Zackel Hill Nature Reserve

Zackel Hill Nature Reserve lies in the central-western part of Sibiu County, within Slimnic commune, between the villages of Șura Mare and Slimnic, about 15 kilometres north of the city of Sibiu, on the right of the DN14 road linking Sibiu with Mediaș and Sighișoara. It is a protected area of national interest, IUCN category IV, a mixed nature reserve, declared under Law 5/2000. It covers 11 hectares and rises about a hundred metres above the Șarba Valley. The name comes from German, from the zackel, a curly-horned sheep breed traditionally raised by the Saxons. The reserve formed through the age-long evolution of geomorphological and climatic factors, and preserves a steppe grassland ecosystem characteristic of the Transylvanian Plateau. What makes it unusual is its microclimate. The area is open, without the protection of any forest, and stays exposed to the sun for nearly half the year. This strong radiation creates a kind of insolation effect, which has allowed a flora of southern, Pontic, and sub-Mediterranean species, unusual for central Transylvania, to take hold. It is, in effect, an island of southern steppe strayed into the plateau. For this reason, Zackel Hill forms part of the Natura 2000 site "Șura Mică-Slimnic Steppe Islands," designated precisely to protect fragments of steppe typical of southern Romania and Dobruja, arising within the continental bioregion of the Transylvanian Plateau. The steppe vegetation includes species such as Astragalus dasyanthus, Crambe tatarica, and Jurinea mollis. At the height of summer, the hill offers a mottled sight, from the mix of brightly coloured flowering plants: pheasant's eye, wild carnation, yellow horned poppy, and dwarf almond. On the driest slopes, feather grass predominates. The reserve is also a paradise for insects, with over four hundred species grouped in numerous families. The open habitat likewise supports reptiles and birds characteristic of open country. The reserve is fragile and little known. Recent field research has identified only sixteen plant species of national interest and found that many of the plants recorded in older works could no longer be found; some species, such as Centaurea atropurpurea, are considered locally extinct. The site has no tourist facilities. Zackel Hill is worth visiting for a botanical paradox visible to the naked eye: on a single sunlit hill in the middle of Transylvania grows a flora belonging to the steppes of southern Romania and the Black Sea, intensely coloured in early summer and populated by hundreds of insect species.