The Roars

Situated at 1000 m altitude, the six villages of the Bucium commune, Alba County, are laying on the Nord-West slope of the Meridional Carpathians, in the South of Apuseni Mountains (in the Metaliferi Mountains). The distances between Bucium and the important towns in the area are: 70 km to Alba Iulia, 40 km to Brad, 3 km to Abrud and 8 km to Câmpeni.

At Bucium we find an amazing geological park in an exotic, full of legends landscape: Detunatele (English: The Roars). These are 200 m high basalt columns with an amazing regularity, resembling a huge natural organ; due to disintegration, blocks of the rock are rolling down accompanied by a powerful noise which explains their names.


Like the folklorist Ion Pop-Reteganul said, Detunata is "...a peak of bazalt stone, composed by huge prisms, which stand straight up, like some giant trees, one next to the other, in the Abrud Mountains, at North-West of Bucium Şasă”.


There are two Detunate, situated at 1 km away one from another. The Detunata Goală (Naked Roar, 24 hectares area) is at 1169 m altitude, was the first geological reservation (1938) and its name comes from the fact that it doesn’t have vegetation. The Detunata Flocoasă (Shaggy Roar, 5 hectares area) is at 1205 m altitude and it is covered by forests, which explains its suggestive name.