Salt mines

14 results

Salt has been mined in the Carpathians since before the Romans, and the salt mines of Romania that are open to the public are former mines which you descend by lift, by bus or by stairs to galleries several tens of metres high. The air down there, with its constant temperature and no allergens, turned them into treatment places for respiratory conditions, then into leisure spaces with sports grounds and underground lakes. They are concentrated in Transylvania, on an arc from Dej to Praid, but there are some in Moldavia and Wallachia too. Above many of them lie the salt lakes of old collapsed mine shafts, good for bathing in summer.

Turda Salt Mine is the best known, with its Ferris wheel and underground lake; Praid Salt Mine is the salt mine of Szeklerland. Slănic Prahova Salt Mine impresses with the huge chamber of the Unirea mine, Cacica Salt Mine in Bukovina has hand-carved galleries and a chapel, and Târgu Ocna Salt Mine in Moldavia has a church 240 m underground. For bathing in salt lakes: Ocna Sibiului.

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The row of trapezoidal halls in the Unirea mine, with banded salt walls and lamps hanging from the high ceiling, and small figures of visitors on the floor

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Slănic Prahova Salt Mine

Slănic, PH

The Unirea mine, dug between 1938 and 1970, is a string of 14 salt halls over 50 m high, 208 m underground, which you reach by minibus; 100 km from Bucharest.

Salt mines

Open now2 – 2½ hours60 lei

The Terezia mine seen from above: the dark salt lake, the island with lit pavilions and the coloured boats, beneath the bell-shaped salt walls

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Turda Salt Mine

Turda, CJ

A salt mine worked from the Middle Ages until 1932 and turned into a spectacular underground park: a Ferris wheel, a lake with rowing boats, an amphitheatre and salt walls 120 m below ground, near Cluj.

Salt mines

Open now2 – 2½ hours75 lei

The complex's outdoor pools on a summer day, with rows of sunloungers around the large pool and a wooded hill behind

Ocna Mureș Salt Baths

Ocna Mureș, AB

A modern spa complex in Ocna Mureș, opened in 2023, with heated salt-water and fresh-water pools, saunas and treatments. It is above ground only: the old salt mine cannot be visited.

Resorts and thermal bathsSalt mines

Open now3½ – 4 hours80 lei

One of the salt lakes seen from above in summer, with people in the water, steps and decks on the bank, and the kiosks, sports pitches and village houses behind

Băile Cojocna

Cojocna, CJ

A lido with two salt lakes formed where old salt mines caved in, 24 km from Cluj-Napoca, plus an indoor pool of warm salt water that stays open all year.

Resorts and thermal bathsSalt mines

Closed50 lei

The chapel of Saint Barbara in the mine: the altar with its red carpet, the chandelier and the vaulted ceiling cut in salt

Cacica Salt Mine

Cacica, SV

A salt mine opened by the Austrians in 1791 with miners brought from Galicia: 192 fir steps lead down to a chapel carved in salt, a salt lake and a ballroom 42 m below ground.

Salt mines

Open now1 – 1½ hours38 lei

Lacul Ocnei, with greenish water, a wooden jetty along the shore and, on the green hill behind, the roofs over the shafts of the Iosif and Terezia mines

Durgău Salt Lakes

Turda, CJ

A summer lido on two salt lakes formed in collapsed old salt pits, 100 m from the Durgău entrance of the Turda Salt Mine. The very salty water keeps you afloat; the mine is visited separately.

Resorts and thermal bathsSalt mines

Closed40 lei

A 1904 postcard: the arched entrance to the salt mine, topped by the miners' crossed hammers, with a mine cart on rails and miners in front of the gallery

Ocna Dej Salt Mine

Dej, CJ

A working salt mine near Dej, where salt has been dug since Roman times, with an Orthodox church carved into the salt about 80 m down. Not currently open to visitors.

Salt mines

Closed

A wide gallery of the salt mine, with walls and ceiling of wavy grey salt, wooden benches and a line of lamps leading to the far end of the hall

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Ocnele Mari Salt Mine

Ocnele Mari, VL

A working salt mine near Râmnicu Vâlcea that you enter by bus through a tunnel: huge galleries with swirling salt walls, sports courts, an ice rink and the country's largest underground church.

Salt mines

Open now2 – 2½ hours60 lei

One of the visitor halls 120 m underground, with a vaulted salt ceiling, lamp-lit walls and wooden tables on the floor, in August 2024

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Praid Salt Mine

Praid, HR

The salt mine of the Land of Salt, with huge leisure and treatment halls 120 m underground, once Romania's most visited. Closed indefinitely since the flood of May 2025.

Salt mines

Closed

A row of vaulted galleries cut into the salt on level IX, with banded grey walls and ceiling lamps, a few visitors in the distance

Târgu Ocna Salt Mine

Târgu Ocna, BC

One of Moldavia's oldest salt mines, still being worked: a bus takes you through a tunnel over 3 km long to 240 m below ground, to a salt church, a lake with a waterfall and sports courts.

Salt mines

Open now1½ – 2 hours60 lei

photo — Telega Salt Baths

Telega Salt Baths

Telega, PH

Salt lakes formed over the old salt mines of Telega, near Câmpina: in summer you swim in water holding almost 277 g of salts per litre. The mine galleries cannot be visited.

Resorts and thermal bathsSalt mines

The lido on the Roman Lake, with a wooden deck and bathing ladder in the foreground, swimmers in the water and woodland behind

Băile Sărate Turda Lido

Turda, CJ

Turda's historic lido, on the Roman Lake, a salt lake formed in old salt workings in the Băile Sărate district. The town's spa was born here around 1840.

Resorts and thermal bathsSalt mines

Lake Ocnița in summer, with people floating in the salt water, wooden steps on the shore and wooden pavilions on the beach behind

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Ocna Sibiului

Ocna Sibiului, SB

A spa resort 15 km from Sibiu with salt lakes formed where old salt mines caved in: in summer you swim in water that keeps you afloat, between white banks of salt.

Resorts and thermal bathsSalt mines

Closed35 lei

Ocna Șugatag

Ocna Șugatag, MM

A spa resort in Maramureș with salt lakes that formed on the surface above old salt mines, including Lake Gavril, 30 m deep; salt-water bathing happens in the pools of the local complexes.

Resorts and thermal bathsSalt mines

Open now2½ – 3 hoursFree

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