# Tourist attractions in Banat [Romania](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/attractions) Banat is the south-western corner of Romania, between the Mureș, the Danube and the mountains, made up of Timiș and Caraș-Severin counties. The plain in the west, with its ruler-straight villages and gable-fronted houses, was settled in the 18th century under the Habsburgs, and the mix of Romanians, Germans, Hungarians, Serbs and other peoples still shows in the architecture and the cooking. To the east, the Banat Mountains – Semenic, Almăj, Cerna – are forested and cut by gorges, caves and waterfalls. Timișoara, European Capital of Culture in 2023, is the region's big city, with baroque squares and Secession buildings; Reșița grew out of its ironworks, while Lugoj and Caransebeș are smaller towns. What you can visit in Banat is, beyond Timișoara, above all nature. [Băile Herculane](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/baile-herculane), a spa resort whose thermal springs were already used by the Romans, is the starting point for the [Cerna Valley Road](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/drumul-vaii-cernei), while [Bigăr Waterfall](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/cascada-bigar), [Beușnița Waterfall](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/cascada-beusnita) and [Lake Ochiul Beiului](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/lacul-ochiul-beiului) all lie in the same national park, Cheile Nerei–Beușnița. The [Transsemenic](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/transsemenic) climbs onto the Semenic plateau. All of these are in [Caraș-Severin County](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/county/caras-severin); for the city, there is [Timiș](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/county/timis). ## Tourist attractions 19 attractions - [Bigăr Waterfall](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/cascada-bigar) — Waterfalls · Bozovici, CS · ~12 lei · 45 min · Top 100 The moss-covered tufa waterfall in the Miniș gorge, exactly on the 45th parallel and once famous worldwide; it partly collapsed in 2021 and is regenerating naturally, a few steps from the DN57B road. - [Băile Herculane](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/baile-herculane) — Resorts and thermal baths · Băile Herculane, CS · Free · 3½ – 4 hours · Top 100 Romania's oldest spa resort, recorded as early as AD 153, in the Cerna valley: hot sulphur springs, a Habsburg old town around the Hercules statue and free thermal tubs on the riverbank. - [Beușnița Waterfall](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/cascada-beusnita) — Waterfalls · Caraș-Severin County · ~12 lei · 2½ – 3 hours · Top 100 A moss-clad tufa waterfall whose water fans out in dozens of threads over green steps, in the beech forest of the Cheile Nerei–Beușnița National Park, an hour's walk beyond Ochiul Beiului Lake. - [Transsemenic](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/transsemenic) — Scenic roads · Caraș-Severin County · Free · 2½ – 3 hours County road DJ582 crosses the Semenic Mountains for 58 km, from Reșița through Văliug and the Prislop Pass to Slatina-Timiș, past mountain lakes, pastures and the villages of Gărâna and Brebu Nou. - [Banat Village Museum](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/muzeul-satului-banatean) — Museums and memorial houses · Timișoara, TM · 20 lei · 1½ – 2 hours An open-air ethnographic museum on ~17 hectares at the edge of the Green Forest: houses and outbuildings from Banat villages, a wooden church, a school and an “Alley of Ethnicities”, all gathered into one village. - [Cerna Valley Road](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/drumul-vaii-cernei) — Scenic roads · Caraș-Severin County · Free · 2½ – 3 hours The DN67D links Baia de Aramă to Băile Herculane in about 65 km: it climbs to the Arșasca saddle at ~900 m and drops down the Cerna Valley, between limestone walls, through Domogled–Valea Cernei National Park. - [Comarnic Cave](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/pestera-comarnic) — Caves · Iabalcea, CS · 35 lei · 1½ – 2 hours A wild, unlit cave in the Anina Mountains with more than 6 km of passages on three levels, 1,750 m of which you explore with a helmet and head torch, led by the national park's rangers. - [Huniade Castle](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/castelul-huniade-timisoara) — Castles and palaces · Timișoara, TM · 20 min The oldest building in Timișoara, a royal residence in the Middle Ages and the historic home of the Banat Museum; closed for restoration and visible from the outside only. - [Lake Trei Ape](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/lacul-trei-ape) — Lakes · Brebu Nou, CS · Free · 1 – 1½ hours A 53-hectare reservoir in the Semenic Mountains, at 837 m, ringed by spruce and beech right beside the Transsemenic road; in summer it is the mountain Banat's spot for swimming, boating and camping. - [Maria Theresia Bastion](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/bastionul-maria-theresia) — Fortresses and fortifications · Timișoara, TM · 40 lei · 1 – 1½ hours The largest surviving piece of Timișoara's bastioned fortress, built by the Austrians in the 1730s and restored with EU funds, now home to the National Museum of Banat. - [Memorial of the December 1989 Revolution](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/memorialul-revolutiei-timisoara) — Museums and memorial houses · Timișoara, TM · 20 lei · 1 – 1½ hours The museum of the Memorial of the Revolution Association, in a former military building in Timișoara: clothes and flags from the days of December 1989, a chapel of the hero-martyrs and the only section of the Berlin Wall in Romania. - [Metropolitan Cathedral of the Three Holy Hierarchs](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/catedrala-mitropolitana-timisoara) — Monasteries and churches · Timișoara, TM · Free · 30 min The Orthodox cathedral of the Banat, built between 1936 and 1946 in the Neo-Moldavian style, with a main tower of over 80 m, glazed-tile roofs and a museum of old church art in the basement. - [National Museum of Art Timișoara](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/muzeul-de-arta-timisoara) — Museums and memorial houses · Timișoara, TM · 1 – 1½ hours The museum in the Baroque Palace on Union Square holds old European painting, Banat and Romanian art and the Corneliu Baba collection, in a building begun in 1754. - [Ochiul Beiului Lake](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/lacul-ochiul-beiului) — Lakes · Caraș-Severin County · ~12 lei · 2½ – 3 hours A small karst lake with turquoise water clear to the bottom, fed by a spring beneath it and hidden in the forest of the Bei valley, in the Cheile Nerei – Beușnița National Park. - [Roman Catholic Dome of St George](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/domul-romano-catolic-timisoara) — Monasteries and churches · Timișoara, TM · 30 min The Baroque cathedral of the Catholic bishopric of Timișoara, built between 1736 and 1774 on Union Square; restored with EU funds and reopened in April 2023, with the bishops' crypt under the altar. - [Roses Park (Parcul Rozelor)](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/parcul-rozelor-timisoara) — Parks and gardens · Timișoara, TM · Free · ½ – 1 hours Timișoara's historic rose garden, laid out in 1929–1934: rose beds edged with clipped hedges, white wooden pergolas and an open-air summer theatre, in a park of nearly four hectares. - [Union Square (Piața Unirii)](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/piata-unirii-timisoara) — Monuments and historic sites · Timișoara, TM · Free · ½ – 1 hours Timișoara's oldest square, about 150 by 110 metres, laid out in the Baroque style around the Roman Catholic Cathedral, the Serbian Cathedral and the Plague Column, among colourful houses from the 18th to the 20th centuries. - [Vânturătoarea Waterfall](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/cascada-vanturatoarea) — Waterfalls · Băile Herculane, CS · Free · 2½ – 3 hours A two-tier waterfall of about 50 m in the Cerna Mountains, with Romania's longest free drop (~40 m), above Lake Prisaca; reached by a steep 1.5 km path from the Cerna valley road, 13 km from Băile Herculane. - [Victory Square (Piața Victoriei)](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/piata-victoriei-timisoara) — Monuments and historic sites · Timișoara, TM · Free · 45 min Timișoara's pedestrian esplanade between the Opera in the Palace of Culture and the Metropolitan Cathedral, lined with the Corso palaces and the place where Timișoara was declared the first free city in December 1989. ## Counties - [Caraș-Severin](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/county/caras-severin) - [Timiș](https://peplaiuri.ro/en/county/timis) --- Full page: https://peplaiuri.ro/en/region/banat Other languages: Română: https://peplaiuri.ro/regiune/banat.md · Deutsch: https://peplaiuri.ro/de/region/banat.md · Italiano: https://peplaiuri.ro/it/regione/banat.md Source: Pe Plaiuri (https://peplaiuri.ro/en) — Guide to tourist attractions in Romania