Trascau Mountains

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Trascau Mountains
The Trascau Mountains in Romania

The Trascau Mountains in Romania

In the Trascau Mountains

In the Trascau Mountains

Highest peak Dâmbău ( 1369  m )
location Romania
part of Apuseni Mountains ( Western Carpathians )
Coordinates 46 ° 20 ′  N , 23 ° 30 ′  E Coordinates: 46 ° 20 ′  N , 23 ° 30 ′  E
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Colțeşti Castle (Trascău)

The Trascău Mountains ( Romanian Munții 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 kilometers mainly in a north-south direction west of the cities of Turda , Aiud and Alba Iulia .

The mountains are limited

The Trascău Mountains are located in the Cluj and Alba counties . The name is derived from the town of Trascău (now Rimetea ).

geology

The Trascau Mountains consist mainly of limestone and also of sandstone , conglomerates and crystalline rocks .

description

The mountain range has an average height of around 1000 meters, but is interrupted several times in a west-east direction by streams and rivers that ultimately flow into the Mureș. At these break-in points are impressive gorges and ravines , whose formation was favored by the high proportion of limestone. The western part of the mountain range is characterized by mountain ridges, some of which are wooded, but mostly covered by meadows. The highest point is the 1369  m high Dâmbău near Zlatna .

population

Most of the settlements in the interior of the mountains are inhabited by Romanian mountain farmers - called Motzen in this region . Wooden houses with steep thatched roofs are characteristic of the Motzen settlement area. These thatched-roof houses are now almost exclusively used as farm buildings.

Numerous Hungarians live in larger towns on the edge of the mountains . The German minority, which used to be strongly represented in the cities and mining villages , was assimilated several centuries ago.

Due to the low standard of living, also by Romanian standards, the mountain settlements in particular are affected by emigration, preferably young people.

economy

The Trascău Mountains are characterized by arable farming and even more so by pasture farming. The residents produce almost exclusively for their own use or for retail. The mining that was practiced in past centuries has almost completely disappeared. There is practically no industry.

traffic

The main railway lines Alba Iulia – Târgu Mureș and Arad – Alba Iulia run on the eastern edge of the mountains . In the south there is a branch line from Alba Iulia to Zlatna . The narrow-gauge railway from Turda to Abrud was shut down in the late 1990s.

The larger towns in the mountain valleys can be reached by bus. In numerous smaller settlements only unpaved roads lead, in some smaller, higher mountain hamlets only footpaths.

tourism

The tourism is - measured against the landscape and cultural possibilities - only poorly developed. There is only a small number of accommodations, mostly near the well-known valley gorges. In contrast, the network of hiking trails is quite dense. In the past few years, pilgrimage tourism has given rise to a certain boom , particularly in the vicinity of the monasteries Râmeț and Sub Piatră .

Attractions

Surveys

Significant elevations in the Trascau Mountains are:

  • Dâmbău, 1369  m
  • Ardaşcheia, 1250 m
  • Vârful Ugerului, 1244 m
  • Vârful Piatra Cetii, 1133 m
  • Piatra Secuiului, 1128 m
  • Piatra Craivei , 1078 m

Some places in the mountains and in the vicinity

Web links

Commons : Trascău Mountains  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. Gheorghe Măhăra; Ion Popescu-Argeșel: Munții Trascău , Imprimeria de Vest, Oradea, 1993, ISBN 973-96303-1-6 . online at albamont.ro (Romanian; PDF; 690 kB)