Of the hundreds of beautiful places that are worth visiting in Romania, an important place is reserved to the network of lakes, rivers and cascades that offer that long-coveted quiet in the middle of a dreamlike landscape. A visit to the lakes must therefore be a part of your vacation plans.
Here are the most spectacular and fascinating lakes and cascades in Romania.
Ochiul Beiului in Banat, in Caras-Severin county (in a town called Sasca Montana) is one of the main tourist attractions of the Natural Reservation Cheile Nerei Beusnita. In the middle of the forest, occupying a surface of nearly 300 sqm and having a depth of 3.6 m, you can find a place out of faity-tales, a lake of infinite blue. At winter, the like does not freeze, but serves as refuge for the dozens of species of wild ducks and voyaging birds.
The legend of the lake is heart-warming and beautiful: they say once upon a time, the lands of Banat were ruled by a cruel pasha. His son, a young man of exquisite beauty and having the bluest eyes, fell in love with a walach girl. Angered, the pasha had the girl killed. In despair after having found his beloved killed by the lake, the young lad took his life. His tears and sacrifice turned the waters of the lake infinite blue.
Nearby, in Sasca Montana, Mount Locvei at the heart of Cheile Nerei, you can visit another wonderful place, with a much happier story. Lacul Dracului (The Devil’s Lake) has a diameter of 20 m and a depth of over 9 m, being the largest karstic lake in the country. The blue-green waters and the 70 m long gallery offers a surrealistic beauty.
Legend has it that, once upon a time, a peasant living near the lake received a mysterious visitor: a little man bearing a fish. The little man asked the peasant to fry the fish without bending its tail. The villager said yes, but in return asked the bizarre guest to fry a goat’s head “without its sneering”. The peasant put the fish on a stick, so the tail remained straight, while the guest bound the snout of the goat with tight ropes. But the attempt of the little man was a failed one, as the binding burned with the skin of the animal, revealing the animal’s sneering skull. Angered, the visitor – none other but the devil – threw himself in the waters of the lake.
Still waters run deep. Rent a car and find out everything!