Salt Mountain and the former Bride's Grotto, Slănic

The Salt Mountain (Muntele de Sare) lies on the western side of the town of Slănic, Prahova County, on the western slope of the Slănic valley, next to Baia Baciului lake. It is a natural monument of national importance (IUCN category III), designated a geological and geomorphological nature reserve in 1954, covering 2 hectares. The Slănic salt massif, of Badenian age, has an average thickness of about 400 metres and lies along the axis of the Slănic syncline, in the Tarcău Nappe. When designated, the reserve included the Salt Mountain and the Bride's Grotto (Grota Miresei). The lake inside the massif formed in 1914, when the roof of an old bell-shaped salt pit, worked until 1852, collapsed and the pit flooded. The name Bride's Grotto appeared around 1920 and refers to a young bride who took her own life in this lake four days after her wedding. After the earthquake of 4 March 1977, large cracks opened on the eastern side of the massif, and an anchoring system with steel cables failed to stop the decay. On 28 May 1993 the south-western wall collapsed into the lake, and on 20 June 1999, after heavy rain, the southern and eastern sides gave way. Landslides in autumn 2005 and March 2006 damaged nearby houses and partly covered the lake. By 2012 the grotto had disappeared, and in the following years the site of the former lake was completely buried under earth and large blocks of salt. Today the reserve is an uneven landslide terrain, largely overgrown, with no grotto or lake to visit. The site can be seen from outside, next to the Baia Baciului bathing complex, a few hundred metres from the town centre. Slănic also has the Slănic Salt Mine (Unirea Mine), the salt lakes and the Salt Museum.