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Câmpeni |
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CÂMPENI (Topánfalva) is the capital of the Tara Motilor and a
possible base for forays into the mountains. The town is well served by
buses, which arrive at the bus station, just east of the centre. The
only hotel in town is the moribund Tulnic at Piata Avram Iancu 1 (tel
058/771 697; $6-10), with an even more dispiriting restaurant. The
town's Avram Iancu Museum , by the river on the corner of Strada
Revolutiei 1848, also seems decrepit but is still functional, although
opening times are erratic.
From Câmpeni the DN74A leads 10km south to Abrud, passing on the way a
turning for ROSIA MONTANA , seven kilometres to the east. Transylvania
was a major source of gold for the ancient world, with the Romans using
slaves to mine the mountains of Alburnus Major; 24 wax tablets recording
operational details have been found and can be seen in the museum at the
mine (open daily during operating hours), 2km before the village. The
highlight of the mine itself is a 400-metre section of the winding,
ancient galleries, romantically dubbed the Citadels of Gold , but now
overwhelmed by present-day mining operations and closed to visitors.
From here there's a one-hour walk (marked by red triangles) south to
ABRUD . The old town, whose Baroque buildings incorporate stones from
earlier Roman structures and are liberally adorned with plaques
commemorating the many notables who visited when Abrud was the Moti
capital, is tatty but far more attractive than Câmpeni; unfortunately
the modern - and only - hotel, the Detunata (tel 058/780 466; $6-10)
lies amid the grim blocks of the new town, 2km southeast along Strada
Republicii, the road to Zlatna. From Piata Eroilor, the centre of the
old town, there are buses to BUCIUM , 13km east and the commercial
centre for some thirty small mining villages; it's also the starting
point for an hour's climb to two basalt crags known as the Detunata . As
in Slovakia and Silesia the miners here have a ceremonial "uniform", and
the local folk costume combines elements of this with traditional
highland wear.
GÂRDA DE SUS , 30km northwest of Câmpeni, is a pretty village with old
houses and a part-wooden church built in 1792, with naive paintings
inside. More notably, it is the starting point for several excellent
hikes, the most popular of which, marked with blue stripes, begins near
the campsite and leads north through the Ordâncusa gorges, past a mill
and into a forest, ending after three hours at the village of GHETARI .
This is named after the ice cave of Scarisoara ( Pestera ghetarul ;
daily 9am-5pm), a few minutes' west of the village; filled with 70,000
cubic metres of ice, 15 metres thick, it has preserved evidence of
climatic changes over the last 4000 years. At the back of the main
chamber is the "church", so called because of its pillar formations,
while the lower galleries, only discovered in 1950, are closed
scientific reservations. From the cave it's a five-hour walk north to
the karstic Padis plateau. Local people have also created new marked
walking routes in the area between Albac and the ice cave, taking in
Horea's birthplace near the village later named after him (reached by
three buses a day from Câmpeni). In addition, they have set up a
homestay scheme with OVR, co-ordinated at the Primaria in Albac (tel &
fax 058/777 057 or tel 094/938 253); you can also call 094/700 871 in
Gârda de Sus or 094/278 219 in Arieseni.
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