Bâlea Lake (, ; ) is a glacier lake situated at an altitude of 2,034 m (6,673 ft) in the

Făgăraș Mountains The Făgăraș Mountains ( ; ) are the highest mountains of the Southern Carpathians, in Romania. Geography The mountain range is situated in the heart of Romania, at . The range is bordered in the north by the Făgăraș Depression, through wh ...

, in central

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

, near Cârțișoara,

Sibiu County Sibiu County () is a county () of Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Its county seat () is the namesake town of Sibiu (). Name In Hungarian, it is known as ''Szeben megye'', and in German as ''Kreis Hermannstadt''. Under the ...

. There are two

chalet A chalet (pronounced in British English; in American English usually ), also called Swiss chalet, is a type of building or house, typical of the Alpine region in Europe. It is made of wood, with a heavy, gently sloping roof and wide, well-su ...

s opened all year round, a meteorological station, and a mountain rescue ( Salvamont) station. The lake is accessible by car via the

Transfăgărășan The Transfăgărășan (''trans'' + Făgăraș Mountains, ''Făgăraș''; Hungarian language, Hungarian: Transzfogarasi út) or DN7C is a paved mountain road crossing the southern section of the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. It has Roads in Ro ...

road during the summer, and the rest of the year, access is provided by a cable car from the "Bâlea Cascadă" chalet. On 17 April 1977, an avalanche killed 23 skiers who had gathered near Bâlea lake. Among them, 19 were high school students from the Samuel von Brukenthal National College in

Sibiu Sibiu ( , , , Hungarian: ''Nagyszeben'', , Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'' or ''Hermestatt'') is a city in central Romania, situated in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles th ...

. This tragic event marked the deadliest avalanche in Romania's history, with the 42nd highest death toll in the world. In 2006, the first

ice hotel An ice hotel is a temporary hotel made up of snow and sculpted blocks of ice. Ice hotels, dependent on sub-freezing temperatures, are constructed from ice and snow and typically have to be rebuilt every year. Ice hotels exist in several countri ...

in Eastern Europe was built in the vicinity of the lake. The hotel has been open for 15 years since its inception, but it did not operate during the 2019–2020 season due to higher than usual temperatures.

References

External links

Lakes of Sibiu County {{Sibiu-geo-stub