In the center of Sovata, there was an old house. A family of storks had nested on that house and for years they kept coming there. People got used to them.
When the house was demolished for a shop, the locals thought of building something tall nearby to allow the storks to rebuild their nest. They made this clock and looked forward to the birds' return.
The storks are back and to the delight of the townsfolk they have even built their nest on the new clock, as you can see in the picture.
The moment the guide told us this, I felt tears well up in my eyes. I'd already visited most of the places I'll tell you about below, but after hearing the story of the clock and the storks, I better understood that people here care. That's why Sovata looks so good, that's why they've laid out the spa alleys, so you can walk around as much as possible, and enjoy all the natural healing factors - and the air, and the springs flowing for anyone who wants to take water from them, the salt lakes, the forest and the views.
To come back home healthier, more rested, stronger than you were when you left.
Sovata is mentioned for the first time as a healing place in a document from 1597, but it was not until 1850 that it became a spa resort.
Today, Sovata is divided into three zones:
Salt Road
Right opposite Ensana hotels - where you can take spa treatments and/or relax with the mud and salt water from Lake Ursu - as we told you last week - here, the Salt Road begins.
There are six 2.8-kilometer-long healing paths, 16 resting places, 5 gazebos and the Belvedere Tower which is 28 meters high. On these paths you can stroll among salt lakes, salt masses and lots of vegetation.
„Sovata resort benefits from a sedative bioclimate, characterized by moderate values of air temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, an increased level of oxygen and negative aeroions, which is why walks in nature - field cure are very indicated. The organism is not forced to make great efforts of acclimatization, on the contrary, the nervous and endocrine system regains balance, a particularly beneficial effect in cases of chronic insomnia, chronic fatigue, overwork, other neuro-psycho-endocrine imbalances generated by the chaotic rhythm of everyday life"explained Dr. Cristina Jeremias, Ensana Hotels Medical Director.
We walked down two of the alleys. The first one - around Bear Lake, on the-early, the very day we had arrived. It was quiet. Until a rather hoarse duck started to growl, which initially scared us horribly because we didn't realize what it sounded like and assumed without thinking too much that it was a bear. Then someone spotted it on the lake and we calmed down.
On the second route we started from the spring with the saltiest water in Sovata (the water the locals use for pickles, meat preservation, etc.), passed the Belvedere Tower - but unfortunately it was foggy so we didn't climb it - and we reached, through a thick forest, first Lake Mierlei and then again, Lake Ursu.
The walk was very pleasant, even if it rained the whole time. I kept thinking about the other four trails and I'm planning to go back there in the summer, so I can fill this article with more relevant and enlightening pictures of how cool this trail is.
During the walks, we noticed that everything is made of oak and fir wood - which are materials that are very handy in this area.
The guide told us that in most of the places where they set up the gazebos, the road could not be reached by machinery, so they used construction techniques from hundreds of years ago.
One of the days we also walked through the Salt Canyon.
According to the weather forecast, it was supposed to be sunny. In reality, it rained non-stop and it was foggy. True, by the end the boots were full of mud and the pants were stained up to the knees, but nevertheless, the walk was worth every drop of rain and mud.
is one of the most spectacular areas in Transylvania. The nature reserve covers 66 hectares.
Salt sinkholes, salt gorges, salt slope washes, salt water springs and mud, etc. Steep salt walls, and apparently spectacular white salt cliffs - but we didn't get to them because there was too much mud.
There are also plant species that grow on these salty soils - which is an exception.
The Salt Canyon was also formed by the pits left after the salt mining. They filled with rainwater - and that dissolved them, widening them.
They turned into a chain of lakes. In the valley between the lakes, the salt canyon was formed, then deepened by the Corund stream.
Access to the salina is by bus. The bus goes 1 km or so to the actual entrance of the saltpan.
But after that, you have to go down 260 steps to get to the visitable part of the Praid saltworks. Be careful, there is no elevator and at the exit you have to go up other steps.
If you have a larger bag, find a solution to leave it outside or somewhere else, as the entrance and exit are in different places.
The corridors in the salt marsh are standard - they are 20 m wide, about 14 - 16 m high and several hundred meters long.
The average annual temperature underground is 16 degrees Celsius. I think it's the warmest saltpan I've ever been in. Maybe that's because it's only 400 feet deep.
They have about 650 000 customers / year. In summer about 3000 people/day.
In the saline you can do all kinds of activities, which is great for those who go for treatment about 6-8 hours/day, 21 days. You can also train for athletics and other sports.
And in summer you can also go to the saltwater lake which is right next to the saltworks.
Sovata is unique in its combination of salt massifs, brackish salt lakes, but also marshy lakes with fresh water, pure air, the silt of Lake Bearsu and extremely abundant vegetation despite the salty soil.
Around the globe, wherever there are masses of salt, the vegetation is poor or the area is completely arid desert.
But here the vegetation is green even in winter.
The salt water and sapropelic mud from Lake Ursu, plus the climate, make Sovata a real blessing for people with joint, gynecological, thyroid, respiratory and dermatological problems.
It's a place that brings you rest and well-being, whatever your age or whether you choose to go for relaxation or treatment.
I really enjoyed this press-trip in which we combined walking with spa treatments & spa.
Ioana Marian,
founder despreSpa.ro
Founder despreSpa.ro
