Bicaz Gorge

Dramatic limestone canyon 35km west — one of Romania's most spectacular roads

The Cheile Bicazului (Bicaz Gorge) is one of the most dramatic mountain road journeys in Romania, 35 km west of Piatra Neamț on the road to Transylvania. The gorge cuts through a massive limestone massif, and in the narrowest section — called "Gâtul Iadului" (the Neck of Hell) — the walls close to within a few metres of each other while the road squeezes through below. Rock climbers use the walls on both sides.

At the western end of the gorge lies Lacul Roșu (Red Lake), a mountain lake formed by a natural landslide dam in 1837. The submerged trunks of the drowned forest still protrude from the surface, giving the lake an eerie character. Both the gorge and the lake are within the Cheile Bicazului–Hășmaș National Park.

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A story
The road through the Bicaz Gorge was cut through the limestone in the 1950s. Before that, the only way across the Carpathians in this section was by footpath over the mountain. The gorge itself — known in Romanian as Cheile Bicazului — narrows in places to less than ten metres between vertical walls rising 300 metres. At the highest point of the crossing, the road reaches Lacul Roșu (Red Lake), formed when a landslide dammed the river in 1837.

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