Peştera Meziad

Meziad Cave

Useful Information

Location:	Sat Meziad, Remetea 417410. Near the village Meziad. Follow road from Oradea to Deva, in Beiuş turn east 18 km to Meziad. Turn right in Remetea. Road through Meziad leads to cave entrance. 1,5 km walk. (46.762644, 22.478386)
Open:	MAR to APR daily 11-16. MAY to OCT daily 10-17. NOV daily 11-16. DEC to FEB daily 11-15. Tours every hour on the full hour. [2023]
Fee:	Adults RON 30, Children (5-14) RON 15, Children (0-4) free, Family (2+1) RON 60, Family (2+2) RON 75, Family (1+2) RON 45. [2023]
Classification:	Karst cave
Light:	LED Lighting
Dimension:	L=4,750 m, T=12-14 °C.
Guided tours:	Short tour D=60 min. Long tour: D=120 min. Min=5.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	Anon (2017): Cartea Peşterii Meziadului, The Book of the Meziad Cave, second edition. Tom Thompson (1995): Transylvania, The Craven Pothole Club Record, Number 40, October 1995. online
Address:	Administratia Peșterii Meziad și a Peșterii cu Cristale din mina Farcu, Birou CAPDD Bihor, Mobile: 0744-426272 E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1863	first decribed by the Austrian geographer Adolf Schmidl.
~1900	explored almost completely by Gyula Czárán.
1921	biospeological exploration by Elemér Bokor.
1929	biospeological exploration by René Jeannel and Emil Racoviţă.
2000	declared a Nature Reserve and Monument.
2012	cave developed in the project "Peștera Meziad, o peșteră pentru natură și oameni".

Description

after the entrance hall, the show cave begins with a wall and a gate.

survey of the cave. red: path of the show cave. blue: temporary cave river.

The road from Beiuş to Meziad gets narrower and narrower, in Meziad it is only a gravel road, but behind Meziad it is just a single lane dirt road. Not very good for a sports car, but normal cars should have no problem. Behind Meziad the road winds up a picturesque limestone valley, along a brook. Then the Meziad Cave cassa is reached. Here you can park and buy your tickets.

The dirt road continues up the valley, becoming more and more uneven. It is about a kilometre walk up the valley until you reach a wooden bridge, or better: a wooden plank or gangway looking horribly unsafe. Then the path goes up along a (during summer mostly dry) tributary stream to the cave entrance. To see the first glimpses of the enormous entrance portal is really thrilling.

Entrance portals are often much bigger than the cave behind, as the cave entrance is widened by weathering, especially by frost. Not so in this case: the cave behind the entrance is nearly the same size and stays so for several hundred meters. The first huge hall has enough light from the entrance and from a side entry. It is about 25 m high and 40 m wide. For a small passage at the end you need an electric torch. The main passage turns right and is now blocked by a massive wall. The 4 m high wall looks a little lost in the huge passage.

The huge first part, the entrance hall, is accessible without a tour, so if you visit the cave outside the open hours, it is still worth a visit. At the wall, the real cave tour starts. The cave has no electric light, everybody should bring a very good torch. The guides provide several old carbide lamps for visitors without a torch, but it is a little tricky to use them.

The cave has three levels, the main passage is the middle level. The first thing on the tour is to leave this level and climb up to the top level. A massive flowstone to the right is climbed on a rickety ladder, a rather good argument for some visitors, to quit the tour at this point. Fortunately this is the most difficult spot of the tour, although there are no paths a show cave visitor is used to. The path is more like a wildlife crossing, or a hike in the Alps and visitors should wear good walking shoes. But if you managed this first ascend, the rest of the tour is a rather comfortable hike.

Climbing up a steep passage the visitor reaches the upper level, which has numerous flow passages, nice erosive profiles, and bats. The huge dripstones are impressive, but dead. Some of them might be reactivated in times with more water, but most of them are absolutely dry. Still, they look bright white as does the whole cave. The limestone seems to be very pure and the are very little remains of previous centuries.

The path follows the main passage from chamber to chamber, a big tour group is useful, as torches and carbide lamps have problems to illuminate the enormous halls. From time to time a dark abyss gives way to the middle level below. After some time the first descend is reached. Here the short tour goes down a steep slope, the long tour continues in the upper level and goes down another connection.

The descends from the upper level to the middle level are the second difficult parts of the cave tour. They are steep and wet, and clay tends to be slippery. But anybody who made the ascent should also be able, to make the descent.

Now the tour follows the main river passage, along the dry river bed, downstream to the wall at the entrance. The passage meanders and is as huge as at the entrance, some 25 m high and wide. The main passage has numerous huge stalactites at the ceiling. They are tilted towards the cave entrance, some of them are tilted and curved. It seems, at least while water flows during the spring, and the stalagmites grow, there is a constant stream of air out of the cave.

Since 2012 the cave is developed by a project named "Peștera Meziad, o peșteră pentru natură și oameni" (Meziad Cave, a cave for nature and people). The cave was developed with elevated carbon fibre trails at all wet or slippery places, railings and staircases for the ascent and descent. Also, the cave is now lighted with modern LED light. While the development makes the visit much more satisfactory and safe, we actually miss the old cave a little.