Truth being told, we rarely think about the importance of salt beyond the one we sprinkle on the food…Though last year something profoundly opened our mind and changed the way we look at salt and at the fabulous natural resources Romania has.
To have a clue, there are many salt mines in Romania that stand as touristic attractions, not just from a visual perspective, but also from a therapeutical one, the reason why resorts were built in their closeness. Salt mines are claimed to have surprising benefits on one’s health, curing the respiratory ailments, skin irritations, and fighting even mental lethargy and stress. This kind of therapy also known as halotherapy involves spending regular time in a salt mine/cave (nowadays even man-made), breathing the salt vapor, which according to the internet, it has been practiced from the 12th century. We must confess that after two hours spent in this wonderful salt mine below, we felt a slight improvement in breathing.
Long story short, we went to visit the famous Turda Salt Mine because our Romanian friends have been promoting it since its opening and the pictures we’ve seen in our news feeds were also convincing (hope ours below are too 🙂 ). We then felt that this Romanian treasure deserves more spotlight as it truly stands out from everything you’ve seen before – G U A R A N T E E D.
The Turda Salt Mine, considered one of the oldest in the world (dating back from 17th century), was a bomb shelter, a warehouse for cheese storage and nowadays is a veritable history museum of salt exploitation, nesting an impressive amusement park where you can spend quality time boating on the lake, playing snooker, bowling, golf or ping pong, or have a drink while the kids play in their park. Not to forget the amphitheatre which had us imagine the acoustic effect an opera or classical concert must have.
Entering the long obscure corridor immediately gave us the idea that the tour would take a while… When we reached the widest compartment, which hugeness we cannot even describe in words, the lights that form UFOs-like shapes made us feel like on a different planet. Can you believe miners carved out three billion tons of salt? Other highlights of our tour were also the elevator ride and the echoes room – very exciting!
Going down 120m (400ft) might be a quite claustrophobic experience for the ones that are not prepared to deeply explore this underground theme park. For the rest, we’re not going to hide the fact that it might be a major case of heebie-jeebies…but in a fun way! 🙂 Enjoy!
Useful info
If you’re planning to visit Romania and consider Transylvania your main destination, have in mind that Turda stays at just 30 km away from Cluj-Napoca (the heart of Transylvania).
For more historical information about the Turda salt mine go to www.bestofromania.eu/turda-salt-mine !
