The Castle of Arts also known as The Water Tower, is located in Drobeta-Turnu Severin which even though it's not such a big city, it used to be the capital of one of the most important counties from Romania - Mehedinți.
Drobeta-Turnu Severin not only that is a city with huge administrative and commercial powers, but it also represents one of the cities which have openings to the wonderful Danube.
The tower that represents the most symbolic building for Drobeta is a historical monument that was created in medieval style between 1912-1915 by a Romanian artisan and civil engineer, Elie Radu, which nowadays is being renowned between some of the most visited touristic attractions from the city.

The Water Tower has recently achieved the beautiful age of 108 years since it was build and it measures a height of 27m.
Its position is not random as it represents the highest altitude of the city (104m) which was helping it have an advantageous distribution to all the areas of Drobeta.
The tremendous castle is surrounded by two of the first schools of the city which were created early in 1891, one of them for boys, and a different building for girls, in this way having access to everything to fill their needs of those moments.

Even though the project was finished in 1913, the tower was put into operation one year later when it also became the single water supply system for Drobeta-Turnu Severin.
The castle which represents the tallest building of the city was having a capacity of 1025 cubic meters, getting the water straight from the Danube, then get it to waterworks for chemically and bacteriologically tests.
This is how a single tower was able to provide water for schools, hospitals, houses, industries and military barracks.
Unfortunately, the castle has been part of both of the world wars that consecrated our history but none of them ruined the building or its furniture.

Being the highest building of the city at those times, the tower became a defence tower used by the German army in World War I which were placing binoculars and morse devices to share information about where the Romanian armies were sheltering.

During World War II the tower was again used by people to oversee the districts of the city and keep in touch with the commander to direct the armies to the places that could be bombed.

Nowadays, the tower can be visited by anyone who enjoys getting on high buildings and admire the whole city from the top because since 2013 it gathered over 150.000 unique tourists.
The historical monument started being called The Castle of Arts seven years ago when it became a cultural and tourist information center that shelters all kind of exhibitions from time to time, but also a small museum about the city's history of water supply, a coffee shop and a special exhibition for pictures and sculptures.
The Water Tower can be visited any time of the week:

• Monday - Friday: 8 AM - 8 PM;
• Saturday - Sunday: 9 AM - 2 PM.

For visiting the castle there is a small fee that needs to be paid at the bottom of the tower where is also a tiny shop with souvenirs and traditional merchandise:

• Adult Ticket: 5RON/1,05EUR;
• Student Ticket: 3RON/0.63EUR;
• Retired Ticket: 3RON/0.63EUR;
• Children Ticket (younger than 7 years old): FREE.

The access to the top of the tower is being made on some spiral stairs that have stops at every floor, each one of them being dedicated to either an exhibition, the museum, or the coffee shop which is at the last floor.

The access to the outside of the tower is being made through a large door but the width of the balcony is pretty narrow and impossible for two or more people to cross past one another.

Once you reach this part of the tower, you will get the chance to discover the whole city from the top because you can get a 360° view from the balcony which is very well protected with high metal barriers for preventing accidents or dizziness.

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The Castle of Arts is located on the Street Crişan which is pretty close to the center of the city where you can arrive by either a car, a bus, or even by walking because this is not too far from the train station and this will take you through a park and the old town of Drobeta which worth a visit as well!
Personally, we opted in for a walk to enjoy the weather and discover more of the city and it took us around 20 mins being located on just 1,5km from the train station.
We used the GPS with the following coordinates: 44.62989°N 22.652113°E

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