GRADISTEA MUNCELULUI CIOCLOVINA Natural Park

About GRADISTEA MUNCELULUI CIOCLOVINA Natural Park

Grădiștea Muncelului - Cioclovina represents a protected area with the status of “natural park.” Its scope is to protect and conserve the natural habitat with respect to fauna, flora, forestry, hydrology, geology, speology, paleontology and pedology.

The park focuses on sustainable conservation of natural resources, landscapes and local tradition.

The park was founded at the judicial level in 1979 and reconfirmed in 1997. In 2000, with the beginning of the law nr. 5/2000, PNGM-C was declared a protected natural area of national interest. According to the OUG 57/2007 regarding the regime for natural protected habitats and wild faunistic and floristic habitats, the Park was integrated into the IUCN category 5.

PNGM-C Natural Park is situated in the massive Șureanu Mountains, with the Orăștie Mountains and Sebeşului Mountains as subdivisions. The borders are: the Haţeg Valley to the west and the Orăştie Valley to the north. The land within the park’s border includes large forested areas, steps, meadows, fields, carstic zones, water courses, historical monuments, archeological sites, and human settlements.

For whoever wanders for the first time through PNGM-C, the landscape becomes strikingly charming through the variety of reliefs, through the combination of ancient Dacian history, and through the ethnographic diversity so specific to the villages from here. This zone reveals the obvious touristic attraction for all; among the various mountains, valleys, rivers, and breath-taking scenery spotted with ancient ruins, one encounters a natural landscape of unsurpassed beauty.