The Carpathians are the mountain range that most people in Western Europe cannot place on a map, even though it is longer than the Alps. It curves through Central and Eastern Europe like a giant hook, from the edge of Vienna’s basin around to the Danube on the border of Serbia and Romania. Inside that curve sits Transylvania, and around it sit seven countries.
The seven Carpathian countries
The clearest official definition comes from the Carpathian Convention, the treaty that covers the whole region. Its secretariat lists seven contracting parties:
- Czech Republic, where the range begins in the east of the country.
- Slovakia, home of the Tatras, the highest part of the chain.
- Poland, along its southern border.
- Hungary, with the volcanic hills of its north.
- Ukraine, in its far west.
- Romania, which holds the largest part of the arc.
- Serbia, where the range meets the Danube in the east of the country.
The Convention was signed in 2003 and ratified by all seven parties in 2006. According to its secretariat, it is the second treaty of its kind for a mountain region anywhere in the world, after the Alpine Convention.
How the arc runs
Starting in the north-west, the mountains rise in Moravia and western Slovakia, then climb into the Tatras on the Slovak and Polish border. From there the arc swings east through the forested Beskids and into western Ukraine, where it is lower and wilder. In Romania it turns south, then bends sharply west, and finally runs down to the Danube. On a map the whole shape looks like a backwards letter C.
Geographers usually divide it into three parts:
- Western Carpathians: Czech Republic, Slovakia, southern Poland and northern Hungary, with the Tatras as the high point.
- Eastern Carpathians: western Ukraine and northern and eastern Romania.
- Southern Carpathians: the high ridges of central Romania, often called the Transylvanian Alps, with the Făgăraș mountains at their heart.
A separate block, the Apuseni Mountains in western Romania, closes the circle around the Transylvanian plateau.
The Tatras, the high point
The Tatras are small compared with the rest of the range, but they are the only part with a sharp alpine look: granite ridges, glacial lakes and steep cirques. Gerlachovský štít, on the Slovak side, is the highest summit of the whole Carpathian chain. Zakopane on the Polish side and the resorts below Štrbské pleso on the Slovak side are the usual bases for visitors.
Transylvania inside the curve
Because the mountains wrap around it, Transylvania is a raised plateau ringed by ridges on three sides. Its towns, such as Brașov, Sibiu and Cluj-Napoca, sit in basins or at the foot of the passes. Roads into the region still follow the same gaps that traders used for centuries, which is why a short distance on a map can take a long time to drive.
The Transfăgărășan road climbs over the Făgăraș mountains and is one of the best known mountain drives in Europe. Its high section closes for much of the year because of snow, so check before planning a crossing.
Rivers that start here
The Convention describes the Carpathians as the headwaters of major rivers, and the map shows why. Water from the range feeds:
- The Vistula, which rises in the Polish Beskids and flows north to the Baltic.
- The Dniester, which starts in the Ukrainian Carpathians and runs to the Black Sea.
- The Tisza and the Prut, both born in Ukraine before joining the Danube system.
- The Olt and the Mureș in Romania, which cut through or drain the arc.
The Iron Gates
The arc ends where the Danube forces its way through the mountains between Serbia and Romania. This gorge, known as the Iron Gates, is the place where the Carpathians meet the Balkan Mountains on the far bank. For a long time it was one of the most feared stretches of the river, and today it is the clearest dividing line between the two ranges on any map.
Forests and large carnivores
The Carpathians hold some of the largest forested areas left in Europe, and they are one of the strongholds of brown bears, wolves and lynx on the continent. The Convention treats large carnivores as one of its main topics. Hikers in Romania and Slovakia should follow local advice on food storage and on which trails to use.
Reading the Carpathians with the rest of Europe
The map of Eastern Europe shows the countries the range runs through, and the map of the Balkans picks up the story south of the Danube. For comparison with other mountain borders, the map of the Alps covers the treaty that inspired the Carpathian one, and the map of the Pyrenees shows a range that separates countries instead of uniting them.
The Carpathian Convention publishes the full text of the treaty and the list of parties on its framework convention page.
