Turda Salt Mine

Salina Turda is a salt mine located in the Durgău-Valea Sărată area of Turda, the second largest city in Cluj County, Romania. Since its opening to tourists in 1992, Salina Turda has been visited by about 2 million Romanian and foreign tourists. Salina Turda was placed by Business Insider at the top of their list of the ten "coolest underground places in the world". Likewise, Salina Turda was once ranked among the "25 hidden gems around the world that are worth the trek".

Salt was first extracted here during the antiquity and the mine continuously produced table salt from the Middle Ages (the mine being first mentioned in 1075) to the early 20th century (1932). The first document that speaks explicitly about the existence of a salt mine in Turda dates from 1 May 1271, being issued by the Hungarian chancellery. Documents reserved from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that refer to the Turda salt mines mention that salines were arranged in Băile Sărate microdepression and on the south-eastern slope of the Valea Sărată. Operating rooms were placed on the sites of current salt lakes from the perimeters mentioned above. In the seventeenth century has begun first salt mining works on the north-western slope of Valea Valea Sărată, evidenced by shafts in the dome of Terezia room. In a short time is open the Sfântul Anton mine, perimeter where the mining activity continues until the first half of the twentieth century.

Since 1992, Salina Turda has been a halotherapy center and a popular tourist attraction. In 2008, the salt mine enters a broad process of modernization and improvement within the pale of program PHARE 2005 ESC large regional/local infrastructure, worth 6 million euros, being rendered to the tourist circuit starting with January 2010.