Rimetea
White houses with green shutters under a limestone wall, in a Hungarian-speaking village that won a European heritage award for restoring itself.
- Best for
- Walking up Piatra Secuiului, and one very photogenic street
- Suggested time
- A day, or a night if you are walking
- Getting there
- In the Trascău hills, reached from Cluj-Napoca or Turda
What there is to see
In and around Rimetea. Filter by what you are interested in.
Where to go next
The background
Rimetea — Torockó in Hungarian — is a village of whitewashed houses with green window shutters, lined up under the limestone face of Piatra Secuiului. It is Hungarian-speaking, it is unusually intact, and it looks the way it does because the people who live there decided it should.
The restoration is the story
Around 138 traditional houses were restored through a conservation effort run with Hungarian heritage organisations, and in 1999 the village received a Europa Nostra award for it. That makes Rimetea a rare thing in this guide: a village whose preservation is a deliberate, documented, recent act rather than an accident of poverty.
The mountain
Piatra Secuiului rises straight off the far side of the village and is the reason many people come. It is a walk rather than a climb, and the view back down over the white roofs is the photograph everybody takes.
Local tradition says the sun rises twice here — over one ridge, behind the next, then out again. It is a good story and it is told as one.
Base or day trip
Rimetea works either way. From Cluj or Turda it is a comfortable day; staying makes sense if you intend to be on the mountain early, which is when it is best.
Prefer to have the route organised for you?
Guided private trips and custom itineraries are arranged externally, with a local driver-guide.
View private tours