Ceausescu had the Transfagarasan cut through the Fagaras Mountains as a military road; today its 106 km of switchbacks climb past 2,000 m. We draw it from real map data, matched to the road itself. The preview on screen is the finished poster, and it ships straight away.

Make it yours: 11 art styles, 10 colourways and your own title, with the poster redrawing live as you pick.

What you get

Paper

200 gsm matte art paper

Print

Giclée, 300 dpi

Frames

Black, white or natural timber, ready to hang

Preview

The preview is the finished poster. We print the design you approve in the preview, with no proof to wait on.

The route

Ceausescu ordered the road built between 1970 and 1974 as a direct answer to the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia two years earlier, wanting a paved route his army could use to cross the mountains quickly if Romania were threatened the same way. Crews blasted through solid rock with more than six million kilograms of dynamite to cut the switchbacks into the mountainside.

At the top, Bâlea Lake sits beside an 887 m tunnel, the longest and highest road tunnel in the country, boring straight through the ridge rather than climbing over it. Snow closes the high section from around November to June most years, and the road stays shut that whole time until it reopens each summer to drivers chasing the same view Top Gear called the best road in the world in 2009.

Made for someone who drove it. Or for your own wall, because you did.

Related routes: Amalfi Coast, Atlantic Ocean Road and Grossglockner High Alpine Road.

Browsing for a gift? Read about the trip you still talk about.