Surduc ( hu, Szurduk; german: Surdecken; he, סוּרְדוּק) is a commune in

Sălaj County Sălaj County () (also known as ''Land of Silvania'', ''silva, -ae'' means "forest") is a county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers H ...

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

. It is composed of seven villages: Brâglez, Cristolțel, Solona, Surduc, Teștioara, Tihău and Turbuța.

Etymology

The name of the commune has its origin in the morphological configuration of the area (''surduc'' means gorge, pass or narrow valley with sudden and steep slopes). Other sources claim that the name of the commune is of

Slavic Slavic, Slav or Slavonic may refer to: Peoples * Slavic peoples, an ethno-linguistic group living in Europe and Asia ** East Slavic peoples, eastern group of Slavic peoples ** South Slavic peoples, southern group of Slavic peoples ** West Slavi ...

origin, ''surdec'' meaning

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex ban ...

; near Surduc,

Someș River The Someș (; hu, Szamos; german: Somesch or ''Samosch'') is a left tributary of the Tisza in Hungary and Romania. It has a length of (including its source river Someșul Mare), of which 50 km are in Hungary.inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...

, in the place called ''Sub grădiște'' (Under the hillock), owned by a short and deaf man (in

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...

''surd'' means deaf). The travelers nicknamed him "surduc", hence the name.

History

Surduc is probably the successor of an older settlement, recorded as ''Sumbur'' in 1320. According to 's ''Monograph of Szolnok-Doboka County'', Surduc was first mentioned in 1554 as ''Naghzwrdok'' ("Great Surduc"), when Anna Somi, Imre Balassa's widow, bequeathed a quarter of the estate to her husband, Boldizsár Patócsi. The village originally belonged to the nobles of Csákigorbó (present-day

Gârbou Gârbou ( hu, Csákigorbó) is a commune located in Sălaj County, Transylvania, Romania. It is composed of seven villages: Bezded (''Bezdédtelek''), Călacea (''Kiskalocsa''), Cernuc (''Csernek''), Fabrica (''Cukorgyártelep''), Gârbou, Poptele ...

), being part of the domain of the . In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

and pre-modern times it was part of the

Szolnok-Doboka County Szolnok-Doboka was an administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is now in northern Romania (northern Transylvania). The capital of the county was Dés (now Dej, Romania). Geography Szolnok-Doboka county shared b ...

and . By 1696, Surduc appears as a village under Turkish occupation. Between 1641 and 1810 the estate was owned by the Csáky family. By 1644 they had a noble

curia Curia (Latin plural curiae) in ancient Rome referred to one of the original groupings of the citizenry, eventually numbering 30, and later every Roman citizen was presumed to belong to one. While they originally likely had wider powers, they came ...

here; only its servants' house is preserved to this day. In 1705 it hosted Prince

Francis II Rákóczi Francis II Rákóczi ( hu, II. Rákóczi Ferenc, ; 27 March 1676 – 8 April 1735) was a Hungarian nobleman and leader of Rákóczi's War of Independence against the Habsburgs in 1703–11 as the prince ( hu, fejedelem) of the Estates Confedera ...

, before the

confrontation Confrontation is an element of conflict wherein parties confront one another, directly engaging one another in the course of a dispute between them. A confrontation can be at any scale, between any number of people, between entire nations or cul ...

of his troops with the Habsburg Imperial Army led by Ludwig von Herbeville in Zsibó (present-day

Jibou Jibou (; hu, Zsibó ; german: Siben; yi, זשיבוי) is a town in Sălaj County, Transylvania, Romania. In 2011 it had a population of 10,407. Jibou includes the town proper and other four villages: Rona ( Hungarian: ''Szilágyróna''), Cuce ...

). The curia was probably transformed into a castle in the 18th century, because at the beginning of the 19th century it was already recorded as a castle. In 1810 the village became the property of the Jósika family of Branyicska. The best known owner is the novelist

Miklós Jósika Miklós Jósika (28 April 1794 - 27 February 1865) was a Hungarian soldier, politician and writer. He is recognized as the first successful novelist in Hungarian literature, through the publishing of one of his first works, ''Abafi'' (1836), a ...

(1794–1865), nicknamed "Hungarian

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...

", who settles here after his first wife's divorce. He revitalizes the area, building a series of agricultural buildings, a chapel and probably establishing the current form of the castle. A family property inventory from 1854 records a 17-room building, including the novelist's office and a chapel. The castle and the village were almost completely destroyed in December 1848, during the

Hungarian Revolution of 1848 The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 or fully Hungarian Civic Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–1849 () was one of many European Revolutions of 1848 and was closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas. Although t ...

, when the Austrians under Captain Binder occupied the village with thousands of insurgents. As the leader of the Hungarian liberal nobility, Jósika was the first landowner in Doboka County to free the serfs from the Surduc estate and their villages on 23 April 1848, two months before the

Hungarian Diet The Diet of Hungary or originally: Parlamentum Publicum / Parlamentum Generale ( hu, Országgyűlés) became the supreme legislative institution in the medieval kingdom of Hungary from the 1290s, and in its successor states, Royal Hungary and ...

. The communist regime turned the castle into a tractor repair station, and after 1991 it was bought by Agromec. Currently, the castle is overgrown with vegetation, in an advanced state of degradation.

Geography

Relief

With an area of 71.42 km² (6th among the county communes), Surduc occupies a central-eastern position within

, at the contact of four important relief units: Someș Corridor, Șimișna–Gârbou Hills, Almaș–Agrij Depression and Prisnel Peak. The commune is located to the east of the "intracarpathian yoke" (Meseș Mountains–Dumbrava Hill–Prisnel Peak). The Șimișna–Gârbou Hills that make up most of the commune are represented only by their northern termination, which gradually inclines in this direction towards the wide terraced corridor of the

Someș The Someș (; hu, Szamos; german: Somesch or ''Samosch'') is a left tributary of the Tisza in Hungary and Romania. It has a length of (including its source river Someșul Mare), of which 50 km are in Hungary. The corridor is limited to the west by the last extensions of the Prisnel Peak, represented by the Rona Peak (438 m). The relief is very varied, formed by an association of hilly peaks and valleys between slopes, all resulting from the fragmentation of the northwestern part of the Someș Plateau. In terms of altitude, the relief is between about 200 m in the meadows of Someș and its tributaries and 607 m in Pietrosu Peak, in the southeastern part of the commune.

Hydrography

The hydrographic network is relatively young in age. The territory of the commune is crossed by the middle course of the

Flora and fauna

The fragmented plateau relief and the climate allowed the development of a predominantly

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

vegetation, in which the

Turkey oak Turkey oak is a common name for several species of oaks and may refer to: *''Quercus cerris ''Quercus cerris'', the Turkey oak or Austrian oak, is an oak native to south-eastern Europe and Asia Minor. It is the type species of ''Quercus'' sec ...

and the Hungarian oak predominate. In the distribution of the floristic elements there is a weak vertical zonation, in the sense that the forested surfaces (beech, oak and mixed forests) are interspersed with secondary and derived

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

s or with agricultural lands. In the forest floor there is a great diversity of animal species, from the evolved ones (mammals) to the smallest invertebrates. Among the larger mammals, some of which are of hunting interest, are:

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelv ...

es,

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the ...

badger Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae (which also includes the otters, wolverines, martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and ferrets). Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united ...

rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit s ...

s, etc. Rodent mammals are represented by

wood mouse The wood mouse (''Apodemus sylvaticus'') is a murid rodent native to Europe and northwestern Africa. It is closely related to the yellow-necked mouse (''Apodemus flavicollis'') but differs in that it has no band of yellow fur around the neck, ...

s, squirrels and edible dormice. The avifauna is very varied and represented by:

tits TIT, Tit, Tits, or tit may refer to: Birds * Tit (bird) or Paridae, a large family of passerine birds * Bearded tit, a small reed-bed passerine bird * Long-tailed tits or Aegithalidae, a family of passerine birds with long tails * Tit-babble ...

jay A jay is a member of a number of species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the Crow family, Corvidae. The evolutionary relationships between the jays and the magpies are rather complex. For example, the Eurasian m ...

s, blackbirds,

nightingale The common nightingale, rufous nightingale or simply nightingale (''Luscinia megarhynchos''), is a small passerine bird best known for its powerful and beautiful song. It was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now ...

woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar region ...

oriole Oriole or Orioles may refer to: Animals * Old World oriole, colorful passerine birds in the family Oriolidae * New World oriole, a group of birds in the family Icteridae Music * The Orioles, an R&B and doo-wop group of the late 1940s and earl ...

sparrowhawk Sparrowhawk (sometimes sparrow hawk) may refer to several species of small hawk in the genus ''Accipiter''. "Sparrow-hawk" or sparhawk originally referred to ''Accipiter nisus'', now called "Eurasian" or "northern" sparrowhawk to distinguish it f ...

kites A kite is a tethered heavier-than-air or lighter-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create lift and drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. Kites often have a bridle and tail to guide the face ...

crow A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term " raven" is not pinned scientifica ...

raven A raven is any of several larger-bodied bird species of the genus ''Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", common names which are assigned ...

magpie Magpies are birds of the Corvidae family. Like other members of their family, they are widely considered to be intelligent creatures. The Eurasian magpie, for instance, is thought to rank among the world's most intelligent creatures, and is on ...

s, etc. Among the reptiles are common species such as

slowworm The slow worm (''Anguis fragilis'') is a reptile native to western Eurasia. It is also called a deaf adder, a slowworm, a blindworm, or regionally, a long-cripple and hazelworm. These legless lizards are also sometimes called common slowworms. Th ...

green lizard The European green lizard (''Lacerta viridis'') is a large lizard distributed across European midlatitudes from Slovenia and eastern Austria to as far east as the Black Sea coasts of Ukraine and Turkey. It is often seen sunning on rocks or lawns, ...

and

common frog The common frog or grass frog (''Rana temporaria''), also known as the European common frog, European common brown frog, European grass frog, European Holarctic true frog, European pond frog or European brown frog, is a semi-aquatic amphibian ...

. The aquatic fauna is represented, especially in Valea Gârboului, by invertebrates (crustaceans, worms, mollusks, etc.), as well as by small fish. The commune includes two protected natural sites: the middle course of the Someș (ROSPA0114) and Lozna (ROSCI0314).

Climate

Like all of Romania, Surduc exhibits a temperate continental climate. It is characterized by hot summers, with fairly abundant precipitation and relatively cold and wet winters, with frequent snowfalls, rare blizzards, but also heating periods that interrupt the continuity of the snow layer and repeated freeze-thaw cycles. The climate here is classified as Cfb by the Köppen-Geiger system. The temperature here averages 10 °C. With an average of 20.9 °C, August is the warmest month. January is the coldest month, with temperatures averaging –2.0 °C. In a year, the rainfall is 756 mm. The driest month is February. There is 45 mm of precipitation in February. Most of the precipitation here falls in June, averaging 89 mm.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, the population of Surduc is 3,461, down 1.6% from the previous census in 2002, when 4,026 people were registered.

Ethnic groups

Historically, the chain of villages between Surduc and

Ileanda Ileanda ( hu, Nagyilonda) is a commune located in Sălaj County, Transylvania, Romania. It is composed of thirteen villages: Bizușa-Băi (''Büdöspataka''), Bârsăuța (''Kisborszó''), Dăbiceni (''Kisdoboka''), Dolheni (''Ilondapatak''), Ile ...

was inhabited mostly by

Romanians The Romanians ( ro, români, ; dated exonym '' Vlachs'') are a Romance-speaking ethnic group. Sharing a common Romanian culture and ancestry, and speaking the Romanian language, they live primarily in Romania and Moldova. The 2011 Roman ...

. As part of the Hungarian Empire, Surduc also saw waves of Hungarian immigrants. By 1910, the

Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Ural ...

represented 10% of the Surduc population; at present, their number has dropped to less than 1%. As of 2011, the largest ethnic group is that of the

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council * Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

– 211 or 6.1% of the commune's population. In the past, Surduc had a significant

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

community – almost 3% in the 1930 census. Previously, by 1850, Surduc already had a

minyan In Judaism, a ''minyan'' ( he, מניין \ מִנְיָן ''mīnyān'' , lit. (noun) ''count, number''; pl. ''mīnyānīm'' ) is the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for certain religious obligations. In more traditional streams of Jud ...

. A Jewish cemetery was also established here in the 19th century. In May 1944, the Jews were gathered in the

Cehei ghetto The Cehei ghetto, also known as the Șimleu Silvaniei ghetto, was one of the Nazi-era ghettos for European Jews during World War II. It was located outside Szilágysomlyó in the village of Somlyócsehi, Szilágy County, Kingdom of Hungary (Romania ...

, then in

Șimleu Silvaniei Șimleu Silvaniei (; hu, Szilágysomlyó, german: Schomlenmarkt) is a town in Sălaj County, Crișana, Romania with a population of 14,436 people (2011 census). It is located near the ancient Dacian fortress Dacidava. Three villages are administe ...

and were deported to Auschwitz on 31 May, 6 and 8 June.

Religions

In terms of religion, most of the inhabitants are Orthodox (87%), but there are also minorities of

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

s (3.8%),

Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved ...

(2.8%) and

Greek Catholics The term Greek Catholic Church can refer to a number of Eastern Catholic Churches following the Byzantine (Greek) liturgy, considered collectively or individually. The terms Greek Catholic, Greek Catholic church or Byzantine Catholic, Byzantine Ca ...

(2.7%). For 2.1% of the population, religious affiliation is not known. In the commune there are six Orthodox churches (Surduc, Tihău, Brâglez, Cristolțel, Solona and Turbuța), a Greek Catholic church (Tihău), three Pentecostal places of worship (Surduc, Tihău and Solona) and two Baptist places of worship (Surduc and Turbuța).

Politics and administration

Surduc is administered by a mayor and a local council composed of 13 councilors. The mayor, Alin Băbănaș, from the National Liberal Party, has been in office since 2016. After the 2020 local elections, the local council has the following composition by political parties:

Component villages

Education

Surduc has a technological

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, resulting from the merger in 2009–2010 of the

middle school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school ...

s of Tihău, Cristolțel, Turbuța and Brâglez. The first mentions about the high school date from 1867 when Gavril Balmoș was a "traveling teacher" in Surduc and Solona. In 1894, with the contribution of the villagers, a private premises for the confessional school was built here. The building for the state school and

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

, both intended for education in Hungarian, was built in 1900. The state education in

began in 1919, the first teacher being Teodor Panorariu. Following the

Second Vienna Award The Second Vienna Award, also known as the Vienna Diktat, was the second of two territorial disputes that were arbitrated by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. On 30 August 1940, they assigned the territory of Northern Transylvania, including all o ...

, in 1940–1944, education was conducted in Hungarian. Romanian-language education resumed in 1944–1945. In 2015–2016 370 students were enrolled here. Besides this, in the commune there are four kindergartens (Surduc, Tihău, Brâglez and Cristolțel) and two

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

s (Tihău and Turbuța).

Healthcare

Surduc has a

family medicine Family medicine is a medical specialty within primary care that provides continuing and comprehensive health care for the individual and family across all ages, genders, diseases, and parts of the body. The specialist, who is usually a prim ...

office, a dental office and a

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

Economy

The commune used to be prosperous. There were a brick and tile factory, a

wood processing Wood processing is an engineering discipline in the wood industry comprising the production of forest products, such as pulp and paper, construction materials, and tall oil. Paper engineering is a subfield of wood processing. The major wood ...

factory and two

slaughterhouse A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility. Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is not ...

s. Until after 1989, the commune's economy was supported by

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

activities related to the exploitation of

brown coal Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...

and

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classif ...

aggregates located in the meadows of Someș, Almaș and Brâglez rivers. In 1999, the Hida–Surduc–Jibou–Bălan mining area was declared, for a period of ten years, a disadvantaged area. At present, the economic structure of the commune is dominated by the agricultural activities specific to the area, especially the cultivation of cereals, technical and fodder plants, and to a lesser extent of vines and fruit trees. However, industry, and not agriculture, ensures the added value of the area. In the commune, both the extractive and the processing industries have important traditions.

Industry

There are industrial branches represented by some

small and medium enterprise Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by international organizations such as the World Ban ...

s: * civil construction units: 2 * ore extraction and processing unit for the

chemical industry The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. Central to the modern world economy, it converts raw materials ( oil, natural gas, air, water, metals, and minerals) into more than 70,000 different products. T ...

: 1 * furniture production unit: 1

Agriculture

Agriculture is based on family-level production and takes place both in open field and vegetable gardens.

Vegetable farming Vegetable farming is the growing of vegetables for human consumption. The practice probably started in several parts of the world over ten thousand years ago, with families growing vegetables for their own consumption or to trade locally. At fir ...

takes advantage of an area with a temperate climate and is thus varied and exclusively natural. Predominantly cultivated vegetable species are carrots,

parsley Parsley, or garden parsley ('' Petroselinum crispum'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae that is native to the central and eastern Mediterranean region (Sardinia, Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, southern Italy, Greece, ...

eggplant Eggplant ( US, Canada), aubergine ( UK, Ireland) or brinjal (Indian subcontinent, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa) is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae. ''Solanum melongena'' is grown worldwide for its edible fruit. Mo ...

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the oni ...

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word , ...

es, etc. Fruit growing and

viticulture Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...

do not enjoy a controlled exploitation.

Animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, star ...

is a branch with potential, but unexploited. There are four milk collection/processing points.

Tourism

Tourist spots

; Brâglez * Presentation of Christ Church, built between 1929 and 1930 * Michael's Cave, a small suspended

abri A rock shelter (also rockhouse, crepuscular cave, bluff shelter, or abri) is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. In contrast to solutional caves ( karst), which are often many miles long, rock shelters are almost alwa ...

which the locals call a cave, with an opening of 40–45 m, a height of 4–4.5 m and just as deep * House of robbers (Pintea Viteazu Cave), a sandstone bank whose vertical erosion created a 50–60 cm-wide and 3 m-high cave ; Surduc * Jósika Castle * Crypt of the Jósika family. It was built in 1825 by Miklós Jósika in memory of his father. * St. John the Baptist Church. It was built between 1911 and 1913 on the site of a towerless wooden church built in 1850. * Jewish cemetery. The oldest known tomb dates from the 19th century. ; Teștioara * Abris of Poiana Teștiorii * Tăul Iezer lake complex, with a rich lake vegetation ; Tihău * Roman castra. It is located on the left side of the Someș, on a plateau called ''Grădiște'' or ''Cetate''. ; Turbuța * Wooden church. It was built around the 17th–18th centuries. File:Castelul Jozsika Surduc 1.JPG, Jósika Castle in Surduc File:Biserica ortodoxa, Surduc.jpg, Orthodox church in Surduc File:RO SJ Biserica de lemn din Turbuța.JPG, Wooden church in Turbuța

Infrastructure

Surduc is crossed by the national roads DN1H and DN1G, as well as by 37.6 km of communal roads and 32.139 km of village roads. Surduc railway station is transited daily by five trains to

Cluj-Napoca ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Status , subdivision_name2 = County seat , settlement_type = City , ...

and

Baia Mare Baia Mare ( , ; hu, Nagybánya; german: Frauenbach or Groß-Neustadt; la, Rivulus Dominarum) is a municipality along the Săsar River, in northwestern Romania; it is the capital of Maramureș County. The city lies in the region of Maramure� ...

Căile Ferate Române Line 400 Line 400 is one of CFR's main lines in Romania having a total length of . The main line, connecting Brașov with the northwestern city Satu Mare, passes through the important cities Sfântu Gheorghe, Miercurea Ciuc, Dej, Jibou and Baia Mare ...

passes through Surduc. The length of the railway in the commune is about 10 km. There was also an industrial railway of about 500 m that connected the Surduc station with the Surduc Mining Sector and the kaolin and quartz sand processing station. The commune has 32 km of drinking water supply network (put into operation in 1994) and 16.2 km of natural gas supply network (put into operation in 1999). The commune does not have a sewerage network.

Notable figures

(1794–1865), soldier, politician and writer * Vasile Pușcaș (b. 1952), politician, diplomat and professor

References

{{Sălaj County Communes in Sălaj County Localities in Transylvania