HUNEDOARA DISTRICT [HD]

HUNEDOARA District

Map of Hunedoara District

HUNDEOARA District is located in Central-Western Transylvania occupying an area of 7025 square kilometers (2712 square miles). Lying on the mid-course of the Mures River, the district is guarded to the north by the Western Carpathian Mountains (Apuseni Mountains), to the south-east by the Parâng Mountains, to the south-west by the Retezat and Poiana Ruscăi Mountains. The Hunedoara district is crossed by the rivers Streri, Cerna, Râu Mare (Grand River), Crisul Alb (White Crish) and Jiu, which form two large depressions, Tara Hategului (Hatzeg Land) and Tara Zarandului (Zarand Land). These regions are very rich in minerals. Gold and silver ores have been exploited in the Apuseni Mountains since the ancient times. The Hatzeg country is also known since the ancient times as "The Iron Gates of Transylvania", a strategic region guarded by ancient and medieval citadels, very rich in iron ore which has been exploited since ancient times in Poiana Ruscăi Mountains. On a latin inscription discovered in the region, a local is described as "natas ibi, ubi ferum nascitur", translated as "was born where iron is born".

Hunedoara district was one of the first European regions where cast iron and later steel were industrially produced since the 14-15^th centuries. The flourishing industrial region mirrored the English Industrial Revolution. In the region known as Valea Jiului (Jiu Valley) coal has been extracted in large quantities from hundreds of mines. Non-ferrous ores are abundant in the area surrounding the town of Brad. The region is also famous for its thermal and mineral waters with their curative effects from such spa resorts as Geoagiu Băi (Geoagiu Baths), Călan and Vata de Sus.

The Retezat Mountains are the rockiest and one of the most wild and beautiful range in the Transylvanian Alps. The mountains are a wilderness conservation area - The Retezat National Park - for its beautiful and unique wild scenery and its many glacial lakes and species of moutain plants and animals - the park being famous for its rare population European buffalo (r. zimbrul). The mountains offer a wide variety of climbing and skiing terrain and many trails and moutain lodges. The Parâng Mountains, east of the Retezat range, in the Transylvanian Alps, although less rocky and and not as tall, offer good skiing terrain with good slopes and beautiful wild moutain scenery with dense woods and alpine pastures inhabited by shepherds. The Apuseni Mountains or Western Carpathians located in the north are ranges of small mountains, the highest peaks reaching only as high as 1900 meters altitude. However, these pictoresque mountains house many of Europe's most unique and unexplored caves and many wild and beautiful trails.

Myths and legends haunt these ancient lands and many archeological discoveries speak of misterious old civilisations. Archeological evidence uncovered at Ohaba Ponor and Turdas dates the human inhabitance in the region to the Early Paleolithic and Neolithic times. Life flourished in the region throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages. The region is the cradle of the ancient Pelasgian-Hyperborean Civilisation which still remains shrouded in mystery. In the 1^st century BCE, King Burebista, the most powerful of the kings of Thrace, establishes the new capital of the Thracian Empire at Sarmizegetusa Regia, which later became the capital of Dacia, important ancient complex of fortresses and sanctuaries, located south of the town of Orăstie in the Parâng Mountains.

After the Roman conquest, the capital of the newly founded Roman Dacia (Dacia Felix) was moved at Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa west of the town of Hatzeg. In the 1^st millenium CE the feudal formations in the region were at Deva, Hunedoara, Strei, Dobra and others. During the Middle Ages the region, resided by many local noble families, kept a defensive and independent profile at the border of The Principality of Transylvania in the Hungarian Empire and later the Austrian Habsburgic Empire. A few important personalities also trace their roots to this region like ruler of Transylvania Iancu Corvin of Hunedoara (Ioannus Corvinus), his son, the ruler of the Hungarian Empire, Matei Corvin (Mathias Corvinus Rex), Nicolaus Olahus, a great medieval humanist and Aurel Vlaicu, an inventor and a pioneer in modern aviation and engineering.

Hunedoara District has a vast tourist potential and offers a variety of attractions from sites of historical and cultural importance to sites of rare natural beauty.