Ocna Dej Salt Mine

About Ocna Dej Salt Mine

At Ocna Dejului, south of the town of Dej and close to where the Little Someș meets the Great Someș, salt has been mined for nearly two thousand years. The Romans took it from surface pits, later abandoned and turned into salt lakes, and charters of the Hungarian kings from the 13th century already mention the salt works here: in 1248 Béla IV granted one of them to the bishopric of Eger. The salt left on rafts down the Someș and along a "salt road" to the west, and in 1478 the settlement was exempted from taxes and military duties.

After 1700 the salt was cut in bell-shaped mines, abandoned one after another because of water seeping in. The Ferdinand mine, opened in 1836, brought the large trapezoidal chambers, the railway arrived in 1882 and the mine was electrified in 1910. The 1 Mai mine followed, worked until 1979, and then the Transilvania mine, opened in the late 1970s and still worked by Salrom today. Where the old mines collapsed, subsidence cones and salt lakes have formed.

Information verified on 29 September 2026.

Good to know before you go

Getting there

By car: Ocna Dejului is ~4 km south of the centre of Dej (~6 minutes); from Cluj-Napoca it is ~55 km on the DN1C via Apahida and Gherla (~1 hour). The entrance to the mine site is on Strada Salinei.

Public transport: Dej has a railway station (Dej Călători), with trains from Cluj-Napoca, Baia Mare, Bistrița and Suceava, and buses from Cluj-Napoca; the mine is ~5 km from the station.

Fees & discounts

The mine is not open to visitors and no tickets are sold; Salrom lists no prices for Ocna Dej.

Rules

The Transilvania mine is a working salt mine and the site has controlled access: you cannot enter without the consent of the Salrom Ocna Dej branch. For any question about a possible visit, contact the branch by phone or at ocnadej@salrom.ro.