Bicaz () is a town in

Neamț County Neamț County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in the historic region of Moldavia, with the county seat at Piatra Neamț. The county takes its name from the Neamț River. Demographics Population In 2011, it had a population of 470,766 ...

Western Moldavia Western Moldavia (, ''Moldova de Apus'', or , also known as Moldavia, is the core historic and geographical part of the former Principality of Moldavia situated in eastern and north-eastern Romania. Until its union with Wallachia in 1878, the P ...

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 ...

situated in the eastern

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinav ...

near the confluence of the

Bicaz Bicaz () is a town in Neamț County, Western Moldavia, Romania situated in the eastern Carpathian Mountains near the confluence of the Bicaz and Bistrița Rivers and near Lake Bicaz, an artificial lake formed by the Bicaz Dam on the Bistri� ...

and

Bistrița (; , archaic , Transylvanian Saxon: , ) is the capital city of Bistrița-Năsăud County, in northern Transylvania, Romania. It is situated on the Bistrița River. The city has a population of 78,877 inhabitants as of 2021 and administers s ...

Rivers and near Lake Bicaz, an artificial lake formed by the Bicaz Dam on the Bistrița. Bicaz used to be a border town until 1918. Six villages are administered by the town: Capșa, Dodeni, Izvoru Alb, Izvoru Muntelui, Potoci, and Secu.

Economy

Before the construction of the dam (1950–1960) the settlement was just a mountain village in

Eastern Carpathians Divisions of the Carpathians are a categorization of the Carpathian mountains system. Below is a detailed overview of the major subdivisions and ranges of the Carpathian Mountains. The Carpathians are a "subsystem" of a bigger Alps-Himalaya Sy ...

where the main economic activity was timber harvesting. By tradition, the tree trunks were linked together, forming a

raft A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barre ...

(''pluta''); a raftman () used to drive the raft on the Bistrița river downstream to

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 wo ...

facilities in

Piatra Neamț Piatra Neamț (; ; ) is the capital city of Neamț County, in the historical region of Western Moldavia, in northeastern Romania. Because of its very privileged location in the Divisions of the Carpathians, Eastern Carpathian mountains, it is con ...

. Building the dam created also a horizontal industry: two cement and aggregate plants were built in Bicaz proper and nearby

Tașca Tașca is a commune in Neamț County, Western Moldavia, 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 t ...

. This, together with the construction of the Bicaz-Stejaru Hydroelectric Power Station ( to the east) triggered a relative economic boom during the communist period. The Bicaz cement plant was shut down after the

Romanian Revolution The Romanian revolution () was a period of violent Civil disorder, civil unrest in Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world, primarily ...

of 1989 and is slowly being taken apart. On the other hand, the Tașca cement plant was acquired by the German group

HeidelbergCement Heidelberg Materials is a German multinational building materials company headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany. Formerly known as HeidelbergCement AG, the company has rebranded as Heidelberg Materials in September 2022. It is a DAX corporation ...

and was completely overhauled. The town has also a few

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

factories and

facilities.

Access

The town has access to two national roads: DN15 RO Roadsign 15

and DN12C

while Bicaz railway station is the terminus station on CFR Line 509 with scheduled daily service to Bucharest North. The town served also as a port with scheduled ferry service with the villages on lake shore in the 1960s and 1970s. Today the facility offers only seasonal leisure cruises.

Tourism

The town is located in the proximity of two important tourist destinations in Romania: the

Ceahlău Massif The Ceahlău Massif () is one of the most famous mountains of Romania. It is part of the Bistrița Mountains range of the Eastern Carpathians division, in Neamț County, in the Moldavia region. The two most important peaks are Toaca (1904 m e ...

( north) and Cheile Bicazului-Hășmaș National Park ( to the west). The impressive Bicaz Dam built on the river

in the 1950s (one of the biggest in Romania) and the resulting Bicaz Lake are also popular tourist sights.

Durău Durău is a ski resort located in north-eastern Romania, in Neamț County, Moldavia near the Ceahlău Massif (to the mountains' north-west side). The location is disadvantaged because of the lack of accessibility, the only access road being DN15 ...

, the only ski resort in the Ceahlău Massif, is located about north.

Natives

* Iuliana Paleu (born 1990), sprint canoeist

Image gallery

File:Bicaz Dam.cristibur.JPG, Bicaz Dam, 127 meters high, built between 1950 and 1960 on the Bistrița River File:Bicaz Dam.jpg, Night view of the dam File:Cheile bicazului 1.jpg, Bicaz Canyon, a narrow pass linking Romanian historical regions of

Moldavia Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially in ...

and

Transylvania Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...

along DN12C national road

References