“Emil Cioran” Cycling Route

The “Emil Cioran” Cycling Route” offers a nice, safe way to go out of the city into the surrounding areas, away from traffic. The route is dotted with special tourist attractions, such as the “Dumbrava Sibiului” Nature Reserve, the Rășinari Hermitage, the “Emil Cioran” memorial house, or the Cisnădioara Fortress. The “Emil Cioran” cycling route travels through special places in the Sibiu surroundings, crossing oak forests, pastures, and historical villages, allowing bikers to enjoy the picturesque landscape of Mărginimea Sibiului as well as the particularities of Saxon localities situated at the foothills of the Cindrel Mountains.

The image of the great Romanian man of culture was chosen as an identifier for the cycling route because Emil Cioran was born in Rășinari and went to high school in Sibiu, the two main localities connected by this marked route. Moreover, in 1937, Emil Cioran used his doctoral scholarship to tour France on a bicycle.

The “Emil Cioran” cycling route, marked with a blue C, starts near the Municipal Stadium, goes through the Sub Arini Park, and enters the Dumbrava Forest before the Zoo (the entrance from Valea Aurie neighbourhood). The route crosses the Dumbrava Forest, a 993‑hectar protected area holding complex flora, fauna, landscapes and culture, which is part of the natural protected areas of Romania. More than half of the stands in the Dumbrava Sibiului Natural Reserve are over a century old. The oak is the dominant species, alongside Quercus petraea, common hornbeam, elm, Prunus avium, Acer campestre, and linden. The ground flora in the forest includes species of orchid, Lychnis nivalis (endemic species), crocus, Prenanthes purpurea, bluegrass, and Epilobium hirsutum. You can watch roes run among the trees, while agile squirrels climb their branches. Travelling along the cycling route, you can spot and listen to a huge array of birds, including the tit, the black bird, the bunting, the woodpecker, the jay, or the common buzzard.

After crossing the path behind the Zoo and the Village Museum, as well as the main forest road in the Dumbrava Forest, the route takes cyclists to the pasture above the locality of Rășinari, then descends to the Rășinari Hermitage. From here, the route winds down the country road between locals’ orchards and, from a wayside cross, splits into two directions: to Rășinari and to Poplaca. The main attraction of the detour to Rășinari is the Emil Cioran memorial house. If you choose the road to Poplaca, the hamlet of Trăinei is a point of interest, as a true on‑site village museum.

The villages of Rășinari and Poplaca were created by Romanian shepherd who settled at the base of the Cindrel mountains. They are part of the historical area around Sibiu knows as “Mărginimea Sibiului”. Rășinari is among the oldest villages in Transylvania, dating back 800 years. The inhabitants also extracted fir tree resin, as these trees grow on the peaks of the surrounding mountains, hence the name of the village, which derives from the Romanian word for resin. The people of Rășinari have preserved an ancestral occupation that goes back thousands of years: sheep growing. In Rășinari, sheep farming and shepherding are supported by the rich pastures in the hearth of the village, as well as alongside the path of the “Emil Cioran” cycling route.
 
 From Rășinari, you can choose to continue your travels along various routes. From the Emil Cioran memorial house, the main route travels alongside the road to Sibiu; about 200 metres into this route, the route takes a secondary street parallel to the main street and goes close to the exit way from Rășinari. From here, you cycle down the paved road for about 1 km, then continue on a country road to the right. The route will take you on country roads, among the lands owned by the people of Rășinari, towards the paved road crossing the Cisnădioara Hill. From the wayside cross on the edge of the road, go down the paved road on the left to reach the Village Museum. After crossing the bridge over the river Seviș, from the Dog Training School, take the country road on the right that meanders through the fields to the Dumbrava Forest. Cross the shaded paths of the Dumbrava Forest to the ASTRA Museum and, after crossing the county road on the pedestrian crossing next to the entrance into the museum, follow the trail inside the forest all the way to the bike track at the main entrance to the Zoo.

If you are more experienced, you can opt for the second version of the route, marked with a green C, that goes over the Cisnădioara Hill through the hamlet of Prislop. From the top of the hill, you can take a short detour to the Cisnădioara Fortress and visit the Roman basilica dating from the second half of the 12th century, situated on top of the hill that towers over the locality. This version of the route goes to the top of the hill, between orchards and grasslands, continues through the Catrina Forest and joins the main route around the wayside cross on the edge of the paved road going to Cisnădioara. From the top of the Cisnădioara hill, you can take a country road all the way down to Rășinari, which makes for a nice route along this locality.