Emerald green of Zarnesti
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You can reach Zarnesti Gorge from Zarnesti town, Brasov County, going on the forest road near Gura Râului cabin. The gorge attracts climbers due to its sharp walls. The Piatra Craiului Mountain has 33 tourist tracks of different levels of difficulty. Tourists are attracted by the calcareous layers of the Piatra Craiului edges and by the emerald green or the silver white of the mountains.
Visiting card
‘Our town is a significant tourism reference point, we have amazing landmarks and we are a real visiting card for hiking and mountain sports lovers. We invite everyone who wants to find out the history of these places, to visit the historic monuments and the beautiful churches, to meet the bears in the Liberty Sanctuary and to admire the fauna and the flora’, told us Mr. Alexandru Lucian Igrisan, Mayor of Zarnesti.
Healing plant
The origin of the town name is related to a healing plant called ‘Zârna’ – Solanum Nigrum, that has black berries, toxic for human consumption, but their black juice is an excellent vegetal paint. Apparently, in the language spoken by the Geto-Dacians, ‘Zârna’ meant black.
Historians claim that the town of Zărnești was built on the ruins of a former Roman colony called ‘Zernensis’. In 1857, 2 tombstones and some bricks marked with the wording ‘The 13th Gemina Legion’ were found.
Legend and hypothesis
A local legend supports the hypothesis according to which the beginning era of the so-called ‘Villa Zernensis’, a place-named after a shepherd called ‘Zerne’, who used to walk the sheep in this area. The legend also says that his son used to serve the Roman army. After his retirement, he would have built this beautiful city.
