Things to Do in Ocna Mureș, Romania: Castle and Salt Lakes

Ocna Mureș is a small town in the north-east of Alba County, in the Mureș valley of Transylvania, built on top of one of the oldest worked salt deposits in Romania. Most visitors now come for the new salt baths, but the town has more to show: salt lakes that opened up over the old mines, a Neo-Gothic castle waiting to be rescued and a salt story that goes back to the Romans. This guide covers what is worth seeing, what happened to the salt mine and what you can reach within half an hour by car. Every fact has been checked against the public sources listed at the end.

Ocna Mureș at a glance

The town of Ocna Mureș includes the town proper, the districts of Uioara de Jos and Uioara de Sus and the villages of Cisteiu de Mureș, Micoșlaca and Războieni-Cetate. Its old name, Uioara, is linked to the Hungarian Újvár (“new castle”); in Hungarian the town is still called Marosújvár.

• Uioara de Jos lies to the south-west. Casa Steluța is here, on Strada Câmpului.
• The centre is where the salt lakes are: the collapse craters formed right in the middle of town, over the old mines. The listed Roman Catholic church on Strada Nicolae Iorga is close by.
• Uioara de Sus, to the north-east, has the Teleki-Mikó castle and, on Strada Fabricii, the Băile Sărate salt baths.

Distances are short: from Casa Steluța the castle and the salt baths are 6–7 minutes by car (about 3.7 km).

The story of salt in Ocna Mureș

Roman Salinae

The salt here sits unusually close to the surface, in a huge body of rock salt that rises to just below the town centre. In Roman Dacia the settlement was known as Salinae and was one of the province’s most important salt-mining centres. Historians think the medieval mines were opened next to the Roman ones, sometimes reusing the old workings.

Salt rafts on the Mureș

For centuries the salt was carted to Partoș (Portus), near Alba Iulia, and then floated on rafts down the Mureș towards the Tisza and the Hungarian plain. Rafting salt ended in 1871, when the Teiuș–Războieni railway opened and took over the trade.

Floods, collapses and the end of mining

The river was both a blessing and a threat. In 1791 the Mureș flooded the Roman and medieval mines beneath the town. Work resumed the same year with new galleries, and in the 18th and 19th centuries Ocna Mureș became the most important salt mine in Transylvania.

Water that got into the mines slowly dissolved the salt holding up the ground. The first collapse craters appeared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, around the Iosif mine. According to a study from the University of Alba Iulia, during the Second World War the main street, then the heart of the town, sank when the roofs of the Ferdinand, Iosif and Ștefania mines gave way. After pumping from the old mines stopped in 1954, the craters grew to 100–150 m across.

In 1978 the flooding of the 1 Mai mine ended underground salt mining for good. Salt continued to be extracted by dissolving it and pumping up brine through boreholes, a method used in Ocna Mureș since 1952. The ground has not fully settled: in December 2010 another collapse swallowed a supermarket in town, and the crater filled with salt water.

The Solvay soda works

Salt also brought industry. Between 1894 and 1896 the Belgian company Solvay & Cie built a soda plant here; it was nationalised after 1948 and closed in 2010. A curious footnote from that era: according to the Alba newspaper Ziarul Unirea, Romania’s first floodlit football match was played at the Solvay stadium on 30 August 1936.

Can you swim in the Ocna Mureș salt lakes?

The salt lakes in the town centre are flooded mines and collapse craters. They are an unusual sight, but they are not a bathing area. Studies of Ocna Mureș describe the ground around them as unstable, local press has reported lake banks collapsing, and the 2010 crater was fenced off and guarded. Look at them from a distance and stay out of the water.

If you want to float in salt water, head to the complex below.

Băile Sărate: the Ocna Mureș salt baths

The Băile Sărate complex at Strada Fabricii 12 opened in the first part of 2023, built by the town with Alba County Council. It has indoor and outdoor pools with fresh and salt water, and in its first year it averaged more than 1,000 visitors a day. Opening hours, prices and tips for busy days are in our dedicated guide: Ocna Mureș salt baths.

The Teleki-Mikó castle in Uioara de Sus

The castle is the town’s most important historic monument. The “Teleky castle ensemble” is on Romania’s national List of Historic Monuments (code AB-II-a-B-00380), dated from the 13th to the 19th century.

The castle’s history in brief

• 1290: documents mention a “new castle” (castrum novum) here.
• 1581: the estate passes to János Gálfi, who builds a fortified Renaissance castle in the late 16th century. A five-sided bastion from it survives, now in a private yard.
• 1742: István Mikes remodels the castle in Baroque style. The Baroque castle is destroyed in October 1848 by troops led by Simion Prodan.
• 1854–1862: Count Imre Mikó, a founder of the Transylvanian Museum Society, buys the estate and has the castle rebuilt in Neo-Gothic style between 1856 and 1862, to plans by the Cluj architect Antal Kagerbauer.
• After 1876: the estate passes to Count Ádám Teleki, hence the double name, Teleki-Mikó.
• After 1949: the castle is nationalised and used by the collective farm; the park is lost and the outbuildings are pulled down.

The castle today

The castle was returned to the heirs of the Teleki family and is now held in undivided joint ownership. It is empty, with no windows or doors, collapsed ceilings in several rooms and a damaged roof. It is not open to visitors, so you can only see it from the outside, from the street. It is still worth the short drive: the Neo-Gothic outline says a lot about the wealth salt once brought here.

The same listed ensemble includes a Roman Catholic chapel dated 1296, of which ruins remain.

Other historic monuments in town

The national list also includes the Roman Catholic church at Strada Nicolae Iorga 16 (code AB-II-m-B-00257). Sources disagree on when it was built, so we do not give a date. You can see it from the street on your way to the lakes.

Within the town’s boundaries there is also a listed archaeological site at Uioara de Jos, with traces of settlement from the Neolithic, the Bronze Age, the Hallstatt period and the Migration Period. It is not set up for visitors.

The Mureș river and walks around town

Ocna Mureș lies in the Mureș valley at about 265 m above sea level, with Banța Hill behind it. For centuries the river carried the salt away, and it also flooded the mines, so a stop by the water rounds off the story. An easy walk from the salt lakes to the castle shows you the traces of the mine, the industry and the valley landscape in about an hour. For a proper hike, the nearest choice is Turda Gorge, about 37 minutes away.

Nearby sights within 30 minutes

• Cisteiu de Mureș (about 4 minutes by car from Casa Steluța): the 18th-century wooden church of the Holy Archangels, listed as a monument of national importance, and the ruins of the Mikes castle, also listed.
• Războieni-Cetate (about 10 minutes): in Roman times this was the base of the ala I Batavorum, a cavalry unit of about 1,000 men. The fort is an archaeological site with little to see on the ground; finds from it have been shown at the National Museum of the Union in Alba Iulia.
• Aiud Citadel (about 24 km, 27 minutes): a medieval citadel in the centre of Aiud, with its enclosure wall and towers and, inside, the Gothic Reformed church and the Lutheran church.

A little further, 35 minutes away, is the Turda Salt Mine. Travelling with children? We have put together a two-day plan: a weekend with kids. All our local guides are on the Around Ocna Mureș page.

Where to stay in Ocna Mureș: Casa Steluța

If you would like to explore the town at an easy pace, you can stay at Casa Steluța, Strada Câmpului 4, in Uioara de Jos. The whole house is let to one group, so you have it to yourselves:

• 2 bedrooms (each for 2 adults and 1 child; up to 4 adults and 2 children) and 2 bathrooms with showers;
• a fully equipped kitchen, a covered pergola terrace with a table for 6, a barbecue and a lawned garden;
• parking in the courtyard, Wi-Fi, TV, air conditioning, heating (radiators and traditional tiled stoves), bed linen and towels included.

The whole house costs 400 lei a night from Sunday to Thursday nights and 500 lei a night on Friday and Saturday nights. Stays of 5 nights or more get 10% off, pensioners get 30% off, and the discounts can be combined. Holiday prices may vary. Check-in is from 15:00 and check-out by 11:00; no pets.

Bookings are by phone or WhatsApp only, on +40 743 668 009. See the booking page for details.