Collection images taken in 1964 by the photographer Viorel Simionescu and published by him on his Facebook page reveal the charm of hiking in the Apuseni Mountains, then an almost wild land, inhabited by ancient keepers of some archaic traditions.
Children from the Land of Motilor. Photo: Viorel Simionescu.
Viorel Simionescu traveled to one of the most popular areas in the Apuseni Mountains, Padiș – Scarișoara, which six decades ago was much more difficult to access than it is today, due to the difficult mountain roads.
“In the spring of 1964, I bought my first car, a Watburg 311, which I loved the most. In this way I was able to achieve what I kept putting off for several years, due to access difficulties, the exploration of the Apusen Mountainsi”, recounted the photographer, who published on his Facebook page an album of photos taken in Apuseni, in 1964.
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Viorel Simionescu began his journey to the land of the moti, starting on the route Brad – Câmpeni (video), one of the “highways” of the Apuseni, which crosses the mountainous region from west to east, then continuing towards Turda and Beiuș.
The second way to Campeni (video) is in the North-South direction, starting from Huedin, then continuing along the Ariesșului valley in the country of the moti, to Câmpeni and Abrud. From here, the road descends towards Brad, in the Crișului Alb valley, at the foot of Mount Vulcan, between Hunedoara and Alba counties.
“After a splendid journey, on very bad, but completely free roads, from Brad through Abrud, we arrived at Câmpeni, at that time a clean, patriarchal, delightful town. As is our custom and threatened by some black clouds, we looked for and found accommodation at a household on the banks of the Aries. A terrible storm followed with a cloudburst that took out a bridge on the road to Gârda de Jos. We had to leave the car in the yard of the host, a widow who conditioned us not to pick her up on Friday, because she was waiting for a visit from one of her men.” Viorel Simionescu remembers.
Returning to Câmpeni earlier than expected, the travelers stayed at a local hotel, where they were received with hospitality.
“It happened, however, due to the accommodation conditions at Padiș, that we returned to Câmpeni on Friday evening itself. I saw the car in the yard, but I didn’t disturb the woman and went to the hotel, an old building, probably a hundred years old, but clean. At the reception there was an old man dressed in the local folk costume, with some long white locks and kindness inscribed in his whole being. It looked like it had been stepped out of a painting of a long-gone era. No one had come so far and we found places in a 10 bed dormitory which he showed us to see if we liked it“, remembers Viorel Simionescu.
Motions, austere but welcoming
With RATA buses, with backpacks in the back, the tourists arrived at Gârda, from where they could go up to Scarișoara. In the mountains, the roads were actually wider paths, intended for carts and caravans of horses and donkeys, loaded as much as they could carry. They were not practicable for cars.
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“The landscape was lovely in its austerity, but it suggested a great poverty of the people of these places. We were met several times by children who, with decency and shyness, asked us if we had candy for them. Fortunately, I had taken a few bags in the pockets of my bags and was able to give these extremely poor children a few moments of delight. However, we remembered the decent way in which they asked us, with hope and resignation. Their request was that of poor children, but demus”, says photographer Viorel Simionescu.
From place to place, where there were springs, the great masters of woodworking, the Moții, had built special wells, where some larger children drew water with a scoop mounted on the end of a stick and offered it to passers-by kindly and without any pretense, their he remembered.
The houses of the moti adorned the archaic landscape of Apuseni, and some villagers offered their most spacious rooms to tourists, inviting them to the table where they were served with their traditional products.
“We were very impressed by the scantily clad children, who looked much older than their age”recalled Viorel Simionescu.
Child from Apuseni. Photo: Viorel Simionescu. 1964.
The older children almost all wore opinci and had their heads covered. Few of them were wearing boots.
The natural monuments of Apuseni
The place most often searched for by tourists who arrive in the Padiș tourist area was the Live Focul Viu Glacier Cave, which houses a glacier of about 25,000 cubic meters inside, which the daylight highlights because the vault of the cave is partially open.
The Apuseni glacier in 1964. Photo: Viorel Simionescu.
The tourist route passes through Cheile Galbenei, a strait dominated by the steep walls of the mountains, difficult to pass even with the help of support ropes hanging in some places on the slopes. The effort is rewarded by the beauty of nature and, above all, by the “pearl” of the Galbenai valley – the Evantai Waterfall – one of the most appreciated in Romania.
“Scărișoara glacier was obviously the attraction of the place. Since then, large groups of people on organized tours have been visiting it, although the stairs leading down were rather old and rickety. The overwhelming majesty of the huge grottoes at the Ponor Citadels was as impressive then as it probably is today, the only difference being that access is much easier now. The Galbenei circuit involved crossing some sections on bridges arranged along the river, which were often broken by higher waters. On the day we walked it it rained so much that we got wet from above and below, having to wade through water many times“, remembers Viorel Simionescu.
The Apuseni Mountains – the wild land of Transylvania
The Apuseni Mountains stretch over almost 20,000 square kilometers, over the counties of Arad, Bihor, Cluj, Alba and Hunedoara, and in the center of this land are the patriarchal settlements of the Moti – people of the mountain and the forest who are said to be one of the the oldest populations on the territory of Romania.
The Apuseni lands are rough and less suitable for agriculture and animal husbandry, and the forests have always represented the great wealth of the region.
In the basement of the mountains, gold, silver, copper and other precious and rare metals make Apuseni the richest region in mineral resources in Romania. The Apuseni Mountains in the heart of Transylvania impress their guests with the diversity of landscapes and the numerous natural monuments.
The Padiș tourist area in the Apuseni Mountains, also known for its ponores, offers travelers a wide variety of karst landforms, natural monuments carved with the passage of time by water and climate.
