The Statue of Dacian king Decebalus is a 40-m high statue that is the tallest rock sculpture in Europe. It is located on the Danube's rocky bank, near the city of Orşova, Romania.
The idea belonged to Romanian businessman and historian Iosif Constantin Drăgan and it took 10 years (1994–2004) for twelve sculptors to finish it, at a cost of over one million dollars.
Right in front of the statue, but on the Serbian shore facing Romania, there is an ancient memorial plaque (Tabula Traiana) commemorating the victories of the Roman Empire over the Dacian kingdom in 105.
Under the face of Decebalus there is a Latin inscription which reads "DECEBALUS REX—DRAGAN FECIT" ("King Decebal—Made by Drăgan").
Famous quotes containing the word statue:
“The statue is then beautiful when it begins to be incomprehensible, when it is passing out of criticism, and can no longer be defined by compass and measuring-wand, but demands an active imagination to go with it, and to say what it is in the act of doing.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)