Lake Cinciș from Hunedoara, the coast from the mountain. Amazing places hidden in its surroundings VIDEO

Lake Cinciș from Hunedoara (video) is among the popular tourist destinations in western Romania, and the locals called it “the mountain coast”. Its surroundings offer a lot of unusual tourist attractions.

Located 10 kilometers from Hunedoara, Lake Cinciș was developed in the 60s, for the water supply of the municipality and the steel plant, but over time it became a popular recreation area in western Romania.

For the people of Hunedoara who in the past used to spend their free days, with their tent, on the water’s edge, Lake Cinciș in Hunedoara has become the “mountain coast”.

Other locals, however, looked at it with regret, because the construction of Cinciș lake, in the Cernei valley in Hunedoara, and the construction of its concrete dam, in 1962 – 1963, led to the disappearance of several archaic villages of the foresters, such as Baia Craiului, Cinciș, Cerna – swallowed by the waters – and Mosoru, Curpenii Silvașului, Tătăuș – depopulated and surrounded by forest.

After 1990, several of the lands on the left shore of Lake Cinciș were occupied by holiday homes, guesthouses and campsites.

During the summer, the number of tourists decreased, however, compared to the period when the recreation area was the most sought-after destination by the families of the thousands of workers from the Hunedoara steel mill and from the mines in Ghelari and Teliuc, localities close to the lake in Hunedoara.

Lacking an access road by car, the right shore of Lake Cinciș is covered by forests, and several forest roads and paths that descend from the Poiana Ruscă Mountains, to the waters that flooded the Cernei valley in Hunedoara, remind of the former human settlements that have disappeared.

Nowadays, those who walk through the forest on the right shore of the lake can still find the foundations and collapsed walls of some abandoned houses and a few households still standing, swallowed by the forest, where the last residents of the hamlets of Valea Tâlharilor and Tătăuș live.

Apart from the clean air and views dominated by the forest and the expanse of water, travelers to the “mountain coast” can discover some spectacular places here.

Ruined Church of Maria Teresa

A ruined Roman Catholic church remained unmoved in the middle of the forest, at the tail of Lake Cinciș in Hunedoara, while the village around it, Baia Craiului, disappeared under the waters.

The church’s 18th-century roof has almost completely collapsed, along with some of its walls, windows and plaster, and inside, wild vegetation grows from the carpet of silt accumulated over time.

Around it, several graves, the ruins of some metallurgical workshops and a former priest’s house, the foundations of several houses and farms, but also the remains of a collapsed Orthodox church can be seen in the forest that appeared on the swampy land, covered in the past by water.

The church at the tail of the Cinciș lake dates from the 18th century and would have been founded by order of Empress Maria Tereza, in an era when several iron smelters were operating in the Cerna valley. The ore was brought from the mines at Ghelari, on the roads that descended from the Poiana Ruscă Mountains, and melted in the large furnaces at Topilita and Baia Craiului.

“Before the construction of the dam, the Orthodox went to the church in Cinciș – the one that is said to have been built by the Huniazis – and all the Catholic believers from the Cernei valley went to the church in Baia Craiului. Both were abandoned with the construction of Cinciș lake. The church of Huniaz reached the bottom of the water together with the old village. It was demolished, and the people built one in the village of Cinciș Cerna, where they brought goods from it. Another Orthodox church in the village of Baia Craiului was also demolished. The Roman Catholic church remained standing but was abandoned, and people took the belongings from it, including an old pedal organ, and brought them to the village of Izvoarele, where a new church was built within a few years”, recounted Rudolf Ungur, a local from the village of Izvoarele (video).

Abandoned in the 60s, flooded over time by the waters of the lake, the old church eventually became a landmark of Lake Cinciș.

Villages surrounded by forest

A row of hills, covered with forest, separates the valley of Cerna from Hunedoara from the lands of Hațeg. In the past, almost every hill was occupied by a village. The human settlements were crossed by the roads that went up to 800-900 meters, on the peaks and then went down towards Hațeg, passing by the Prislop monastery.

Starting from the 60s, the old villages on the hills of Cinciș began to depopulate. Settlements like Mosoru and Curpenii Silvașului were abandoned and surrounded by forest, while in other hamlets on the hills, like Goleș, Țata or Mladin, a few people still live.

“During the 1950s, the villages had schools, churches, cultural centers. Some were electrified. But the roads remained bad, and people left for Hunedoara and Hațeg, where they found work and, over time, settled in the city. The lack of water was a big problem in the hills, because we have to walk hundreds of meters to the springr”, recounted a local from Goleș (video), village where three or four families still live.

In recent years, several roads have been modernized around Lake Cinciș and have brought the archaic settlements in the area out of isolation.

Travelers who arrive at the shore of the lake can continue their trip, on the new roads, to the picturesque villages of Izvoarele, Dealul Mic and Goleș, to the village of Cinciș-Cerna and the Prislop Monastery, to Lunca Cernii and the villages on the Cerni valley, or, on the Cernișoara valley, through the villages of the foresters Vălari and Cernișoara Florese, then climbing towards the settlements in the Poiana Ruscă Mountains.

The Cathedral of the Foresters and the marble road

From the right shore of Lake Cinciș, the road climbs along the route of a former ancient road of the Romans towards the former mining center of Ghelari, located less than ten kilometers from the dam of Lake Cinciș.

Here, tourists enter the Forest Land of Hunedoara, but also one of the oldest mining areas in Romania.

The village of Ghelari is known for the iron mines with a history of over two millennia, but also for the “Cathedral of the Foresters”, erected in the 1930s, which raises its marble towers with shiny roofs to almost 50 meters. A huge mining pit can be seen here, surrounded by the remains of the former mining operation, among which the old entrances to the iron mine can be distinguished, decorated with frescoes.

The road that crosses Ghelariul, on the ridges, continues to the forest villages of Ruda, Poienita Voinii and Vadu Dobrii, and a branch leads to the village of Alun in Hunedoara, almost deserted, but famous for its marble road, quarry and marble church.

Another road descends from Ghelari, on the valley of Govâjdia from Hunedoara (video), in the center of which, over two centuries old, the Govâjdia Furnace remains as a testimony of the great metallurgical center of past centuries.

The furnace from Govăjdia is among the oldest furnaces that have been preserved in Europe. It operated from the beginning of the 19th century until after the First World War, and its furnace remains almost intact today.