Town in N central Romania (Mures country), situated on the upper course of the river Tirnava Mica, in the Praid-Sovata depression, at the SW foot of the Gurghiu Mountains (Eastern Carpathians), elevation 475-530 m, 60 km E of the municipality of Tirgu Mures (seat of Mures county); population 12,253 (July 1, 1991).
All-season resort of national importance, first mentioned as a place for cure in a 1597 document but recorded as a resort in 1850.
Surrounded by the hills Cireselu (912 m), Capela (720 m), Bechis (1,079 m), Dealul Mic and Muntele de Sare, covered - strangely, for the resort is located on a salt massif - by old beech, oak, hornbeam, elm, chestnut, fir and birch tree forests, the resort has a sedative-indifferent depression climate with cool summers (July average temperature 18.5°C) and relatively mild winters (January average 3.5°below).
The annual average temperature is of 7.6°C and the precipitation averages 750 mm annually.
The fame of the resort is made by the lakes Ursu (46,000 sq.m.), Alunis (9,000 sq.m.), Verde (5,000 sq.m.), Negru, Rosu, Mierlei and Serpilor, with chlorided (high concentration - 40 to 250 g/litre), sodic waters evincing some heliothermal phenomena (the temperature of the water in summertime varies as solar heat is accumulated in the salt water, the warm water being protected by the layer of fresh water from the rivulets, which does not mix with the salt water but remains on the surface, serving as a thermal insulator).
Therefore in summer, the temperature of Lake Ursu (18.4 m deep), which is the biggest heliothermal lake, varies between 19-20°C in the surface layer, 30-40°C at the depth of 1 m and 40-60°C at the depth of 1.5 m.
The resort offers treatment mainly for gynecological diseases (ovarian insufficiency, chronic cervicitis, chronic metrosalpingitis, secondary sterility) but then also for generative, inflammatory and abarticular rheumatic diseases (cervical, dorsal and lumbar spondylosis, arthrosis, polyarthrosis; articular painful conditions; tendonitis, tendomyositis, scapulohumeral periarthritis), posttraumatic conditions (after healed operations on joints, muscles or bones, after luxations and twists), peripheral neurological disorders (light peresis, sequelae after poliomylitis and after polyneuropathies), endocrine diseases (hypothyroidism, after endocrinological treatment), cardiovascular diseases (varicose ulcer, acrocyanosis).
The resort benefits by many treatment facilities (for warm baths of salt mineral water taken from the lakes, in tubsand pools; for gynecological treatments and applications of warm mud; pools for kinetotherapy; installations for electrotherapy and hydrotherapy; saunas; medical gyms; beaches on the shores of Lake Ursu and Lake Alunis, etc.); the accomodation conditions are fine (many hotels - some of them having their own treatment base: Sovata, Bradet, Alunis, Faget, Caprioara -, villas, inns, motels and cabins). Many opportunities for recreation, amusement and sports (club with mechanical games parlour, reading room, cinema, indoor pools, discotheques, bowling alleys, trips to the Saca Hill, the Cireselu Peak etc.).