Not far from the city of Rupea, you will find the Transylvanian commune of Racoș. Right next to this commune you’ll find three important natural wonders which are worth visiting. The first one would be the crater of an old volcano, the second would be the emerald lake and finally, the basaltic columns. All these natural wonders are very close to each other and you can easily visit all of them in a couple of hours.
The old volcano in Racoș
The closest objective to the village of Racoș would be the former volcano and when we visited this area, we started with one. It’s located right on the outskirt of the commune. You can actually drive close to volcano.
Inside the crater of the former volcano you will have the chance to see a lot of elements which indicates that it was active in the past. One of the most important element is ash, which is almost everywhere. It’s highly recommended that you stay only on the marked paths during your visit in the crater.
Since this crater is located on the top of larger hill, you can actually see the entire landscape which surrounds the former volcano.
The emerald lake
Since this place was a former basalt quarry, the entire lake is surrounded by steep rock walls. You can even get right next to the lake’s water by following multiple paths down to the lake. What is even amazing, is the color of the lake’s water which has a brighter green color, almost the same as the emerald’s color.
Other things to visit in the area:
- The Rupea Citadel – as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the medieval Rupea Fortress probably the closest objective that you must visit.
- The Transylvanian village of Viscri – explore this wonderful and unique traditional Transylvanian village, including the famous Fortified Church located in the village.