Photo credit: (c) Oana POPESCU / AGERPRES PHOTO

Heart beating faster and faster, when you think this is the place Iovan Iorgovan,a hero from the olden times, passed by here, his legend saying he slew a five-headed dragon. You can take in all the wilderness of the place in the northwest extreme of Gorj County, where the mountains are peppered with founts, fast streams and clear lakes, worthy of mention being the founts of the Cerna River, the Iovan’s Valley Lake, and the Grand Valley lake. The Corcoaia Gorges are also of note with their circular cross-section and strong links to the story of Iovan Iorgovan.

In the north-west of Gorj County the Cerna flows from its source in the Mehedinti Mountains towards the village of Cerna Sat and receives numerous tributaries from its right bank, most flowing from their source in the Godeanu Mountains: Maneasa, Paraul Carbunelui, Radochioasa, Iovan’s Valley River, Balmez, Craiova. Iovan’s Valley Lake, with a volume of nearly 120 million cubic metres of water, formed through the actions of the dam built where the Cerna meets Iovan’s Valley River, swallows the waters of the Cerna River and the right-bank tributaries. The Grand Valley Lake on the Motru River has a volume of 2.8 million cubic metres and was formed through the building of a dam on the river, but also through culverts draining water from Iovan’s Valley Lake, as noted by writer Petru Radulea in his volume “The Geography of Gorj County.”

According to the head of the Mountain Rescue Service Gorj (SSG) Sabin Cornoiu the Cerna Valley, its Gorj part, is formed in its northern part by the Mehedinti and Godeanu Mountains. It allows easy access from the valley to the peaks of the Godeanu Mountains, an extremely interesting area, particularly beautiful, with mountainside settlements and mansions, characteristic of the area, and settlements as high as 1,400-1,500 metres, some of them inhabited in the winter as well. The mountain trails reach the high altitudes of the Godeanu Mountains, an area with peaks of over 2,000 metres. “Very interesting are the Cerna’s source and intermittent springs, the area where the Cerna flows from, an area in which there are several very effervescent and very powerful sources. Further on, they feed into Iovan’s Valley Lake, one of the largest hydroelectric dams in Romania that fits well in the landscape,” Sabin Cornoiu told Agerpres.

Photo credit: (c) Oana POPESCU / AGERPRES PHOTO

After Iovan’s Valley Lake, near Cerna Sat a very interesting phenomenon can be found, the Corcoaia Gorges, with their circular cross-section, a major tourist objective on the Cerna Valley, described by many as one of the wildest places in Romania. The Corcoaia Gorges have been protected since 1982 as part of the Corcoaia Gorges Reservation that is part of the Domogled-Cerna Valley National Park.

According to the Banatul Montan blog, the Gorges appeared through the carving action of the Cerna River upon the limestone-rich river bed. Although only 300 metres in length, the Corcoaia Gorges are impressive through the walls of the gorges that span over 100 metres in height and are 5 metres apart at the base. The river’s tumultuous waters have carved a winding river bed, ovoid in shape.

“Local legend says that it was through this place that the dragon followed by Iovan Iorgovan has passed. Practically, the legend finds its elements in the area, it’s clear that people seeing this area thousands of years ago started from these natural elements and those in Retezat, from Iorgovan’s Stones, where they say that Iorgovan first threw stones at the dragon, then on the Tismana hillside, where natural cut stone appears, stones on which the dragon rested and which Iovan Iorgovan cut with his sword, then the Corcoaia Gorges where Iovan slipped through, followed by the dragon that could not pass, from whence the circular shape, and with all the known elements until the confluence with the Danube, where at the Danube’s Cauldrons, legend says the dragon is still struggles,” Sabin Cornoiu says.

The Mediterranean influence in the area made a specific fauna and flora develop here, the sweet chestnut tree being widespread here while through the calcareous stones scorpions, black vipers and horned vipers can be seen. “The landscape is remarkable, it is under a Mediterranean influence and this allowed for a distinct vegetation to develop in the area, we are talking about sweet chestnuts, lilac, all sort of bushes that create a very good impression. A remarkable fauna, bears, boars, deer, of note among birds are vultures, eagles, sparrowhawks, falcons, owls and wood grouses. Chamois can be seen in the alpine region of the Godeanu Mountains. The area being under Mediterranean influence and with a lot of limestone, often times horned vipers, black vipers and scorpions can be met. The mountainside settlements that can be found in the area are also very interesting, those can also be seen in the Mehedinti and Godeanu Mountains, and further below on the Cerna Valley and near Tismana as well, with houses hundreds of years old, where people live like 200 years ago, with no lights or other facilities. Cerna Sat is the last village in Gorj, it is part of Pades commune, it is a village with a small population, without high possibilities of economic development, but the people stay there because they can work their lands without disturbance,” says the SSG head.

According to him, access in the area by car can only be done through the Cerna Valley, coming from Herculane, access from Pades being possible, but the road, in principle, is not always very good and access by off-road vehicle, bike or motorbike is recommended. From Pades the road near the Grand Valley Lake can be taken and from there towards the Cerna’s source with the return trip taking the road that borders Iovan’s Valley Lake, or by off-road vehicle by crossing the Capra Peak, where there is a road that crosses the Mehedinti Mountains and leads to the Cerna Valley.

Photo credit: (c) Oana POPESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Also in the area is the Piatra Closani reserve, situated near the Motru River and its affluent, Motru Sec. Piatra Closani is a limestone peak, with nearly vertical walls on its northern face, with an altitude of 1,427 metres, with numerous dry valleys, caves, ravines, areas of limestone pavement and gorges. The reserve is also of particular flora interest, species of the wild lilac, rowan, dianthus spiculifolius, alpine saxifrage, campanula alpine, linum extraaxillare, spring gentian, daffodil, yellow iris, and ivy can be found in the reserve as well as trees such as beech, hornbeam, Turkish hazel, elm, sycamore maple and flowering ash. The Piatra Closani reserve, together with the Ciucevele Cernei and the Corcoaia Gorges are part of the Domogled-Cerna Valley National Park, situated in three counties, the largest extent being in Gorj County, as noted by Petre Radulea in his book “The Geography of Gorj County.”

Furthermore, he talks about the Closani Cave, also known as the Great Cave of Closani, which means that other caves are in the area too, or Tudor Vladimirescu’s Cave. The first descriptions of the cave were done in 1913. In 1959, a second tunnel of the cave was discovered, far larger and more impressive. The description of the two tunnels, accompanied by a sketch, was published in 1967 by V Decu and Marcian Bleahu. The cave is formed of two tunnels with a length of 1,100 metres: The Matei Ghica tunnel and the Watered Tunnel. In the tunnels one can find stalactites, stalagmites, pools of water or dry pools. It is a warm cave, with a temperature of 11.3 degrees Celsius, moist and lacking in air currents. The cave was formed through the dissolution of limestone by the waters of the Motru Mare River. It is considered, due to the richness and variety of its calcite deposits, its crystallography and bio-speleological potential as the most interesting cave in this country.

In the Closani village in the commune of Pades lies, according to the volume “Itineraries in Northern Oltenia,” the pit cave of Cioaca Brebeneilor, a monument of nature, at 518 metres altitude on the Cornetu Satului Mountain, that is from a speleological point of view the most important of the caves in Oltenia and among the most interesting ones in this country due to the fact that it features, in a span of only 100 metres, a wide variety of calcareous formations exceptional due to the purity of the vermiform calcite crystals, transparent, unique in their finesse and conservation state, to which a cave fauna similar to that in the Closani Cave is added, more impressive given the large number of species crowded in the cave’s very tight space. AGERPRES