Around
Whatto see
Sasca Montană sits at the edge of the Nera Gorges–Beușnița National Park. Two-hour strolls and full-day circuits both start from here. They are listed nearest and easiest first.
The air
Ourair
The air down our valley is different. We say it every time, and every time it sounds like something a host would say — but walk up into the Șușara Gorge once and you will know what we mean.
There is an explanation for it. Water striking rock shatters into very fine droplets, and the collision leaves negative electrical charge behind in the air. It is called the Lenard effect, and it is why breathing beside a waterfall is not quite like breathing a hundred metres below it. All we know is this: up at the Șușara, the first thing you do is take a deep breath without noticing you have.
As for what that air does to a person — opinions differ, and we are not the ones to settle it. Come up into the gorge one morning, water on your left and the forest closing overhead, and see for yourselves.
What was measured
In 2015, a team from Băile Herculane measured negative ionisation at four points in Sasca Montană, within an hour of each other one afternoon. From the guesthouse yard up into the gorge.
Pensiunea Iohana
580
The Catholic church
820
La Vechea Moară
970
La Vechea Moară
1100
Cabana Șușara
1100
To give the numbers a scale: an office or a town flat usually measures between 50 and 200. Băile Herculane, the county's well-known spa, is quoted from 2,000 upwards.
The numbers do not hold still even within a day: they climb through the morning towards noon, and again after sunset, late into the night. The weather counts too — at the Old Mill, in the same afternoon, 970 in the sun and 1,100 once the rain came down.
None of this is a recent discovery. The Șușara valley had a reputation for good air by the 1880s, and in 1928 the village council declared Sasca Montană a “climatic resort”. The 1936 Guide to the Banat listed it among the region's small climatic stations, for its “clean air and good water”.
Further afield
The village,on film
A film about Sasca Montană, shot by someone who lives here.
Write to us whenyou would like to come
Send a booking request with your dates and the number of guests, or call directly.