Rădeasa Fortress Cave is unique in Romania, due to the chimneylike shapes scattered across its ceiling, that stretch up until they hit the surface. They usually brim over with babbling water, filling the void with its roar. Rădeasa Cave is situated within the Apuseni Natural Park, in the Northern part of the Padiș karst landscape, up in the Bihor Mountains, upstream of the Warm Someș Channel. We’re in the Apuseni Mountains, a magnificent place, where nature truly outdid itself in its own beauty: a place of meditation and reflection, a green oasis of peace and harmony.
After a short foray into the forest, we start to descend the coast and toil our way to a small valley. Once across it, we find ourselves facing the larger than life portal of the Rădeasa Cave, an ogival vault over 15 metres high. You can enter the cave from a nearby cliff, on the left water bank.
loading map - please wait...
After the first 10 metres, the cave gives way to a large hall and, by following the watercourse, we climb up some cliffs, pass under an arcade and find ourselves in another great hall, flooded by a curious light, streaming through the four “chimneys”. These chimneys crack the cave ceiling right to its surface. We can actually see them on the pathway, on our road back, shaped like shafts. The blueish light sifting through the ceiling unveils chaotic scenery, of untold beauty, with its water filled cracks and crevices. This is what makes this cave one of a kind in its country. Onwards, on a narrower, darker way, we reach a dim ray of light, springing from another ceiling chimney and we continue our adventure. Hardly noticing the ceiling disappearing, we’re suddenly out of the cave and walking through a canyon so narrow, the light barely shines upon us. We make our way down with the help of some old beams, that used to belong to a long forgotten bridge. A few gaping crevices later, we’re out of that narrowness in Rădeasa Meadow, blinded by light and warm, freshly scented air.
The entire subterranean passageway is 212 metres, adding another 47 canyon metres, at the exit.
Activites in Apuseni Natural Park Canyoning | Caving | Trekking | Mountain-bike | Tandem paragliding | Rafting – Kayaking
Accessible from the trail: 
The Șomesul Cald circuit trail
We’re left with the duty to respect these parts at our every step, keep them clean and pristine for generations to come, and for us as well, because in Nature, “the tourist comes to gladden his eyes, the thinker encounters a grand book where every rock is a letter, where every lake is a phrase, where every village is an accent and from whence a smoke of ancient memories emerges”. (Victor Hugo)
