Bicaz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Bicaz is also a commune in Maramureş County, see Bicaz, Maramureş.
| Bicaz | |
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| Coordinates: 46°54′39″N 26°5′28″E / 46.91083°N 26.09111°E | |
| Country |  Romania |
|---|---|
| County | Neamţ County |
| Status | Town |
| Government | |
| - Mayor | Constantin Catrinoiu (Democratic Party) |
| Area | |
| - Total | 148.9 km2 (57.5 sq mi) |
| Population (2002) | |
| - Total | 8,643 |
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) |
| - Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) |
Bicaz is a town in Neamţ County, Romania situated in the eastern Carpathian Mountains near the confluence of the Bicaz and Bistriţa Rivers and near Lake Bicaz, an artificial lake formed by a dam on the Bistriţa. Bicaz used to be a border town until 1918.
Before the construction of the Bicaz Dam and the cement factory (1950s), Bicaz was just a small mountain village where the main economic activity was wood processing. By tradition, the tree trunks were linked together, forming a raft (pluta); a raftman (Romanian: plutaş) used to drive the raft on the Bistriţa river downstream to wood processing facilities in Piatra Neamţ.
The town is a point of departure toward the Ceahlău Massif and Bicaz Canyon (in Romanian: Cheile Bicazului), two important touristic destinations in Romania. The ski resort Durău is also located nearby.
[edit] Economy
Beside the tourism, Bicaz is the site of one of the biggest cement plants in Romania, Carpat Cement owned today by the German company HeidelbergCement. The town has also a few timber factories and wood processing facilities.
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