The cave is located in Locvei Mountains, 3 kilometers away from Moldova Nouă town.
On a river stone paved road, used since roman times, hidden behind a mountain, you can spot the entrance to the “Grota Haiducilor” cave (which means “Brigands’ Grotto”). It has 2 main galleries: one along the river that crosses the cave and the other, “Sala Mare” (“The Big Hall”), on top of the first one. It seems this is not a very old cave since the stalactites and stalagmites found inside are still forming.
The legend says that Adam Duca, also called Adam Neamțu (Adam The German) for wearing german clothes, was a teacher in a village along the Danube river. Fed up with the poverty and suffering around him, he started stealing from the rich. Along with his brigands, he robbed the rich and shared his loot with the poor from the nearby villages. It is said that who received money from the brigand, could not call himself poor anymore.
The search party caught Adam Duca while he was seeing his sweetheart and imprisoned him for 20 years.
When he got out of prison, the brigand asked the help of a boyar, who was once a poor man and became rich thanks to Adam’s help. The landlord refused to help the brigand, so Adam Duca took his revenge and burn the boyar alive.
The brigand got caught again and this time sentenced to death by hanging. It is said that all this took place around the year 1400 and that some of the treasures remained unshared, still hidden in the cave. In 1977, a group of german tourists found a treasure here, believed to be Adam Duma’s treasure.
The tourists who came in 2016 through the „Eco Turismul o Șansă” project enjoyed the Adam Duma brigand’s legend from the ”Grota Haiducilor” cave. The cave remains at this date very little explored, about 10%.