Hurez is a village that sits where the foothills of the Apuseni Mountains run out into the Transylvanian basin, and the hill called Dealul Mare, the big hill, is among the sites that make up the Roman frontier of Dacia Porolissensis. The line of towers and forts began near here and ran north-east along the ridges. It joined the UNESCO list in 2024 with the other Romanian parts of the frontier of the Roman Empire.
The closest town on the map is Huedin, a small place of about nine thousand on the main road from Cluj-Napoca to Oradea, an old crossroads with a long history. Huedin has fuel, food and repair shops, and it is the gateway to the Apuseni, a range of limestone plateaus, caves and forested valleys. The ride from Cluj to Huedin on the old E60 road goes along the valley of the Somesul Rece, with views of the mountains rising to the south, though the road is busy and often slow behind lorries. A far better way to see the country is to turn off into the hills and take the smaller roads, which are quiet and patchy.
The villages around Huedin are known for their folk culture. Calata, in the hills, is famous for its embroidery, a black and red pattern on white cloth, and the villagers still wear traditional costume on feast days. Houses have steep roofs and carved wooden gates, and shepherds bring sheep down from the high pastures in autumn.
Weather can be changeable, with fog in the valleys in autumn and snow from November. The best season is late spring, when the meadows are bright with flowers, and early autumn, when the beeches turn orange.
If you are staying, look for a guesthouse in one of the villages and take the opportunity to eat a home-cooked meal. Typical dishes are tochitura, a pork stew, and papanasi, doughnuts with sour cream and jam, a dessert worth the detour.