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About Hunedoara
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The Hunedoara county is situated in the South-Western part of Transylvania, where
the Apuseni Mountains meet the Meridional Carpathians, so that it has a mountain relief.
The Retezat Massif, a part of the Meridional Carpathians and to the South of the Mures
Massif, has a surface of 800 sq. km and more than 30 peaks. Among them there are the
Retezat (2484 m above sea) Peleaga (2509 m above sea) and Papusa (2502 m above sea). Here
in 1935 the Retezat National Park was founded and was named later a reservation of
biosphere. Large surface of forests, rivers, valleys and terraces provided since
pre-historical times all was necessary to the inhabitants of this county.
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Inside the Cioclovina and Ohaba Ponor Caves
there are vestiges of the palaeolithic man. In Turdas, near by Orastie, there are vestiges
of the neolithic culture. In the Orastie Mountains (the Surianul Massif), in Gradistea
Muncelului there is Sarmizegetusa Regia, the capital city of the Dacian kings
as Burebista and Decebal and in the Haleg Depression there are the ruins of Ulpia
Traiana Sarmizegetusa, the capital city of the Roman Dacia. Corvinesti the most important
monument of Gothic lay arhitecture in Transylvania (14th c.), is to be found at
Hunedoara. Built on the place of a former Roman camp, it served as a defence stronghold,
as well as a princely residence. In 1409, together with 40 villages of the same area, the
Hungarian king Sigismund of Luxembourg offered it as a present to the Romanian prince
Voicu (father of Transylvania's future ruling prince Iancu of Hunedoara) as a reward for
his military deeds (the legend of the Raven, in Romanian 'Corb', from which the name of
the Corvinesti derived, hints at a love affair between the king and prince Voicu's wife).
A visit to the medieval castle may take one to the Gallery, to the towers with
picturesque names, i.e. the Do not fear, Capistrano, the Maces' Tower, to
the Knights'Hall, an impressive reception hall, to the White Bulwark, a
former food store, to the Council Hall (with paintings on the walls displaying
Romanian princes' coats of arms), to the Chapel. And also here the
oldest Christian monuments were  built in the
Middle Age: churches in Densus. Streisingeorgiu, Strei, Sintamarie Orlea, Gurasada, Ribila
and Criciur, real masterpieces of the early European culture. In the municipality of
Deva, the capital city of this county. There are two points of tourist interest: the
Magna Curia Castle built in the XVI-th century which is now the Museum of the Dacian and
Roman Civilization and the Sports High School which is known in the world thanks to
famous gymnasts Nadia Comaneci, Lavinia Agache, Daniela Silivas and Lavinia Milosovici.
Also here there is the Fortress of Deva.
The easy ways to the historic and tourist zones of this county, hotels, motels, inns,
mountain and forestry chalets, ski-lifts and cable cars, ski tracks in the Parang and
Valcan (Straja) Mountains as well as the peoples hospitality are only some elements of
tourist interest.
Travelling in the Hunedoara county the tourist will be able to take part in the
folk feasts of the peoples who live here and will know their old costumes, sings and
dances and will discover both the beauty of the landscape and the beauty of Romanians'
soul. |
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