Trascău Mountains

P5

The Trascău Mountains in Romania

In Trascău Mountains

The Trascău Mountains (Romanian Munţii Trascăului; Hungarian Torockói - hegység ) is a mountain range in western Transylvania and the easternmost part of the Apuseni Mountains in Romania.

It extends over a length of about 60 km mainly in the north-south direction to the west of the city of Turda, Aiud and Alba Iulia.

The mountain range is limited

• In the West from other mountain ranges of the Transylvanian Western Carpathians: Gilău Mountains,
• Bihor Mountains,
• Muntele Mare,
• (Sometimes considered as its part the Trascău Mountains ) Transylvanian Erzgebirge.

The Trascău mountain range lies in the counties of Cluj and Alba. The name derives from the village of Trascău (now Rimetea ) from.

Geology

The Trascău Mountains consists mainly of limestone, complemented by sandstone, crystalline rock and conglomerates.

Description

The mountain range has an average elevation of about 1000 meters, but will repeatedly interrupted in east-west direction of streams and rivers that ultimately flow into the Mureş. At this break-in points are impressive gorges and ravines, whose formation was favored by the high proportion of limestone. The western part of the mountain is characterized by wooded part, but mostly covered by meadows ridge. Highest elevation is 1369 m high Dâmbăn at Zlatna.

Population

Most of the settlements in the interior of the mountain are of Romanian mountain farmers - in this region called Pimp - inhabited. Characteristic of the settlement area of ​​the Pimp are wooden houses with steep thatched roofs. This thatched houses are now used almost exclusively as a farm building.

In larger towns on the edge of the mountains many Hungarians live. The earlier in the towns and mining villages strongly held German minority was assimilated several centuries ago.

Due to the low standard of living conditions for Romanian mountain settlements of a brain preferably young people are particularly affected.

Economy

The Trascău Mountains is dominated by arable and even more so of grazing. The residents produce almost exclusively for their own use or for retail. The operated in centuries past mining has almost completely disappeared. Industry, there is virtually no.

Traffic

On the eastern edge of the mountain pass, the main railway lines Alba Iulia Arad - Targu Mures and Alba Iulia. In the south leads a branch line from Alba Iulia by Zlatna. The narrow- gauge railway from Turda after Abrud was decommissioned in the late 1990s.

The major towns in the valleys are accessible by buses. In numerous smaller settlements lead only unpaved roads, in some smaller, higher -altitude mountain hamlet only footpaths.

Tourism

Tourism is - in terms of scenic and culturally given opportunities - only weakly developed. There are only a limited number of accommodations, usually near the famous gorges. In contrast, the trail system is pretty tight. In recent years, the tourism adopted by the pilgrim nature - particularly in the vicinity of the monasteries Ramet and Sub Piatra - a certain upswing.

Attractions

• Cheile Turului (Canyon of Tureni )
• Cheile Turzii ( Thor Burger canyon)
• Cheile Rametului ( Ramet gorge )
• Piatra Secuiului - a long rock solid at the community Rimetea
• Cetatea Trascăului - castle ruins in Coltesti
• Peştera Dâlbina and Peştera Huda lui papara - Karst caves into which the brook Huda lui papara disappears or from which he comes to light again
• Ramet Monastery

Significant elevations

• Dâmbăn, 1369 m
• Varful Ugerului, 1285 m
• Ardaşcheia, 1250 m
• Varful Piatra Cetii, 1233 m
• Măgulicea, 1128 m
• Piatra Secuiului, 1128 m
• Piatra Craivei, 1078 m

Some villages in the mountains and in the environment

• Alba Iulia ( Charles Castle )
• Turda ( Thornburg )
• Aiud (Strasbourg Mures )
• Teiuş (three churches )
• Zlatna (small Schlatten )
• Rimetea (Iron Castle )
• Coltesti ( Sankt Georgen )