Hațeg Country UNESCO Global Geopark

About Hațeg Country UNESCO Global Geopark

The Hațeg Country UNESCO Global Geopark covers the Hațeg basin at the foot of the Retezat Mountains: the town of Hațeg and ten surrounding communes, over roughly 1,100 km². It is famous for its dwarf dinosaurs: about 70 million years ago the area was an island in the Tethys Sea, and the animals isolated here stayed much smaller than their mainland relatives. The first bones were found by Baron Franz Nopcsa in 1895 at Sânpetru; since then more than ten dinosaur species have been described, along with eggs containing embryos and a giant flying reptile, Hatzegopteryx.

The area was declared a nature park in 2004, and in 2005 it became the first geopark in Romania and Eastern Europe to join the Global Geoparks Network; since 2015 it has held UNESCO Global Geopark status, a UNESCO programme separate from World Heritage. Separately, the Sânpetru palaeontological site has been on the UNESCO World Heritage tentative list since 1991. The geopark is managed by the University of Bucharest.

It is not a park with a gate and a ticket but a lived-in landscape of villages, medieval churches and Roman sites, where you travel between several visitor points, known as the "Houses of the Geopark", and along themed trails with information panels.

Information verified on 21 October 2026.

Good to know before you go

Getting there

By car: Hațeg is about 45 km from Deva, on the DN7 to Simeria and then the DN66 through Călan (around an hour), and about 48 km from Petroșani on the DN66 (also around an hour). From Hațeg, General Berthelot is ~5 km away (DJ687C), Sânpetru ~10 km, and Densuș ~15 km, on the DN68 towards Caransebeș and then the DJ687G. The House of Volcanoes is 3 km from Densuș church towards the village of Ștei, 300 m off the road along a forest track.

Public transport: the nearest railway station is Subcetate, on the Simeria – Petroșani line, ~4 km from Hațeg. Coaches run to Hațeg from Deva, Hunedoara and Petroșani; from Sibiu the coach takes around two and a half hours, from Timișoara around three. Local buses between the geopark villages are infrequent and published by Hunedoara County Council; to cover the full circuit you need a car.

Where to park

There is no geopark car park. In Hațeg you park on the streets in the centre, and at the houses in the villages, on the street next to them. At the House of Volcanoes you leave the car by the road or drive up the 300 m of forest track, of moderate difficulty.

Fees & discounts

Access to the geopark area and its trails is free. Prices for visiting the Houses of the Geopark, guided tours and educational programmes are not published; you find out when booking, from the geopark administration or, for the House of Volcanoes, from the Drag de Hațeg association.

Rules

The geopark includes palaeontological and geological reserves (Sânpetru, Tuștea): rocks and fossils must not be removed from the sites, and digging is allowed only for authorised researchers. On the trails, keep to the waymarked paths. Guided tours of the houses and trails are booked by phone at least three days in advance. Walking on the hills and along the Sibișel valley calls for hiking footwear.

Facilities

Houses of the Geopark as visitor and interpretation centres · guided trail walks and educational workshops by appointment · bilingual panels on the themed trails · guesthouses and farm stays in the villages of the Hațeg Country · the hill trails are not accessible for people with disabilities