Strâmtori-Firiza Lake

The lake lies on the Firiza river, a tributary of the Săsar in the Someș basin, in Firiza, a component locality of the city of Baia Mare, about 10 km from the city centre and beside the road to the Izvoare tourist area. The lake is about 3 km long. Before the dam was built, the southern part of Firiza village was demolished and its inhabitants were moved to a street in the west of the village. The Strâmtori Dam is a concrete buttress dam designed at the Institute for Hydraulic Engineering Design (IPACH, now Aquaproiect) by Aristide Teodorescu and Gheorghe Flegont and completed in 1964. It is 51.5 m high, with a 260 m long crest at an elevation of 372 m. According to the 2015 inventory of state property, the reservoir holds 16.563 million m³. The dam belongs to the National Administration "Romanian Waters" and is operated by the Someș-Tisa Water Basin Administration. The lake supplies drinking water to Baia Mare, produces electricity and attenuates floods. In 2022 the dam's bottom outlet was repaired without interrupting the city's water supply. Coniferous and broadleaf forest comes down to the shore, and the lake, stocked with trout and carp, is a popular recreation spot for the people of Baia Mare. Further up the Firiza valley lies the Izvoare tourist area in the Igniș Mountains, and the territory of Firiza also includes the Tăul lui Dumitru nature reserve, a 3-hectare oligotrophic bog on the Igniș ridge.