TURDA

city, Cluj judet (county), west-central Romania, on the Aries River. Turda was first a Dacian settlement (Dierna) and later a Roman castrum (Potaissa), around which grew a municipium and later a colony. On the outskirts of the city are the salt mines worked in Roman times. In the Middle Ages, Turda was the meeting place of the Transylvanian Diet. The city is now an important industrial centre, with a cement mill, a glass and ceramics factory, a chemical works, and other plants producing silicon furnace linings and material for insulating electrical products. It is also the centre for a tourist area, which includes the Turda Gorges (Cheile Turzii), an impressive feature of karst geology that is a national monument, and the Aries Valley, which provides access to the Apuseni Mountains. Pop. (1982 est.) 58,744.