The calcareous ridge of the Buila-Vânturariţa massif, through its SW-NE direction, constituted and constitutes a barrier for the rivers that gather the waters on the southern slopes of the Căpățănii Mountains. The rivers, forced to bypass the central area, managed to break through this barrier only at the two ends: in the southwest part the Bistriţa and Costesti rivers dug spectacular gorges between which the Arnota mountain is included, and in the Northeast Cheia and Olăneşti rivers cut the Comarnicelor Gorge (Cheile Recea or Cheile Cheii), among the deepest and wildest in the country, showing over 1 km of waterfalls, marmites, jumpers, close-to-wall walls 2 m but high over 300 m and respectively Cheile Mânzului (Cheile Olăneştilor, Cheile Folea, Valea Rea or Cheile Râului Sec).

Apart from the keys, the exokarst forms are reduced in number, variety and size, due to the morphology of the limestone bar. Among these, the field of slabs from the Albu Mountain should be mentioned, the few natural arches, of which Casa de pătrunsa is the best known, the chimneys from Curmătura Builei, the northwestern steep. The endokarst forms are much better represented, through over 100 caves and several avenues. The Buila-Vânturariţa massif represents the easternmost area of the Southern Carpathians that houses the troglobiont fauna. For this and for the fact that the number of troglobiont species is quite large, the biospeological importance is very high.

Of the caves in the massif, 10 are declared protected areas by Law 5/2000:

Bat Cave

The cave is located on the right slope of the Bistriţei Gorges, at 630 m absolute altitude and at 80 m relative altitude, access being facilitated by a trail set up with railings, which goes up from behind the Bistriţa Monastery…

The Cave of the Arnauts

It is located on the right slope of Cheilor Mânzului (Olăneşti), at about 1000 m absolute altitude and 60 m difference from the valley of the valley. The development of the cave is 150 m and has a large opening (24/15 m), oriented northwest, observable from the bottom, located on a rather steep wall…

Lacul Verde Cave

It is located in the western wall of the Stogsoare mountain, at an absolute altitude of about 990 m and relative to 140 m from the valley of the Cheia river valley, in the left slope of the Ursului Ogas, a real river of grunt…

Pagodelor Cave

The cave is located in the western wall of the Stogsoare mountain, in the right wall of the Ursului Ogaş, at a relative altitude of 150 m from the valley of the Cheia valley…

The cave in Cheile Comarnicelor (Munteanu Murgoci)

It is found in the Stogsoare massif, at about 930 m absolute altitude and 30 m difference from the valley of the Cheia valley, in the left slope of the keys. It was researched and described since 1898 by Gh. Munteanu-Murgoci….

Goat Cave

The Caprelor Cave (Nature Monument) is a protected natural area of national interest that corresponds to the III IUCN category (speological nature reserve), located in Vâlcea county, on the administrative territory of the city of Băile Olănești.

Cancer Cave

The Cancer Cave (Nature Monument) is a protected area of national interest that corresponds to IUCN category IV (speological nature reserve), located in Vâlcea county, on the administrative territory of the city of Băile Olănești

Valea Bistrița Cave

The Bistrița Valley Cave (Nature Monument) is a protected natural area of national interest that corresponds to the III IUCN category (speological nature reserve), located in Vâlcea county, on the administrative territory of the Costești commune.

Pearl Cave

The Pearl Cave (Nature Monument) is a protected natural area of national interest that corresponds to IUCN category III (speological nature reserve), located in Vâlcea county, on the administrative territory of the city of Băile Olănești.

Bell Cave

The Clopot Cave (monument of nature) is a natural area that corresponds to the III category of IUCN (speological nature reserve), located in Vâlcea county, on the administrative territory of the city of Băile Olănești

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The soils in the Buila-Vânturariţa massif, being mostly formed on a calcareous substrate, do not present a great diversification, being different only because of the type of plant associations that were formed on them.
Overall, between the soils of the predominant Buila-Vânturariţa National Park are the redzines due to the calcareous configuration of the massif.

On the beech floor, humic-ferriiluvial, acid brown podzolic soils of alpine and forest meadows, with an acidic reaction and different degrees of podzolization, can be found.

In the floor of the conifers, there are podzolic, brown acid and ferriiluvial podzolic soils.

In the cracks of the rocks there is turbosy soil on which species with special adaptations – hasmophytes have settled.

Alluvial soils are found along the valleys.

Map made within the project of the Kogayon Association “Implementation of the Natura 2000 European Ecological Network on the territory of the Buila-Vânturariţa National Park and the realization of the Park Management Plan” financed by the Administration of the Fund for the Environment and co-financed by RNP Romsilva

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The first researches were carried out in 1956 by Alexandru Buia, M. Păun, followed by several botanists who published partial lists of plants from this massif.
The floristic spectrum The floristic and faunal diversity of the ecosystems within the Buila-Vânturariţa National Park is very large, due to a complex of factors, including:

• the mountainous relief that occupies a significant part of the territory, favoring the maintenance of natural vegetation which, in these areas, could not be replaced by agricultural crops due to the rugged relief of the calcareous ridge;
• the high frequency of the limestones on the day, marked in relief by sectors of gorges and small massifs isolated with steep slopes, chimneys, fissures, cheeses, dry valleys, grohotis that house a particularly interesting flora;
• the relatively mild climate, with sub-Mediterranean influences, which favored the spread of relatively thermophilic species;
• Within the mountainous relief there is a great diversity of habitat types (ecological entity that indicates the living environment of the species, at the same time abiotic, but also biotic). This complex of factors correlated with the position towards the genetic centers and the paths of migration of flora and fauna, determined the existence of very different elements: Eurasian, European and Central European, Alpine-Carpathian, Sub-Mediterranean, Carpatho-Balkan as well as a series of endemic or subendemic species. The predominant elements on the Buila limestones are generally the Eurasian ones (22.6%) which, together with the European (13.2%) and the Central European (11.2%) and European (11.2%), comprise half of the total species. Then follow the circumpolar (9.6℅), Balkan-Dacian (8.3%), Alpine (8.1%), Central Alpine (6.8%), endemic (6.8%), continental (4.9%), Mediterranean (4.9%), ubiquitous (3.6%).

the layering of the vegetation The Buila-Vânturariţa massif, due to the altitude of up to 1885 m, has vertical layering of the flora according to the arrangement of the altitudinal and climatic steps, with specific characteristics of each floor. Vegetation floors (after Popescu Gh., 1974):

• Nemoral floor (of deciduous forests):
  the understory of the beech trees;
  the understory of beech forests with resinous trees;
• the boreal floor (of the spruces);
• subalpine floor; The rock meadows are dominated by silver (Dryas octopetala). Warts of warts (Juniperus sabina) are also found. In the Buila-Vânturariţa massif, the following are vegetated:
• Endangered species (E) = species at risk of extinction (endangered) whose survival is unlikely if the causative factors continue to act or whose populations have been impoverished to a critical level (eg Leontopodium alpinum – the corner);
• Vulnerable species (V) = species considered possible to pass into the first category in the near future, if the causal factors continue to act; Included are species that have declining populations due to overexploitation and extensive habitat destruction or other environmental disorders (eg Trollius europaeus – mountain bulb, Dianthus spiculifolius, Daphne Mezereum – dwarf tulichina, Daphne Blagayana – white ivy);
• Rare species (R) = species with small world populations, which are currently not threatened but which are at risk as a result of their restrictive range (Viola alpina – rock axe, Taxus baccata – yew, Lilium jankae – lily of the mountain, Lilium martagon – forest lily, Centaurea atropurpurea – pesma, Pinus mugo – juniper);
• unthreatened species (NT). Another category of species are the endemic ones: Centaurea pinnafida, Dianthus spiculifolius, Juniperus sabina.
• In the Buila-Vânturariţa National Park, there are 28 species of orchids (according to Gh. Popescu, 1974): Epipactis Helleborine, E. Atrorubens, Gymnadenia conopsea, Orchis mascula, Platanthera bifolia, etc. Among the plants mentioned in the “Red List of Higher Plants from Romania” (M. Oltean et al.), in Buila-Vânturariţa we find Taxus baccata, Pinus sylvestris, Trollius europaeus, Junipeus Sabina, Dianthus spiculifolius, Daphne Blagayana, Gentiana Lutea.

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The climate is vertically layered, following the relief steps, with differences and even climate inversions from one slope to another.

The beech floor is characterized by precipitation between 600 and 900 mm/year, even reaching 1000 mm/year, a humidity between 68 and 70%, average annual temperatures between 6 and 90C.

The spruce floor is characterized by precipitation between 700 and 900 mm/year, a humidity between 67 and 70% (decreases with increasing altitude), average annual temperatures between 2 and 50C and by the predominance of winds with NW-SE direction.

The subalpine floor is characterized by precipitation higher than 900 mm/year, average annual temperatures between 1 and 20C, a long period in which the snow remains unmelted and a short period of plant vegetation.

The influence of the milder climate in Oltenia has a significant impact on the Căpățănii Mountains, especially on the southern slopes. There is a fairly obvious difference between the climate of the slopes with southeastern exposure and those with northwestern exposure. In the case of the former, we are dealing with a milder climate, with sub-Mediterranean characteristics due to the strong insolation and heat storage by the limestone, at altitudes higher than 1000 m, there are frequently higher temperatures than in the the areas much lower altitudinally, and the vegetation developing much faster on these slopes. On the other hand, on the slopes with north-west exposure and in the deep valleys, the temperatures are much lower, the snow persists until late in the summer, and the colder climate species climb up to the level of the ridge, with frequent inversions of the vegetation layers.

The average annual precipitation reaches 1200 mm at an altitude of about 1400 m. In the mountain area, the number of rainy days is 150 – 160 per year. In the areas above 1500 m, the first snow falls at the end of October and melts in May. Sometimes patches of snow linger in the valleys until midsummer.

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The entire hydrographic network of the Buila-Vânturariţa massif is tributary to the Olt River, through its direct or indirect right-wing tributaries, with a course direction, in large lines from north to south. The main rivers flowing in the massif are, from southwest to northeast:

• Bistriţa, a tributary of the Olt, which springs from the Căpățănii Mountains and is formed by the union of two main streams: Gurgui (west), with the springs in Curmătura Rodeanu and Cuca (east), with the springs in Curmătura Zănoaga.

It crosses the calcareous bar of the massif by digging gorges in its southwestern extremity, gathering the waters of the Bulzu Mountains and La Clae (eastern slopes), through numerous streams (Fântânii stream, Bulzului stream) and the mountain Arnota (western slope);

• Costeşti, a left tributary of Bistriţa, where it flows south of the Costeşti commune, with springs also in the Căpățânii mountains (Curmătura Lespezi), which gather the waters from the northwestern slopes of the massif (the sector up to Plaiul Lespezi) (Sasa Voiceşti, Ghelălău, Curmăturii streams), the eastern slope of the Arnota mountain and the southern slope of the Cacova mountain (Pârâul Sec or Valea Morii).

The river found its place along the path of an important fault and crossed the massif from north to south Săpâng Spectacular gorges.

• Otăsău, a left tributary of Bistriţa, which has its origin in Curmătura Builei and collects the waters from the southern slopes of the Piatra and Albu mountains (Valea Bulzului, Valea Pătrunsa).
• Cheia, a right tributary of Olăneşti, has its sources in the Căpățănii Mountains (Zmeuret – Preota area). It collects water both from the high area of Căpățănii and Buila-Vânturariţa, both on the northwestern and southeastern slopes. The key digs in the limestones between Stogu and Vânturariţa a very spectacular gorge sector, one of the wildest in the country.
• Olăneşti, a right tributary of the Olt, with springs in the Căpățănii Mountains (Gera Peak), which also gathers the waters from the eastern slope of Mount Stogu. Olăneştiul also digs a sector of gorges, shorter but very spectacular, the limestone bar extending to their eastern slope.

In terms of lakes and water accumulations, the massif is poor, with only a few small lakes present: the anthropogenic ones from Pietreni, generated by the sliding of the layers on which the tailings dump from the Bistriţa Quarry was deposited, two small ponds (toplițe) on the gorges Bistriţa and some small bulls in the sinkholes in the Piatra mountain area, which dry almost completely in dry summers.

The underground waters were very active, generating numerous endokarst phenomena, represented by over 100 caves, to which are added numerous exokarst phenomena. Numerous sources of water of the springs are present, of which that of the beautiful spring next to the Pahomie hermitage is the most important. Other smaller ones can be found north of Curmătura Builei (La Troiţă), Poiana Scărişoara, Poiana Pătrunsa, Bistriţa.

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Geomorphology

Unlike the Capățănii Mountains of which it is a part, the Buila-Vânturariţa Massif has special characteristics, specific to linear and island calcareous ridges. The main peak has a length of about 14 km, but having a unitary character only between the Costeşti gorges and the Cheile Cheia, with a small interruption in the Curmătura Builei area (here the sedimentary cover has been eroded to the metamorphic deposits here), the rest being fragmented by the To the rivers that dug gorges (from west to east: Bistriţa, Costeşti, Cheia and Olăneşti), which separate two massifs: Arnota (southwest, between the Bistriţa and Costeşti rivers) and Stogu (north-east, between the rivers Cheia and Olăneşti), which have a different appearance from that of the main peak. The ridge has a rugged appearance, only on small areas with smoothed plateaus (Cacova Mountain and Albu Mountain), the dominant feature being that of stepped ridges, dominated by rounded (Piatra, Buila) or pointed peaks (The Wind). The northern sector of the main peak has the appearance of a sharp and jagged ridge, even if the height gradually decreases. Erosion and disaggregation have detached residual erosion witnesses with the shape of towers or needles, some of large sizes (35m), especially on the western slope of the massif. The secondary peaks are generally short (below 1km) and fall in accentuated steps to the east. Only in the Cacova mountain are smooth peaks, and the rounded peak sectors in the Cacova and Piatra mountains. From an altimetric point of view, the maximum elevation is located at 1885 m (Vânturariţa Mare Peak) and the minimum at 550 m (Bistritei exit from Chei). It results in an altitudinal average of 1218 m.

The course of the curves and the distribution of hypsometry within the massif are elongated-concentric. Thus, altitudes over 1800 m occupy two small areas in the central part of the massif, around the peaks of Buila and Vânturariţa, totaling only 1.4% of the surface. Between 1400 and 1800 m is the entire central part of the massif and island, Mount Stogu, totaling 14.5% of the area. The largest expansion is occupied by the interval 1000 – 1400 m, being present both in the Arnota mountain and the Cacova mountain, as well as along the entire eastern border from the central and northern part of the massif. This altitudinal interval amounts to 56.6% of the surface. The part below 1000 m occupies 27.3% and is extended mainly to the south of the Arnota mountain and along the Bistriţa, Costeşti and Cheia valleys.

Fragmentation density calculations show that 38.7% of the massif’s surface has values of over 4 km/km2. The highest value reaches 5.2 km/km2 and is located east of Vânturariţa peak. Surfaces with values of 3-4 km/km2 represent 27% of the surface. The average value of the fragmentation density is 3.5 km/km2. Values lower than 2 km/km2 represent 20.8% of the surface of the entire massif. The minimum calculated value is 0.9 km/km2, in the perimeter of the Bistriţa quarry. With the exception of the allochthonous valleys of Bistriţei, Costeştiului, Cheii and Olăneştiului, the valleys with a permanent drainage regime are almost missing. For this reason, the torrential organisms and avalanche corridors that plow the steep slopes have the highest weight in the calculations. The depth of relief fragmentation reaches the maximum value of 820 m. The average energy is 518 m and the minimum around 350 m, generally normal values for mountains with medium altitude. On more than half of the massif area, the relief energy is below 500 m, respectively 24% of the surface below 400 m and 33% between 400 and 500 m. Areas with values of 500 – 600 m represent 15% of the massif. The energy of 600 – 700 m represents 13.5%. The highest values – over 700 m – total 14.5% of the massif’s surface. In many situations, the usual values are high due to the reference of the valleys to the steeps that delimit the main peak of the massif.

The slope of the relief directly influences the type and intensity of the geomorphological processes and strongly leaves its mark on the landscape. The value of the slope is very varied and reaches up to 80 – 900 in the case of steeps, in some places even walls with overhangs appear. The largest extension is the surfaces with inclinations of 40 – 600 (33%), the slopes between 20 – 400 occupy 16% of the surface, the surfaces with slopes of 10 – 200, 10% and below 100, 9%. The same great variety can be seen in the case of the exposure of the slopes. The horizontal and sub-horizontal surfaces represent only 6% of the extent of the massif. The surfaces with eastern and southern exposure occupy 25% and 32% of the surface, respectively, compared to those exposed to the west (18%) and north (19%).

Maps made within the project of the Kogayon Association “Implementation of the Natura 2000 European Ecological Network on the territory of the Buila-Vânturariţa National Park and the realization of the Park Management Plan” financed by the Administration of the Fund for the Environment and co-financed by RNP Romsilva

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Tectonic framework

From a tectonic point of view, the area is part of the Carpathian Orogen. The Buila-Vânturariţa massif is part of the Getic canvas, a unit of the median Dacids in the Southern Carpathians, put in place in the Senonian, within the Laramic tectogenesis. The Getic cloth is made up of prealpine crystallophilic formations and a sedimentary blanket within which the oldest deposits are of superior coal-borne age. Due to the erosion, sedimentary deposits of the Getic cloth are found only in a few areas, the most important of which are Braşov-Dâmbovicioara, Buila-Vânturariţa, Haţeg and Resita-Moldova Noua. These sedimentary deposits were subjected to tectonogenetic processes in two phases. The first significant discordance is pre-Albian, when the Getic sariage began and corresponds to the first Getic phase, the age of the first mount being placed after the Lower Aptian and before the end of the Upper Aptian. The second Getic phase, representing the main Laramic sariage, took place in the Senonian, when the Getic cloth, based on the Severin cloth, covered the Danubian domain.

Stratigraphy

In the area of the Buila-Vânturariţa massif, there is a succession of metamorphic and sedimentary deposits that can be traced entirely on the openings offered by the valleys of the four rivers that cross the calcareous bar, digging into it a sector of gorges.

Crystalline formations

In the Buila-Vânturariţa massif, the metamorphic rocks outcrop on the northwest slopes, on the river valleys Bistriţa, Costeşti, Cheia and Olăneşti, as well as in the ridge area, where they come to date from under the sedimentary deposits eroded (Curmătura Builei). The metamorphic evolution of the Gneissic units in the Getic Cloth is part of the time interval of the Varisc cycle (300 – 350 m.a). The evolution of the metamorphites in the Southern Carpathians currently has clearer landmarks, emphasizing the polystadial character and a distinct evolution of the Getic-Supragetic vs. Danubian, in a sequence of events from subduction to obduction and a tectonic inversion in the middle and upper Cretaceous. The metamorphic rocks in the Getic-Supragetic domain can be divided into two main types of lithologies: a type dominated by crystalline limestones, amphibolites, micaschists, paragneisse, quartzites, which lack migmatites, representing Negoi metalitofacies, and the second is relatively poor in carbonate and amphibolitic rocks, being dominated by gneisse and migmatite, representing the Metalitofacies of Sebeş-Lotru, within the latter also including the crystalline formations from the Buila-Vânturariţa massif.

sedimentary formations

After the completion of the Baikalian cycle, which generated epimetamorphic crystalline schists, the Getic domain evolved as an exundized area subject to denudation. It became an area of accumulation in neo-carboniferous, when predominantly continental deposits were accumulated. In the alpine cycle, the sedimentation process begins after the exoneration phase that lasted even during the Triassic. In the Jurassic, a series of depression areas are taking shape, including Buila-Vânturariţa. The Getic domain is again exonded after the Mesocretaceous tectogenesis. After this moment, a transgression takes place at the Cenomanian level, but the sedimentary formations are, for the most part, removed by erosion.

In the area of the Buila-Vânturariţa Massif, the sedimentary sequence includes the lower Jurassic and Cretaceous deposits:

Lower Bajocian-Barkhonian: coarse sandstones and massive, spatic, coral-like limestones.
Upper Bathonian-Lower Callovian: calcareous sandstones and limonite limestones with greenish and red spots, with elements of micaschists.
Middle-upper Callovian: shale, calcareous, yellowish-reddish sandstones, microconglomerates and yellowish micaceous limestones.
Oxfordian: marly shale, marl calcareous, red limestone with jaspers.
Lower Kimmeridgian: fine red, layered limestones.
Superior Kimmeridgian-Tithonian: 250-300 m Massive reef limestones.
Tithonian Superior-Berriasian: Missing.
VALANGINIAN: oosparite, pelsparite, intrapelsparite, which pass laterally and successively to biomycrites.
HAUTERIVIAN: Missing.
Barhemian-Aptian: Urgonian facies that is arranged transgressively and discordantly over the Neoconian formations. The Cretaceous formations represent a very well-developed detrital series (maximum 10,000 m, with thicknesses increasing from the southwest to northeast):
Lower Albian-Vraconian: the lower horizon of sandstones and conglomerates.
Vraconian-Turonian-Coniacian: the lower marl-clay horizon with alternations of clays and marls, sometimes thin sandstones.
Santonian-Lower Campanian: the upper horizon of sandstones and conglomerates.
Superior-Maastrichtian Campania: the upper marl-clay horizon.

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The Buila-Vânturariţa massif is located in the central-northern part of Vâlcea county and is part of the Căpățănii Mountains. The massif stands out from their main chain, both by layout and by constitution and relief. The main ridge of the Căpățănii Mountains, consisting mainly of crystalline schists, has an east-west layout, with secondary ridges to the north and south. The exception is two calcareous massifs, whose main ridges are arranged in the SW-NE direction: the Târnovu massif in the northwest and the Buila-Vânturariţa massif in the southeast.

The Buila-Vânturariţa massif stretches from the west of the Bistriţa gorges to the east of the Olăneştilor gorges (Folea). The connection with the Căpățănii Mountains is made through Plaiul Netedu (the interfluve between the Bistriţa and Costeşti rivers), the Lespezi plain (the interfluve between the Costeşti and Cheia rivers) and the Hădărău plain (the interfluve between the Cheia rivers and Olăneşti).

The Buila-Vânturariţa ridge has a linear spatial extension, with a length of about 14 km and a width between 0.5 and 2.5 m km (extension of the Jurassic limestones). The absolute altitude is at the top of Vânturariţa Mare (1885 m), and the minimum at the exit of Bistriţa from Chei (550 m).

The main peaks of the massif are, from southwest to northeast, the following: Arnota (1183.7 m), Cacova Mountain (1525.1 m), Piatra Mountain (1643 m), Albu Mountain (1658.9 m), Buila (1848.6 m), Ştevioara (1847 m), Vânturariţa Mare (1885.2 m), Vioreanu (1866 m), Vânturariţa Mică (1655 m), Stogu (981 m).

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Buila-Vânturariţa National Park has 6 entry points:

• 3 in the Costeşti commune, one in the Bistriţa valley and two in the Costesti Valley: Bistriţa, Pietreni-Prislop and Pietreni-Valea Morii;
• 1 in Bărbăteşti commune on the Otăsăului valley;
• 1 in the village of Cheia on the Cheia valley;
• 1 in the town of Băile Olăneşti on the Olăneşti valley.

Access can be done either on the national road 67 Rm. Vâlcea-Târgu Jiu, or on the county road Rm. Vâlcea-Băile Olăneşti.

By choosing the first option, you can reach the massif as follows:

• 30 km to Bărbăteşti (Bârzeşti village), then north on the Otăsăului Valley, 5 km on paved road, another 3 km on a forest road, to the end of the road, from where on the path, in an hour, you reach the hermitage penetrated;
• 38 km to Costeşti, then north, you can reach either the village of Bistriţa (7 km on paved road) or the Pietreni village (5 km of paved road and 2 km of cobbled road).
• By choosing the road to Băile Olăneşti, after 15 km you can choose two options:
• on the Olăneşti valley, 6 km to the resort and 14 km on the forest road to the Olăneşti gorges, passing by the Mânzu forestry canton (7 km);
• On Valea Cheia, 7 km to Valea Cheia on the asphalted road, then on a forest road. After passing the Iezer Hermitage (3 km), you can reach either the Pahomie Hermitage (8 km) or the Cheia Forest Canton (9 km).

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The Buila-Vânturariţa massif is located in the central-northern part of Vâlcea county and is part of the Căpățănii Mountains. The massif stands out from their main chain, both by layout and by constitution and relief. The main ridge of the Căpățănii Mountains, consisting mainly of crystalline schists, has an east-west layout, with secondary ridges to the north and south. The exception is two calcareous massifs, whose main ridges are arranged in the SW-NE direction: the Târnovu massif in the northwest and the Buila-Vânturariţa massif in the southeast.

The Buila-Vânturariţa massif stretches from the west of the Bistriţa gorges to the east of the Olăneştilor gorges (Folea). The connection with the Căpățănii Mountains is made through Plaiul Netedu (the interfluve between the Bistriţa and Costeşti rivers), the Lespezi plain (the interfluve between the Costeşti and Cheia rivers) and the Hădărău plain (the interfluve between the Cheia rivers and Olăneşti).

The Buila-Vânturariţa ridge has a linear spatial extension, with a length of about 14 km and a width between 0.5 and 2.5 m km (extension of the Jurassic limestones). The absolute altitude is at the top of Vânturariţa Mare (1885 m), and the minimum at the exit of Bistriţa from Chei (550 m).

The main peaks of the massif are, from southwest to northeast, the following: Arnota (1183.7 m), Cacova Mountain (1525.1 m), Piatra Mountain (1643 m), Albu Mountain (1658.9 m), Buila (1848.6 m), Ştevioara (1847 m), Vânturariţa Mare (1885.2 m), Vioreanu (1866 m), Vânturariţa Mică (1655 m), Stogu (981 m).

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