The Chiuzbaia Fossiliferous Reserve is a palaeontological protected area of national interest, located on the southern slope of Igniș Peak, between Valea Plopilor and the rock known as Biserica lui Spiridon. It bears the name of Prof. Răzvan Givulescu, Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy, who carried out palaeontological and palaeobotanical studies here for several decades.
The reserve covers 50 hectares — a mountain area covered with beech, oak, hornbeam, sycamore and birch stands, together with a rock outcrop within it.
The area is of particular scientific interest because of the fossils found here. The Chiuzbaia fossil material preserves the relics of former lakes, on whose shores the plant remains of a lush forest from the Pliocene were preserved as in a genuine herbarium. Leaves of exotic trees, mosses and ferns, fish skeletons and fossil insects have been preserved for millions of years between layers of rock and volcanic ash.
Why it matters
What is preserved here are not bones but leaves. In the ancient lake basins, fine layers of diatomite covered the fallen foliage year after year and preserved it as if in a herbarium: veins, outlines and sometimes even the toothed edge of a leaf can still be seen on the rock slabs today.
The fossil flora identified here comprises 55 families, 107 genera and about 240 species — a richness that makes Chiuzbaia an unrivalled reference point in central and south-eastern Europe. In effect, we are looking at the inventory of a forest that grew here millions of years before humans appeared, in a climate much warmer than today's.
What you'll see on site
The reserve is explored like an ordinary forest hike, at around 800 m altitude, north of the village of Chiuzbaia. The fossils appear in rock layers naturally exposed on the slope. Collecting specimens is forbidden — the scientific material is limited, and the reserve is protected precisely because every slab taken out of context means information lost for good. Representative pieces can be seen in the county's museum collections.
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