Nemere Mountain

Ethimology

Nemere is the popular form of Nimrod, who according to the Tale of the Csodaszarvas (namely translation leads to: Miracle Deer) wasn’t just a hunter, but the father of Hunor and Magor, the ascentors of the Hungarians. There is an ancient Mezopotaminan city, discovered by Austen Henry Layard in 1945, which was called Nimrod.

Geographical position, borders

The Nemere mountain belongs to the center part of the outer belt of hills of the Eastern Carphatians. It has a rectangular shape. Its covers a 700 km2 wide area. It lies on the historical territory of Háromszék county and Moldova, but according to today’s administration in Kovászna and Bákó county.
In north, it is separated from the Csíki-havasok by the Úz-valey and the catchment of Úzmező. The eastern border is determined by the Valey of Tatros, which runs along the line of the communities of Dărmăneşti (Dormány), Dofteana és Tg.Ocna (Aknavásár). The southern edge is shaped by the Ojtoz river, which is the separating line between this side of the mountain and the Vráncsai mountain. The Pass of Ojtoz together with the Felsőháromszéki-pool is the south and south-west border. The Valley of Lassúág stands as the western border of the mountain, just north of Esztelnek and the Pass of Veresvíz. Both of them separate it from the Csíki-havasok (Répát csoport, Baska-havasa).
This mountain has medium-heigh, in comparison with other mountains, only the peeks in the middle rigde, namely the Nagy Sándor peek and the Nagy Nemere peek rise above 1600 meters.
At the feet of the mountain there is a vast network of roads, but none of them goes through the ridge, like in Harghita Mountain or like in the Csíki-havasok. The DN-11 road connects Brassó with Kézdivásárhely. It was built in 1883, in time, when the region was under the control of the Monarchy. This road leads through the Ojtoz-pass, there it intersectes the main road of the pass, then it passes the Ojtoz-ridge until reaches Onesti in Moldova. We can use the road 11/B, to travel from Kézdivásárhely to Csík through the Kászoni-basin. The road with number 114 it’s one the branches of this road, this connects the communities at the foot of the mountain. At the other side, the road DN-123 starts from Tg. Ocna and runs until reaches Slănic Moldova (Szaláncfürdő). This road is a good-quality one and lead deep into the mountain. We can reach the northern side only through deteriorated roads. The most beautiful part of the mountain is accessible only with off-road vehicles. Beside these, there are forestier-roads which we can use to approach the eastern valley, but these roads are not for everyday use.
There is also railroad in the vicinity, one of them, the Sepsiszentgyörgyi – Berecki line, offers a good opportunity to conquer the western side. The moldovean side, the 501 line leads from Csikszereda through Madéfalva to Adjud (Egyedhalma).

Surface, geological structure

Its rivers belong to 2 catchment area. In west, east, north and northeast they bring the waters indirectly (Uz river) or directly to Tatros river, which meets the river Szeret at Adjud. The waters of south and southwest part are collected by Feketeügy river, which then it pours them into the Olt river at Kökös.
The longest brach of the river Tatros is Uz. Its valey is almost as beautiful as the valey of Tatros. It got its name from Uz people, who came here with the conquerer hungarians, and then dissidated into the local communities. It springs from Rugát-tető in the Csíki-havasok, and after 45 km flows into Tatros at Dărmăneşti. At the lower part there is a dam built on it. Just the little higher is the community of Úzvölgye.
Veresvíz and Lassúág: Veresvíz, is the biggest brach of Úz, at the western side of Nemere. Its length is 20 km. It is parallel with the bride of Nemere and Bordóca. Lassúág is its leftist branch. One can characterise both of them like, they both have a swampy flood areas, in which there is an abundance of rare plants. Here, those who can travel with off-road vehicles are in advantage.
Dofteana, Csundzset (Ciunget) and Doftenica: Among the creeks, that spring from the eastern side of the mountaing Dofteana is the longest one with the length of 25 km. It merges with the river Tatros at Dofteana community. The most beautiful part of this creek is the Dofteana-ridge with its waterfalls. In its fascinating valey many sulphurous medicinal spring is to be found. In place of old sawmill, which existed in the past, nowdays weekend longes, forester cottage has been built. The transportation is carried out on deforestization roads. So, this region requires also more massive vehicles to cross.
Szalánc, is the biggest, most important and most romantic creek-valey of the eastern side of the Nemere mountain. It has 12 springs under the Nagy Sándor peek, but only 2 of them are significant enough, to be mentioned: Zsíros (in romanian Slănic) and Kecskés (in rom.: Slănicel). It has a length of 28 km. Meets the Tatros river at Tg. Ocna. Its meder is very steep. On its most beautiful side, Szaláncfürdő was built, which is famous for the many healing springs surfacing near to the creek.
Ojtoz creek: The valey of this creek draws a clearly visible border between Nemere mountain and Vráncsai mountain and the Háromszéki-havasok (Berecki-havasok). For us is the gateway to East, for foreign people it is the wide-open door of Transylvania. The Ojtoz-pass, which formed along this brook, was the witness of many historical events (1241 Batu kán, 1466 King Mathias Rex, 1576 Báthori István, 1600 Mihály vajda, 1717 tartars, 1849 general Bem, 1918 és 1944 the I. és II. World War). The former border and customs of the historical Hungary, lies in the valey, just in the town of Ojtoztelep, and at the település of Sósmező (Poiana Sărată) stood once the border customs between Moldova and Transylvania, the Csernika brook. Near Ojtoztelep, just 2 km away is the Rákoczi castle and fortress, but only ruins can be seen today.
Feketeügy: The river, which has most peculiar name in the whole Transylvania (the word „ügy” meant river in the older version of the language). Its spring is located in Mihály-piton, it runs through Felsőháromszéki-medence, and after 106 km merges with the Olt river at the village of Kökös. Branches of this river are the creeks of Lemhény, Esztelnek, Kászon and Bereck.

Settlements

Kézdivásárhely

It is the centre of Felsőháromszék, situated at the meeting point of Torja-brook and Kászon-brook. It is the second biggest city in Kovászna county, beside that 91% of its residents are hungarians. It is first mentined under the name of Torya Wasara in 1407.
The most significant places in the city are the full-scale statue of Gábor Áron on the center plaza, one of the biggest reformed churches in Trasylvania (1782), the constant exposition of the sculptor Tolvajossy József, the catholic church (1795), Nagy Mózes high-school. Beside these, the city’s cemerty is a real pantheon, lot of celebrities of Transylvania are buried there.

Kézdiszentlélek

Situated at the foot of Perkő, this city is famous for his unparalelled castle-church. This curiosity was built in the XV. century. The cemerty, next to it is an open-museum of crucifixies and crosses. A castle can be found in the vicinity of city, the Tarnoczy-castle (XVI. century).

Climate, vegetation and lifestock

The climate is typical to Eastern Carphatian climate. The western part is colder though. The average yearly temperature is 3°C, while in the eastern part this value is 7-8°C. The 0°C temperature on the main ridge of the mountain could last up to 6 months. The lack of sunny days is caused by misty weather. This often causes hőinverzió.
Nemere is the home of the winds. The winds from the west bring humid weather. The winds from the east are hot and dry during summer and chillingly cold during winter. They come from the vast steppes of Russia and after tearing through Moldova they bump into Nemere with awsome energy. The local people call these winds „Nemere szele” because the windstorms seem to come always from the direction of the mountain. The most windy part of the main rigde is the place between the Magyar Nemere and Mikes-tető, the „Szélkapu”. The name says it all, its translation would look like this: „Windgate”. The territory of Szaláncfürdő is perpendicular to the main path of the winds (E-W), that is the reason, why this territory is quietest, slowest part of the basin.
Despite of all human activities in the area the mountain is still covered with forests. There is more forest on the westerns side than on the eastern side. Here, just like in the Carphatians, we can separate the band of deciduous forests (600-800 m), coniferous forests (800-1600 m) and the alpine region’s junipers (1600+ m). What distinguishes it from the Csíki- or Háromszéki-havasok is the yew woods.
Állatvilága is rich. Almost all of the Carpathian mammals can be found here, expect for the highland species. Also large variety of birds, insects, amphibians, fish dwell in the mountain

Natural healing factors

Inside the mountain the are no mineral springs. In the borderline territory however there is plenty of it, suggesting the location of the ruptures that define the contour line of the mountain. The can be divided into 2 groups: springs in Felsőháromszéki-medence, and the springs in Sóvidék.
The most significant mineral spring in the first group is Fortyogó-fürdő, near the city of Kézdivásárhely (1,5 km). Its vasas-széndioxidos mineral springs, mofettas are well-known, we could say famous in the region. The holiday resort with treatment center, restaurant and hotel is closed since 2000.
Kézdiszentkereszt (Polyán): from the many mineral springs there, we must mention the 2 springs of Zonda-creek. People were making use of them since 1892 (Szabó Albert), but only until 1995. During this time, the name of bottled mineral water was changed several times (Vénusz, Mariska, Székely, Poian, Nemere, Cristal).
Esztelnek: the mineral springs here, and also the mofettas are unexploited. In the village the mineral water springs in the wells. Beside this, the villages of Kézdiszentlélek and Bélafalva are accounted also as villages with many mineral springs.
The mineral springs belonging to the second group are less fizzy , they are more salted or paraffined. Ojtoztelep is famous because of this methan and CO2 gas-mixture. In the vicinity of Sósmező és Herzsa there is 10 salted-sulphurous-petroleum spring. Nobody has ever build on or around them anything, only the local people use them as cure for their rheumatism.
Szaláncfürdő, the nationally and internationally known holiday resort became famous due to his mineral springs. The nr. 1 spring was discovered in 1801 (Mihály kútja). The springs with nr. 2, nr. 3, nr. 4 were discovered between 1804-1807 during roadworks. In 1881 the water in these spring brought the city a silver medal in Frankfurt, a gold medal in Bruxelles (1883), Paris (1889), Bucharest (1894), and in Paris (1900). The 21 mineral spring known today, is classified into 7 groups according to their composition.

Nature reservation

In the territory of Nemere mountain there are 7 nature reservations.

Swampy basin of Lassuág

It is the border territory between Csíki-havasok and Nemere mountain. Everything that is on the right side belongs to Nemera, the borderline of Hargita and Kovánsza county cut it is half. Lassúág-medence is situated around 1040-940m, with a territory of 8 km. We separate 5 marsh-land: the territory of Ezeréves forest, Legyes-swamp, dam of Kovács, a Kicsiromlás-field and Székelykút. All of these are botanical reservations, where 200 rare plants grow.

Marsh-land of Kerekbükk

The oval shape territory between Bükk-creek and Veresvíz resembles with the ones in Lassuág. It is situated on 1040m above sea-level. Its area is 15 hectares. Until now, we know about 118 kind of rare plants, among these there is peculiar one: the Sphagnum wulfianum, which is an arctical moss.

Nemere sziklavilága

Geological, botanical and panoramic reservation. It lies on the main ridge of the mountain, between Nagy Sándor peek and Nagy Nemere peek.

Yew reservation of Fehérkút-creek

It is situated along the creek deforestization road. Its territory is 47,5 hectares. It is the garden of very old, mature yews.

Doftana yews

It is one of them most interesting natural reservations of Nemere. This reservation can be found between the Straja Mare and the Străjioara creek, 2 branches of Dofteana creek. It lies on a 23,7 hectare territory. The age of the tiszafák is between 100 and 120.

Dendrological parc of Hăghiac

The village of Hăghiac has merged with Dofteana village a long time ago. From the 70 different type of trees, 50 can be found in the center of the parc.

Geological reservation of Bala-Lake

The little brother of the Gyilkos-Lake. A land-slide created this lake in 1883. It is situated in 530m height above sea level, near the village of Sălătruc (3 km). Along the time it shrank by one-third of its size. Today it is only 370 m long, 120 meter wide, depth is max. 3 meter. Its area is 4,5 hectare. It is a fishing paradise for the local people. Some of the pine in the city parc of Szaláncfürdő is also under protection.