God's Bridge

Ponoarele is a commune located in Mehedinţi County, Oltenia, Romania. Here is a natural monument named God's Bridge, a natural bridge formed when the ceiling of a cave had collapsed. The bridge is actually a 4 m thick rock arch, with an opening of 25 m and a length of 50 m. The natural vault has an amazing resemblance with the ancient Roman bridges, and this 13 m wide arch supports a natural road 6 m wide (the road extension Ponoarele-Izverna), which is used by cars and heavy vehicles. Such natural bridges exist in the U.S. (88.4 m high, 10 m wide) and France (l'Ardech), but God's Bridge is the only circulated. The bridge is between two karstic lakes, Zătonul Mare and Zătonul Mic.

Several legends tell about the apparition of the bridge. "It is said that the Devil lived in Ponoarele Cave. The locals asked God to chase him, and God hit with His palm the cave ceiling, which collapsed and blocked the cave's entrance. But the Devil escaped by the other mouth of the cave and climbed the Devil's Rock, place from where he guard the people who enter in the cave and sometimes he drowns them in the Zătonul Mare lake".

Another legend: "It is said that Saint Nicodim had a dream about a waterfall near he had to build a monastery. One day, in 1370, he arrived in Ponoarele, searching the place he dreamed about, but two rich families made him leave; they put a chicken and a knife in his bag, then accused him of theft. Ashamed, he departed, but before he cursed the locals. God traced an arch with His finger over a ravine, building a bridge for Saint Nicodim who followed his destiny and built the wonderful Tismana Monastery".

It seems that God protects the ones who pass over His bridge: in the past years, several bikes, cars and trucks fell off the bridge (25 meters!), but the drivers escaped with minor injuries!

Photos from Panoramio, Wikipedia, TrekEarth.

Unique plants from Romania (Part 3)

Another flower from the Dianthus family (suprataxon: Caryophyllaceae [verbatim]), Dianthus spiculifolius (Romanian: Garofiţa albă de stânci or Barba ungurului, English: rocks white carnation or Beard of the Hungarian) is an elegant plant that grows on limestone rocks, in upland up to the alpine areas. It grows as a bush, with many stems, the flowers are white or pale pink. The leaves are linear, up to 2-3 mm thin and the petals are ragged. It blooms in May-July and has an extraordinary, exquisite perfume.


Image from MyNature, © Beniamin Boceanu
Listed as Dianthus spiculifolius Schur. (1866), this splendid flower is a rare, endemic species who grows in a few restricted areas in the Romanian Carpathians Mountains.



Images from Alpinet, © Daniel Morar, Csaba Iakob

Unique plants from Romania (Part 2)

Piatra Craiului's Pink (Dianthus callizonus)

Dianthus is a genus of about 300 species of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae, native mainly to Europe and Asia, with a few species extending south to north Africa, and one species (D. repens) in arctic North America. Common names include carnation (D. caryophyllus), pink (D. plumarius and related species) and sweet william (D. barbatus). The name Dianthus is from the Greek words dios ("god") and anthos ("flower"), and was cited by the Greek botanist Theophrastus.


The species are mostly perennial herbs, a few are annual or biennial, and some are low subshrubs with woody basal stems. The leaves are opposite, simple, mostly linear and often strongly glaucous grey-green to blue-green. The flowers have five petals, typically with a frilled or pinked margin, and are (in almost all species) pale to dark pink. One species, D. knappii, has yellow flowers with a purple centre.


Dianthus callizonus has a short stem (5 to 10 cm tall), wearing a single flower on top with a corolla about. 3 cm in diameter, formed of 5 flat geared petals, red-carmine, at the bottom with a purple spot, speckled with white and with silky shining hairs. Flower show in the center a mottled purple ring, very characteristic. Inside, the petals are white-green, and leaves that are narrow, elongated for 2 to 4 cm and are arranged in pairs. Blooms in August and grows on steep slopes beams of Piatra Craiului Mountains (Braşov County), is endemic to this massif. The plant is unique in the world, is a natural monument and is protected by law.

The spa lily

The thermal water lily grows in Băile 1 Mai (1st May Baths, a thermal spa resort near Oradea, Bihor County, Northwestern Romania) from the time of dinosaurs, is a living fossil and unique in the world. The spa lily or the lotus flower (Nymphaea lotus var. termalis), is a species of Romanian endemic lily.


Origin: Nymphaea lotus var. termalis (flower unique in Romania, protected by law) is a natural reserve. In the area can be found also other species of lilies, and it is assumed that the water lily (Nymphaea alba) and lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) seeds were brought here either by the Turks or by the migrating birds, and thermal water have been favored the development of the plant. But only the thermal water lily is unique in the world.


Botanist Kitaibel Pál discovered that lily species in 1789, and received its name later, in 1908, when Tuzson János give it this name because of similarity of spa lily with the Nile lily. In 1931, the plant was declared a natural monument.

Devil's Pond

Covasna (Hungarian: Kovászna) is a town in Covasna county, Transylvania, Romania, at an altitude of 550-600 m. First mentioned in a document in 1567 and known as the "town of 1,000 mineral springs," Covasna is famous for its mineral waters. Each spring has a different mixture of minerals, chiefly carbon dioxide, sulfur, and ammonia. Its name is derived from the Slavic word Cvaz, meaning sour, referring to the taste of its mineral waters.


Right in downtown there is a natural monument with a unique value: the so-called "Devil's Pond" - a sort of mud volcano, with permanent eruptions of mud bubbles. Traditionally, in the 1700s, this natural phenomenon was placed further north, but mysteriously moved to the center of the town, leaving in its initial place a brother, "Devil's Little Pond". The bubbles are actually some strong releases of carbon dioxide. Carbonated emanations are related to volcanic processes which took place in the region of Harghita-Călimani in the end of Paleocene and early Quaternary. Gases contain carbon dioxide with a purity of 98%.


The Devil's Pond was open to the public in 1881 and initially used for treatment. The gas accumulated in special places called moffets is an excellent and unique natural factor for the treatment of multiple diseases primarily of cardiovascular diseases.

In the nineteenth century there were some major eruptions: in 1837, 1857, 1864 and 1885, the largest being in 1837. Currently, the volcano is completely harmless, the last major eruption took place in 1984.