narrow. So if you suffer from claustrophobia I definitely won't recommend this experience.

But even if you are not going to make your way to the top, it feels nice to sit in front of the stairs for a while and imagine how they were used hundreds of years ago by the troops that paid with their own life to keep both this place and the country safe in front of enemies.

As you might have expect, I waited no more and made my way to the top.
I've always been a fan of this kind of pictures and even thought about creating an entire album with the places seen so far because it was almost a tradition to get to the highest spot and take a shot of my feet being surrounded by the beauty offered by nature, but accompanied perfectly by history in this case.
While I am more used to speak about the challenges a place has been through, with not too many wins, this time The Fortress of Bologa shows why it turned out to be one of the most important citadels from Transylvania.
As you might expect, its role was to defend the territory in front of foreign troops, but it also turned out as one of the safest place where locals could hide from enemies because its position was strategically placed to observe what happens in town way before the enemies would reach it.
Hence why, if foreign troops were spotted in the distance, the locals had enough time to hide in the Bologa Fortress and possibly stay away from any conflict as the troops from this place did a great job cleaning the territory from enemies way before reaching the fortress, for quite a few times.

These honourable actions made Sigismund of Luxemburg donate both the Fortress of Bologa and Bran Castle that served as a fortress for a while too, to Mircea cel Bătrân that was the Voivode of Wallachia from 1386 until his death in 1418 and knew for a fact will take care of the fortress the best he could. Thing that also happened.

The Fortress of Bologa reached its climax in the 17th century after Ottomans conquered Oradea but the voievode made the collection of taxes impossible.

His actions gained a lot of respect from the population but sadly turned the fortress into a direct target started facing more and more fights. The one that ruined the fortress partially happened through explosions, but not before having lots of enemies lose their life while trying to reach the fortress which had a very smart picked location allowing the Romanian troops to observe the enemies way before they would do.

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First, there was not proper access to the fortress as seen on other historical constructions because there used to be a moving ladder acting as an elevator that would take people in the inside, which created some trouble to the troops that looked for the gates, wanting to take them down.

Secondly, both the walls and the towers were designed with very well determined holes, each playing its own role because pretty much all the firearms were used from here, keeping the troops safe from being shut down.

The things are presented a bit different in 2024 as a real gate was placed in one of the sides the wall fell to the ground, but as you can see, most of the wall is intact, having just the top of the tower missing that was initially made of wood and fell pretty quick.

I know this is not one of those happy places that stir too many smiles on peoples' faces which comes as a contradiction to how happy we were to be around.

But as I said, I started taking these trips more seriously and enjoy being around a lot more than before, realizing how hard it is to enjoy these kinds of activities once you turn into an adult. And obviously, I couldn't hide my excitement reaching new limits back in that day, especially since we got one step closer to having all the fortresses of Romania visited at least one time by me and my family.

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Fortress of Bologa is located in the village with the same name (Bologa) and it's just 12km away from Huedin that can be reached by following either the European road E60 or 103H depending on the direction you are coming from. Happily, the village is marked both on the map and on the road with various informative signs, so reaching it will be pretty easy even without using a GPS.

Other articles from my Romania Tour 2023:

• The Blue Lagoon of Cluj (Laguna Albastră)
• Ciucaș Waterfall... or beer? (Cascada Ciucaș)
• The Sequoia Tree from Romania
• Șapte culori ale Pământului (The 7 Colors of the Earth, Romania)
• The Gypsy Palaces of Huedin, Romania
• Lacul Tarzan (Tarzan Lake of Romania)
• Gresiile de pe Stânca Dracului (The Devil's Rock)
• Cetatea Trascăului (Trascău Fortress)
• Grădina Zmeilor (The Garden of Kites)
• Tarnița Lake and Tarnița Dam
• Piatra Corbilor (The Raven Stone)
• Mihai Vodă Monastery and His Graveyard
• Fortress of Bologa (Cetatea Bologa)

more coming soon...

^{Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences. At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe. Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (300+ articles written on this field), but also approaching other topics as well, like game reviews, lets plays, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 700+ blog posts. Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, owning a YouTube channel for each of the two.}

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