Social Program
Friday, October 18, 2013
We offer a trip to one of the most important sights of Transylvania: Turda Salt Mine (Romanian: Salina Turda) – A real museum of salt mining in Transylvania. The excellent preserving condition of the mining works and of the equipments that were used to transport the salt, as well as the concern with which were carried out the works for the preparation of the salt mine in order to become a tourist attraction, made the history and the legend harmoniously merge.
Salt was first extracted here during the antiquity and the mine continuously produced table salt from the Middle Ages (the mine being first mentioned in 1075) to the early 20th century (1932). Since 1992, Turda Salt Mine has been a halotherapy center and a popular tourist attraction.
Sources of salt in Turda are more than 13 million years old, have a median depth of 250 meters (reaching 1200 meters in some places) and weigh more than 38 billion tons. Exploitation of salt began in the roman period. At the beginning of the 18th century the salt mines of Turda were the most important in Transylvania. The salt was mined manually. Franz Jozef Gallery, Rudolf Mine (80m long, 50m wide, 40m tall), Teresa Mine (112m tall), the Ghizela room, and the Altar room all represent the mystery of the Turda Salt Mine.
Inside the salt mine the temperature remains constant at a 10–12 °C (50–54 °F) all the time, at any time of the year (therefore warm clothing and stout footwear are recommended). Humidity in the air remains constant, too, at about 75-80%.
More about Turda Salt Mine can be found at http://salinaturda.eu/?lang=en.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
We offer a trip to Bear Cave (Romanian: Peștera Urșilor). Known as one of the spectacular touristic objectives of Apuseni Mountains, Bears Cave lies in the vicinity of the location called Chișcău, in Pietroasa Commune, Bihor District, at an altitude of 482 meters.
It was discovered in 1975 and is known for its incredible stalagmite and stalactite formations, as well as for its 140 Cave Bear fossils (Ursus spelaeus) which can be found here. The Bears’ Cave has over 1,5 kilometers in length, 521 meters of which are reserved for scientific research. It is said that its name comes from a species of cave bears that used to populate these lands 15000 ago. While 140 bears were inside the cave, something caused a rock to block the cave entrance and so the bears were trapped inside. Bear fossils were discovered and are still there today, causing cold shivers on the visitors’ backs.
Pictures from Bear Cave: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Cave.
