History of Drobeta-Turnu Severin

onquering it or claiming it from time to time. Litovoi and Basarab I died at this fortress, which also humiliated Carol Robert of Anjou at Posada in 1330. Mircea the Elder (Mircea cel Bătrân) established Bănia Severinului (Banat of Severin) and, in 1406, concluded a treaty of alliance with Sigismund of Hungary right in Severin. After the death of Mircea, Sigismund freed the Severin Fortress occupied by the Turks, and even made some concessions to the monasteries of Vodita and Tismana. Then Banat of Severin returned to John Hunyadi (Iancu de Hunedoara), who consolidated all the castles on the Danube. Around 1330, possession passed to the Wallachian voivodes.

After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, attacks on the Danubian fortresses were made, moving the Banat to Strehaia. Later in Craiova, the Severin population migrating to Cerneţi village at 6 km north, which became the capital of the Mehedinţi district. In 1524, after a devastating attack by the Turks led by Suleiman the Magnificent, Litovoi only one tower of the fortress Severin was left standing, which led to the appointment of the Mehedinţi people by Turnul lui Severin (Tower of Severinus). Then it was seized by the Ottoman Empire in 1524. Under Ottoman occupation, the territory's administration moved to the west of Oltenia and was centered in Cerneţi. In 1936, Prof. Dr. Al. Bărăcilă executed excavations at the fortress, where he managed to reconstruct the layout of the castle and recovered rich archaeological materials (rails, iron, copper, stone cannon-balls, pipe of a bronze cannon etc.). The fortress was rectangular shaped with two walls made of unprocessed river stones, glued with mortar. In the center of the castle there was a chapel,surrounded by graves, built in part with materials taken from Drobeta Castrum. Also in the fortress was an oven-hearth serving a weapons workshop. Inside the interior, to the north, was