Parang resort is located at an altitude of about 1,800 meters, in the Eastern part of the Jiu Valley, about 5 km away from Petrosani, in the Parang Mountains, with a very attractive tourist potential. The location has become in recent years increasingly popular among tourists, lovers of winter sports especially, thanks to its modern slopes.

Since 2009, the Parang Resort was certified as tourist resort of national interest, being one of the most important resorts in our country. It has chalets and other different types of accommodation, for a large number of tourists, not only from Petrosani, but also from different towns of Hunedoara County, as Deva, Hunedoara or tourists from Craiova, Timisoara and even Bucharest. The access to the venue is to Petrosani on national road DN66, then other 8 km following the county road DJ709 F to Rusu area. From here, the access to the Parang alpine area is served by a chairlift, the second longest in the Romania, after the one from Borsa . You can also ride by car to the resort, but only in summer.

Guests in Parang can choose either an accommodation at the foot of the mountains, near Rusu area, or accommodation in cottages and chalets in the alpine area. They can find here Rusu Hotel, a construction built on the place of the old
Rusu Chalet, which is now a modern building, with a total capacity of 72 beds.

In the mountain resort of Parang there are good possibilities to practice winter sports, with its 9 slopes:  A , B , Europarang , under chairlift , Saivane, C, Culoarul Porcului, Intermediate New Chairlift and Zidul Mortii (Wall of Death). There are slopes for both advanced and beginners, equipped with chairlift, ski-lift and nocturnal installations. In the winter, besides skiing, tourists are also practicing winter sports as sledding, snowboarding, motor scooter rides and paragliding.

Although it is famous especially for its slopes and winter sports, there are many tourists in summer, who enjoy the marked trails that lead to beautiful important sights of Parang and who can practice extreme sports: Off-Road, paragliding, Down-Hill.

Among the main attractions, mountain ridges, steep slopes and deep hollows worth mentioning here, which formed more than 40 glacial lakes, called the pearls of Parang Mountains. You can also find here Calcescu Geological and Botanical Reserve, where there are Calcescu, Pencu, Vidal or Setea Mare Lakes.  Other important glacial lakes in the area are:  Rosiile, which is the deepest lake in these mountains, Iezerul Inghetat or Mija. Another great tourist value of this area is conferred by the Jiu Valley, one of the most impressive cleft of the Carpathians, with unique landscapes and good opportunities for practicing mountain hiking or climbing.

On the territory of the Băniţa village  we find  Geto-Dacian Fortress Băniţa , one of the most spectacular Dacian fortresses dating from Burebista’s time. The citadel was rebuilt during the reign of Decebal, but after the Dacian-Roman wars, it was destroyed. It was built in the western limit of the basin Jiu Valley, in the highest area of Bolii Hill .

Due to its location, the fortress offered safety. From the road, Dacian fortress seems to be just a rock, which does not reveal its hidden treasures. Situated between three hills, it blocked the access to Sarmizegetusa Regia in the south, being close to the route passing the Carpathians  to  Valcan  and  Merisor pass . The defense system is unique, the inside walls, the towers and the platforms to fight are stairs built due to the very steep slopes and lack of flat surfaces. Because of that, its builders have done works for leveling the area.

Situated at an altitude of over 900 meters, the fortress was discovered during 1961 -1962, when it was the only research concerning this historical objective of great importance. Being situated on a steep and isolated cliff, with a slope of about 250-300 meters, the access was almost impossible; it could be reached only from the northern part of the fortress, where the entrance was marked by a gate and a monumental staircase with a length of 45 meters.

Inside the fortress it can be seen a defense and a living space, located on three terraces made ​​under the action of leveling. Two channels cut in the rock were draining the excess water that reached the fortress. The fortress of Banita was a main point in the system of the Dacian fortifications and defense. According to the historians, the system of fortifications was composed by ​​ a defensive wall made ​​of wrought limestone, an earth and stone rampart and fight platforms. In the highest point of the fortress it was built a tower house.

Inside the Banita Fortress there were found numerous amounts of tools, pottery and molds for casting metal objects, and a sanctuary outside the fortified area that has been studied by archaeologists. They said that the fortress was a military one. After the fortress was destroyed, the Roman army advanced towards Sarmizegetusa Regia. That fact was confirmed by the existence of the camps discovered in  Jigonul Mare  and  Comarnicel.

Banita Fortress was designated an UNESCO cultural heritage and could be arranged if the Hunedoara County Council would be able to take it over. The fortress can be accessed following the European road  E79 and  it is recommended to the tourists who arrive in this area, to visit  Gradistea Muncelului Reserve, which includes the Dacian  Bolii Citadel,  the Canyons of Crivadia  and  Bolii Cave.

Source: www.vatra-daciei.ro

In the vast space of the mountains between Jiu and Olt rivers, Parang Mountains which occupies an area of ​​1100 square kilometers are the highest, the most rugged and rocky. A general aspect of the most developed group of the Carpathians, that of the mountains between Jiu and Olt rivers is like a huge palm with spread fingers, where the hollow of the hand, located in the South – West is the massive stone fortress of Parâng and the fingers are Şurianu Mountains, Lotru, Latoritei, and Capatanii, which spread to the North, North – East and East. This huge “hollow of the hand” has a polygonal shape, with its axis to the North – South of about 33 km long and East – West axis with a length of about 33 km and East – West axis with a length of about 32 km. The great geographical node where the five mountain massifs joints is “Coasta lui Rus” (2,301 m) triconfiniu between Jiu, Lotru and Gilort rivers. To the North–West, Parang Mountains, like a huge rampart, dominates Petrosani Depression. To the North, Jiet valley separates it from Surianu Mountains and Lotru Valley Mountains and the mountains with the same nume. To the North – East it borders to Latoritei Mountains and to the East, Olteţ Valley separates it from Capatanii Mountains. To the South, Parang Mountains are bounded by the Subcarpathian Depression of Oltenia being represented through a transition zone extended to the alignment Bumbeşti – Krasna – Novaci – Polovraci. From geological point of view, in Parang we meet the main structural units of the Southern Carpathians: Getic and Danubian domains. Getic domain, not widespread in Parang is found in the North-West and North-East, being represented by strongly foliated metamorphic rocks – gneiss, quartz – feldspar, paragneiss, amphibolite, mica, metadiorite schists. Danubian unit, extended in the largest area of ​​Parang Mountains, comprises epizone crystalline schists, then, mica, schist, shale, very closely associated with granitic rocks. Geological research proved that the Parang Mountains, with the vertical movements of Earth’s crust, had risen up up over 1,300 m in the Quaternary when the high mountains and the northern continents were reigned by the great glaciations, the glaciers up on Parang Mountains’ peaks were also dominating. Traces of these glaciers may be seen even today, after thousands of years – huge glacial cirques and valleys of glacial origin, clearly outlined, with nearly vertical sides and the smoothed bottom, paved with erratic blocks. Parâng Mountains pots shelters nearly 40 lakes of glacial origin like “Oglinda Mandrei”, Mija, Rosiile or Câlcescu, all of amazing beauty. This massif takes the third place in the hierarchy of Romanian Carpathians, in this regard. Parang mountains’ orographic major axis forms a main ridge, marked by the peaks Parângul Mic (2,074 m), Carja (2,405 m), Stoieniţa (2,421 m), Gemanarea (2,426 m), Parângul Mare (2,519 m) Setea Mica (2,278 m) Setea Mare (2,365 m), Mohorul (2,337 m), Urdele (2,228 m), Papusa (2,136 m), Cioara (2,123 m), Micaia (2,170 m), oriented mostly from West to East but in the West, is describing two concave arches northward, the ridge maintaining on over 40 km at an altitude of 2,000 m. With the maximum altitude of the Parângul Mare peak (2,519 m) ​​- Parang ranks the second in the hierarchy of Romanian Carpathians after Fagaras Mountains. In addition to the main ridge, there also are a number of Southern ramifications, long ridges. A rigorous branch begins just in Parângul Mare peak, through Mandra peak (2360 m) to Moliduşul (1,758 m) peak, unfolds here like a trident in other heights  between Gilort and Jiu. From near Mandra peak, another ridge extends to South – West, through Tapul (2010 m) and Recii peaks (1,468 m). Flora and fauna of Parâng are specific to the high mountains. In the ice buckets you can meet large juniper carpets, large areas covered with mountain peony (Rhododendron Kotschy) and cranberry (Vacciinium uliginosum). In Latorita Valley grows vigorous larch trees (Larix decidua) and on the limestones of Mount Gauri appears edelweiss (Leonthopodium alpinum). The chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) is commonly found in Parang, and the wolf (Canis lupus) and the bear (Ursus you) do not hesitate to appear especially in summer around the sheepfolds. In the lakes Rosiile  (1,980 m. 33.76 ha.), Câlcescu (1,935 m. alt. 3.02 ha.), Mija (1,980 m. alt. 0.8 ha.), Mandra (2,184 m.alt, 1.12 ha.) and in the upper valleys of the gorges Lotru, Olteţ and Gilort, lives the  trout (Salmo fario truta). Câlcescu lake and its surroundings are a complex natural reserve called “The glacial complex Câlcescu” whose mission is to protect the geological elements, flora and the landscape specific to this area of a ​​rare beauty and wildness. The Parang Mountains are near the railway Simeria – Petroşani – Tirgu – Jiu and the national road DN 66 (Simeria – Petroşani – Tg. Jiu), DN 67 Drobeta Turnu Severin – Tg Jiu – Ramnicu Valcea), DN 67C (Bumbeşti – Novaci – Rânca – Obârşia Lotrului – Oaşa – Sebes). This road known as TRANSALPINA is a national road that reaches the highest altitude crossing the Romanian Carpathians (2,141 m Saua Urdele). Inside the massif there are secondary roads or forest roads that enter, some of them also accessible for cars (on the Jieţ valleys from Cotul Jieţului) Sadu (from Livezeni) Polatişte (from Gura Polatiştei), Alunul (from Arseni) Crasna (from Crasna ) Bahniţa (from Săcelu), Gilort (from Novaci) . The network of marked trails in Parang includes 18 routes distributed homogeneously all over the mountain, with various degrees of difficulty. It is advisable to take walks only in the company of highly trained mountain guides

Source: www.czearad.ro

Parang resort is located at an altitude of about 1,800 meters, in the Eastern part of the Jiu Valley, about 5 km away from Petrosani, in the Parang Mountains, with a very attractive tourist potential. The location has become in recent years increasingly popular among tourists, lovers of winter sports especially, thanks to its modern slopes.

Since 2009, the Parang Resort was certified as tourist resort of national interest, being one of the most important resorts in our country. It has chalets and other different types of accommodation, for a large number of tourists, not only from Petrosani, but also from different towns of Hunedoara County, as Deva, Hunedoara or tourists from Craiova, Timisoara and even Bucharest. The access to the venue is to Petrosani on national road DN66, then other 8 km following the county road DJ709 F to Rusu area. From here, the access to the Parang alpine area is served by a chairlift, the second longest in the Romania, after the one from Borsa . You can also ride by car to the resort, but only in summer.

Guests in Parang can choose either an accommodation at the foot of the mountains, near Rusu area, or accommodation in cottages and chalets in the alpine area. They can find here Rusu Hotel, a construction built on the place of the old
Rusu Chalet, which is now a modern building, with a total capacity of 72 beds.

In the mountain resort of Parang there are good possibilities to practice winter sports, with its 9 slopes:  A , B , Europarang , under chairlift , Saivane, C, Culoarul Porcului, Intermediate New Chairlift and Zidul Mortii (Wall of Death). There are slopes for both advanced and beginners, equipped with chairlift, ski-lift and nocturnal installations. In the winter, besides skiing, tourists are also practicing winter sports as sledding, snowboarding, motor scooter rides and paragliding.

Although it is famous especially for its slopes and winter sports, there are many tourists in summer, who enjoy the marked trails that lead to beautiful important sights of Parang and who can practice extreme sports: Off-Road, paragliding, Down-Hill.

Among the main attractions, mountain ridges, steep slopes and deep hollows worth mentioning here, which formed more than 40 glacial lakes, called the pearls of Parang Mountains. You can also find here Calcescu Geological and Botanical Reserve, where there are Calcescu, Pencu, Vidal or Setea Mare Lakes.  Other important glacial lakes in the area are:  Rosiile, which is the deepest lake in these mountains, Iezerul Inghetat or Mija. Another great tourist value of this area is conferred by the Jiu Valley, one of the most impressive cleft of the Carpathians, with unique landscapes and good opportunities for practicing mountain hiking or climbing.

The elongated shape of the city and its isolation by high mountains, have a great influence on climate issues, because the movement of the air masses is from north to south through the transverse cracks Băniţa-Merisor and Surduc-Lainici. The mountains stop the movement of the air masses, so that they stop the air refresh in the depression. Because of that and of the industrialization, the streets, the trees and the grass in the city took a specific aspect of large coalmining regions. City landscape can be compared to that in the Ruhr, where stagnant fog covers the city and stays over because of the surrounding peaks.

There is also in Petrosani another interesting thermal phenomenon, the temperature inversion. This process can be described as stagnations and cooling of the air coming down from the heights of the mountains to the city. Under the influence of those stagnations and cooling, the  temperatures exceeds minus 30 ° C (-31.4 ° C in January 14th 1893), or lower, while in the Parang station situated 900-1000 m above, the lowest temperatures were maximum – 24 ° C. Thus, the frosts in Petrosani are stronger than in the surrounding heights, but not longer than there. Although there is a slowdown of the frosts in Parang, that does not mean that their duration is reduced because the days considered cold, with temperatures below -10 ° C are more numerous on the mountain than in Petrosani, where there is sharp cooling because of the radiation effect. Also due to the cold air accumulation, we can have hoar and spring frosts in May.

By its geographical position and altitude, the climate in Petrosani should be sub- mountainous, but judging by the temperature of the hottest month (July average temperature being 16.7 ° C) and average annual temperature (6.8º), it is more a mountain climate, of law altitude. Average temperatures for July are 3-4 ° C and the annual, 2-3 ° C higher than sub-mountainous climate. Warm days with average temperatures above 10 ° C are lower in Petrosani than in other regions considered colder and the number of summer days with temperature above 25° C is 50 days. The average annual precipitation amounts are 700-800 mm / year.

Days with high cloudiness reach over 200 per year. Because industrial activity is intense and the atmosphere is most polluted, the rains are very frequently. Dust and smoke particles function as condensation nuclei, so mists and drizzles are particularly common in the autumn.

Petrosani has a central-European flora type with arctic-alpine elements in the high parts of the mountains and Mediterranean infiltrations in lower areas and special ecological conditions on chalks especially.

The vegetation is diverse: from alder groves and coppices along watercourses, often bordering ruffled buckthorn and raspberry bushes, to beech forests on hillsides and coniferous forests above them. The largest share in Petrosani vegetation is occupied by deciduous (oak, beech and oak) and meadows. Beech forests mixed with resinous (fir tree, spruce) are met on the slopes of the mountains; here we also find alpine meadows.

Fauna consists of forest animals such as stag, bear, deer and also, badger, fox, wolf, lynx, grouse, capercaillie and others.

Alpine field is populated with typical elements such as chamois, griffon vulture, eagle, etc. Mountain waters were colonized by indigenous trout that lives together withother species such as grayling and broad snout.