Situated in the immediate vicinity of the Roman castles, the Museum - whose bases have been laid since 1912 - houses an important collection of artefacts, including a Roman lapidarium. Besides, three of the nine rooms of the History-Archaeology section are dedicated to the Roman age, namely the Dacian-Roman wars, the Roman antique monuments, and the spiritual life in the ancient Drobeta settlement.

In 2010, the ruins of a Roman amphitheater were discovered in the yard of the Museum. According to the data presented in the Guide to Museums and Collections in Romania, this could be one of the constructions represented on the Column of Trajan, along with the bridge and the castle. The ruins of the Roman castle and of the term, the foot of the Trajan‘s Bridge and the remains of the Roman amphitheater can be visited at present within the archaeological park administered by the Iron Gate Region Museum. Periodically, the Museum hosts cultural and educational events such as summer schools, ethnography workshops for students, restoration workshops, etc.

 

The castles and the settlement of Drobeta were founded during Emperor Trajan, when the bridge over the Danube was also built. They functioned until 602, when the Avars destroyed the Roman settlements north of the Danube. In 126 Emperor Hadrian gave the camp the rank of municipium. Under Septimius Severus (193-211) it acquires the rank of colony, with an area of about 60 ha and a population of about 40,000 inhabitants. The Carp attacks (245-247) led to significant destruction, then repaired. From the time of Justinian (527-565) dates back the last restoration of the castle, which after the 5th century, after the Huns attacks, will be called Theodora. The Mu­seum of the Iron Gates Region has in its structure a section of History-Archaeology, and two of the halls exhibit representative exhibits for the Roman limes: a hall devoted to the Dacian-Roman wars, and a hall dedicated to the ancient Drobeta, from the 2nd to the 3rd centuries AD.

The first bridge on the Danube, Trajan Bridge, was built between 103 and 105, probably by Apollodorus from Damascus, at the orders of Em­peror Trajan. Built of stone and wooden beams, the purpose of the bridge was to allow the transport of the Roman troops and supplies necessary for the second military campaign to conquer Dacia. The bridge was demolished after nearly a century and a half, at the time of Aurelian withdrawal.

Today, a single pillar is visible on the Romanian Danube bank, near the Drobeta roman castrum. The pylon is an integral part of the archaeo­logical park administered by the Iron Gate Region Museum.

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