The Corneşti Iarcuri Citadel

Just a few kilometers from Timișoara, in the town of Cornești, there are traces of one of the most spectacular ancient fortifications in Europe

Ion Puican, 11.01.2026, 14:00

Just a few kilometers from Timișoara (western Romania), in the town of Cornești in the Banat Area, there are traces of one of the most spectacular ancient fortifications in Europe. The Citadel of Cornești (the Cornești Iarcuri) is an old settlement, over 3,500 years old. It could soon become the site of a new museum showcasing the archaeological findings in the area.

The Citadel of Cornești covers an impressive 1,800 hectares, and is made up of four concentric rings made of clay and wood, built around 3,500 years ago, in the Bronze Age. Experts say that the fortification was a centre of power in the Banat area and the Lower Mureș Valley, inhabited by a warrior elite that coordinated the economic life and the defence of the territory.

The construction is contemporary with the famous Troy fortress and belongs to the Cruceni–Beleghiș culture. Its strategic position, close to the Mureș River and the Banat Mountains, enabled the locals to trade and get important resources, such as salt. Archaeologists have found traces of semi-buried dwellings, pottery and ritual offerings that highlight the spiritual life of the community. The archaeologist Leonard Dorogostaisky, a volunteer with the National Museum of Banat (MBN) team, who is doing research at this site, tells us more about the Cornești Iarcuri:

Leonard Dorogostaisky: “Cornești-Iancuri, in Oțișoara commune, Timiș county, Romania, is a huge construction impossible to see from ground level, which consists of four enclosures surrounded by earth mounds and ditches. It spreads a total 1,700 hectares. The mounds have a combined length of about 32 km. The mounds that enclose the first two rings are 2-2.5 metres high and 50 meters wide at the base. Above them there was a complex wooden structure, believed to work as a palisade, which has burned down. It was built in several stages during the late Bronze Age, that is, 3350 years ago, contemporary with the Egyptian pharaohs, Akhenaten and his wife, Nefertiti, with Tutankhamun, Ramses the Great, at the height of Ancient Egypt. … Unlike Egypt, the constructions in our area are made of earth and wood, instead of stone. Since 2005, extensive research has begun, using multidisciplinary methods, involving Romanian-German-English teams that set out to investigate the construction of the earth mounds and ditches through several sections in rings 1, 2 and 4. They have provided information related to their shape, depth, width, to the construction methods and so on. Concurrently, geophysical research was carried out on an area of ​​about 200 hectares. The edges of the underground area suggest that there were several gates, areas with traces of habitation, and, more importantly, rectangular, circular or concentric arc-shaped structures located in areas where pottery fragments older than a thousand years were found. Excavations conducted inside Cornești-Iarcuri led to more questions than answers, with no traces found of large structures or their foundations. The inhabited surface area within the citadels covers around 70 hectares, accounting for some 4% of their total surface area. Why did they need so much space? The findings of the most recent research directly links the Cruceni–Beleghiș culture to Mycenaean civilisation. The traces of a migration movement at the end of the Bronze age can be seen all the way to Thessaloniki.”

What does the investigation of such an archaeological site involve. Archaeologist Leonard

Dorogostaisky:

“Researching such an archaeological site involves an effort that matches its enormous size, on a physical, technical, human and financial level, as well as timewise. It will probably take decades.”

The archaeologist Leonard Dorogostaisky proposes that Corneşti is the site of more than just a fortification. He believes that there must also be there a religious site and a site that probably served as an astronomic observatory. What role could these fortifications serve?

“Militarily, it is intended to intimidate, to discourage possible aggressors. Another purpose served by Cornești-Iarcuri is that of a sacred place able to shelter large groups of people temporarily, for a week, for example for the duration of the annual summer solstice pilgrimages. Cornești- Iarcuri was built according to a plan by a society with a high degree of civilisation, which makes us suspect that it also possessed knowledge of arithmetic and geometry, among others, at least in as much as to ensure the logistics and construction of the site. In my opinion, a religion was born here. I’d like to think that Zamolxis did not hide for three years under Gugu peak, but that he built and led this site.”

A possible museum in Cornești-Iarcuri would showcase this unique heritage, attracting tourists and researchers from Romania and abroad. The museum would contribute both to the development of local tourism and the promotion of the historical sites in the Banat region. Cornești would then be more than a name on the archaeological map of Europe, to also become a place where the past comes to life and tells the story of a millennia-old civilisation, right in the heart of Banat.