Rightfully appraising all the wonders that Nature embellished our country with, all meant to be cautiously preserved for the future generations, Romfilatelia, the specialized company in editing and trading Romanian postage stamps, introduces into circulation the postage stamps issue UNIQUE ITEMS IN THE NATURAL RESERVATION “PETEA CREEK” – BAILE 1 MAI – ORADEA.
In the North Western part of Romania, a few kilometers away from Oradea, in an ancient oak forest, at the foot of the Somleu Hill, there is a tinny sub-tropical oasis, a magnificent place that the famous writer, Lucian Blaga, would have captured in the “world’s corolla of wonders”: Baile 1 Mai. At an altitude of 140 meters, this is home of the Petea lake and creek, which, after crossing the localities of Sanmartin and Oradea, flows into Crisul Repede river. The creek springs from the so called “Ochiul Tiganilor” (“Gypsies’ Eye”) and joins forces with various thermal springs. The greater of these gave birth to the Petea Lake, also widespread acknowledged as the “Water Lily Lake” with a total surface of 4,100 square meters. The warm healing waters (constant temperature between 30 and 31 C) supplied by thermal sub-lacustrine springs, have, from early times, hosted ancient species: the thermal water lily Nymphaea lotus var. thermalis, accompanied, during the geological eras by the Melanopsis parreyssi thermal snail and the ray-finned fish (Scardinius racovitzai).
