Pestera Ursilor
Encyclopedia
Bear Cave was discovered in 1975, by "Speodava", an amateur speleologist group, and is considered to be an interesting site-seeing location. The cave is located in the western Apuseni Mountains
Apuseni Mountains
The Apuseni Mountains is a mountain range in Transylvania, Romania, which belongs to the Western Carpathians, also called Occidentali in Romanian. Their name translates from Romanian as Mountains "of the sunset" i.e. "western". The highest peak is "Cucurbăta Mare" - 1849 metres, also called Bihor...

, on the outskirts of Chişcău Village, in Bihor County
Bihor County
Bihor is a county of Romania, in Crişana, with capital city at Oradea. Together with Hajdú-Bihar County in Hungary it constitutes the Biharia Euroregion.-Demographics:...

, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

.

Peștera Urșilor means Bears' Cave. The cave was so named as it was found to contain numerous complete skeletons of extinct Cave bear
Cave Bear
The cave bear was a species of bear that lived in Europe during the Pleistocene and became extinct at the beginning of the Last Glacial Maximum about 27,500 years ago....

s (Ursus spelaeus), a species of large animal which disappeared more than 15,000 years ago. It is suggested that a rock slide closed the entrance to the cave whilst 140 of these animals were still inside; deprived of food, the bears resorted to killing each other until none remained. Bear fossils were found in many parts of the cave, most sporting the marks of bear teeth.

Bear Cave contains an extraordinary range of stalagmite and stalactite formations varying in size and forms. The cave entrance - at an altitude of 482 m (1,581.4 ft) - is by the tourist pavilion. Bear Cave is 1 km (3,280.8 ft) in length. It is disposed on two-overlapping levels: the larger part of the cave, 488 m (1,601 ft) in length, has been equipped to allow visits by tourists, while a temporarily active interior level, 521 m (1,709.3 ft) in length, is reserved for scientific purposes.

The cave was undisturbed until 17 September 1975 when the cave was discovered during quarry works. The marble and limestone of this area was mined by the inhabitants of the nearby village Chișcău. The first person in the cave was quarry worker Curta Traian from Chișcău. The cave has been equipped and electrified so it can be visited by tourists.

Access ways

Railway - Beiuș or Sudrigiu railway station and from there by bus; DN 76 Oradea - Sudrigiu village (86 km) + DJ 763 Chișcău village 14 km, asphalt road.
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