UNESCO World Heritage Day in Romania (November 16) is marked by the announcement of one of the most important archaeological discoveries in recent years in the area of the Dacian Citadels in the Orăștiei Mountains.
In the last part of the archaeological campaign from the year 2024, in Costești-Cetătuie, two limestone foundations of a hitherto unknown temple were discovered in situ. The vestiges of the new edifice have been identified on one of the terraces on the south-western side of the hill, in the place called Mălăiște, crossed by the ancient road.
The first "rows of stones placed in a strict order on carefully landscaped areas" were found in the Dacian citadel here during the excavations coordinated, starting in 1924, by the professor from Cluj DM Teodorescu. After a century, the discovery of a new alignment, the fifth, prompts the resumption of the subject related to the constructions with a religious purpose from Costești-Cetățuie, but also from the rest of the area of the capital of the Kingdom of Dacia.
In the coming years, archaeological research will be extended to document the planimetry of the temple, its chronology, the construction technique and, last but not least, to obtain information regarding the activities carried out in its perimeter.
The archaeological research was carried out under the auspices of Babeș-Bolyai University (Faculty of History and Philosophy) and was financed by the Ministry of Culture and Hunedoara County Council, through the General Directorate of Monuments Administration and Tourism Promotion of Hunedoara County, in a partnership with The National History Museum of Transylvania, the Dacian and Roman Civilization Museum and the Mureș County Museum.
1. Limestone bases of the columns of the temple in Mălăiște (Costești-Cetățuie).
2. Limestone bases of the columns of the temple in Mălăiște (Costești-Cetățuie).
3. Limestone bases of the columns of the temple in Mălăiște (Costești-Cetățuie).
4. "Rows of stones placed in a strict order" discovered by DM Teodorescu (image from the Site Archive, after C. Daicoviciu).
