Șerbești Rock

Șerbești Rock (Stânca Șerbești) lies in the village of Ștefan cel Mare, in the commune of the same name, about 17 km north-east of Piatra Neamț, on Măgura Șerbești hill. The hill rises to 512 m and overlooks the Cracău Depression to the east. It is reached via the Piatra Neamț-Roman road (DN15D), then county road DJ208G from the end of Girov village towards Ștefan cel Mare, where a road sign points to the rock. The rocks lie at the contact between the Moldavian Plateau and the Subcarpathians. The rock consists of hard sandstone beds tilted almost to the vertical (about 70 degrees), together with Sarmatian marls and conglomerates. The steep dip of the strata is the result of tectonic movements during the last phases of the Alpine orogeny. The fossil site contains bivalves and gastropods (Mactra vitaliana, Cardium fittoni, Donax dentiger, Hydrobia fraenfeldi) and imprints of oak leaves (Quercus elaena, Quercus lonquitis). Seen from a distance, the rock looks like a human face, an effect of differential erosion and the position of the strata. It is visible from the Piatra Neamț-Roman road. The Șerbești Inn (Hanul de la Șerbești), a historic monument from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, is in the same commune. The name comes from the village of Șerbești, which took its present name, Ștefan cel Mare, in 1968. Șerbești Rock has been a protected area since 1972 and is a geological and landscape nature reserve (IUCN category III, code RONPA0661) covering 5 ha.