Lake Saint Ana
Situated in the mount Ciumatul Mare, on the left side of the river Olt, the lake Sfanta Ana rises on the bottom of an inactive volcano, named Ciomatu. The lake water is almost as pure as that of distilled water. You cannot find one living creature in the water, because of the lack of oxygen.
The legend
Any beautiful place has a legend, this one has two. One of the legends says that once upon a time, a young couple was supposed to get married. The young girl, by her name Ana, who was about to get married, did not agreed with the marriage because her parents forced her to grab the young man’s fortune.
She could not bear the thought of getting married with that rude boy whom she did not love. In the night of the wedding, the bride ran away and threw herself in the lake. Her body was never found. This is why, the locals named the lake Sfanta Ana( Saint Anne).
Another legend says that, in the old times, in this places lived two tyrants which were brothers. One of them mastered a fortress on the top Puciosul and the other one a fortress situated on the place of the actual lake. The master of the fortress from the top Puciosu had a great carriage , fact that enraged hid brother and promised that he will come the next day with a greater carriage. To gain the promise, he harnessed eight of the most beautiful girls from the surrounding places. The beautiful girls could not move an inch the heavy carriage.
The tyrant begun the to beat and whip the girls. One of the girls, named Ana, damned the evil master, and out of the blue begun a terrible storm, with thunders and lightning, and the fortress along with its master, was covered by fames. In the place were the fortress appeared a lake, and the locals named it Sfanta Ana.
These are the legends, this is the place. A big beautiful blue lake on top of the mountain, a small cottage by the lake, providing you food and drinking, and the freedom to imagine. A road that circles the lake, separating it from the woods, will offer you a peaceful walk. If you are not in the mood for socializing, and just want to admire nature’s miracles and beauties, take the road and keep walking. Most surely you will find a place of your own.
If you are a lazy walker, and wish for easy mountain likes, this is the perfect spot for you. Easy access, short hikes, beautiful landscapes, and the refreshing and conforting powers of water given to you by the beautiful lake. Romantic sunsets, relaxing times…The places is so beautiful it will give life to the artist within you.
If you can’t make your mind between choosing the mountain or the sea, you can choose the Sfanta Ana lake. With maximum 7 meters depth, bathing is allowed. Daydreaming is suggested.
If you are searching for a place to relax, to find your inner self, to run away from the city life, the stress at your office, your boss, capitalism, crashing cars, noisy parks, rude waiters, malls, everything that eats a part of you and loose yourself in this ocean called life, this is the perfect place for you my friend. Take a vacation, you will become a new man!
Once you are here, you do not need to see the weather broadcast, the locals can tell how the weather will be. Two fissures formed in the mountain help them tell how the weather will be. The locals know that if the emanations are strong, it’s a sign that it will be a storm, if not, it will be a beautiful sunny day.
The phenomenon is due to the fact that inside the mountain there is still a powerful volcanic activity, sensible to any change of the atmosphere.Mountain, lake, lake, sunbaths, peace, weather tellers, legends…want more? Go discover on your own!
Fagaras Fortress
650 years old, this big mastodon is situated in the centre of the town Fagaras, in the South Eastern Part of Transylvania. The stronghold rises proudly as never before. The tales are uncountable; the ageing has not forgiven it. The signs left by the battles can still be seen from place to place. The Fagaras stronghold had great importance in defending Transylvania in the medieval times.
In 1526, the fortress and its domains become the voivode’s properties, Later on, after winning a battle, the Turks make prisoner the voivode and lock him in the famous prison Aedicule (the 7 Towers), where he will die 10 years later, without gaining his freedom. In 1599, Mihai Viteazul sets free the fortress, and remains faithful to him, in the days of nobles rebellion also, giving him and his family shelter. Starting with the XVII-th century, the fortress was the residence of all Transylvanian princes.The actual aspect of the building is given to the restorations made in time. In 1630 the fosse round the fortress was enlarged and connected to the river Olt by a secret channel. There was also built a mobile bridge at the entrance, for safety. After 1965 the fortress was restored again and arranged as a museum. Nowadays, you can visit both the museum and the fortress.
THE FAGARAS MUSEUM
The museum represents a large area of ethnographic and historic area, named Tara Fagarasului. It was founded in 1923 on the basis of the ethnographic collection of Professor Valeriu Literat, a strong sustainer of the cultural life of this part of Transylvania. The museum, collaborated also with the Brunkental museum from Sibiu, In 1981 the name chanced into The Fagaras Fortress, changing shortly after in The Museum Of Fagaras Land. With the passing of the time, the museum become more knows, and the number of the objects exposed increased. The museum has a mixed profile and gathers: archeology, guns, ancient Romanian books, documents, decorative art, pottery, ethnic clothing and wood carvings.
The exposition is based on the evolution of the Fagaras Land, by presenting all the important moments and things. In a tour of the museum, you can find out not just the history of this land, but also you can get a glimpse of the way the life was centuries ago, You can see for yourself what makes this fortress so special, that resisted not only the passing of the time, but also the enemies.
You might not be yet convinced to go and visit, but i must assure you, that the things you will see here, you will not find in any other country: the pottery, the culture, the tools…it’s unique and so real. A beautiful fortress, with wonderful view, the perfect set for a movie with fairy princesses and brave medieval warriors.
The rest is for you to discover. If you prove to be more interested in the history and want to find more, you will find at the museum a guide who will tell you the whole story and will gladly answer to all your questions. If you fall so much in love with the place and will like to spend some days in the town, you can stay at the hotels and motel available. This way, you will have more time to enter the tale. If not, you can always choose to have a tour, being in the Brasov district, you can go visit also the Brasov; in order to keep the medieval mood up, then The Bran Castle or Dracula’s Castle as it is most know, then The medieval fortress Rasnov, the oldest one and finishing you tour with Sinaia and its beautiful Peles Castle. How does that sound to you?
Muierilor Cave, Symbol of Fertility and Holiness
The Muierilor Cave is one of the most impressive monuments of nature in our country, situated in the Gorj country, close to the Baia de Fier settlement and the Galbenul River. You'll find this cave at a 700 meters altitude and the most famous legend that regards this place is the one that claims sterile women will bear a child after visiting the underground galleries.
The Muierilor Cave is filled with limestone decorations and fantastic works of art shaped by nature over millennia, like "the Organ" or "Bazinele Mici", made out of stalactites and stalagmites, or the "Little Dome", some sort of strange castle. There's also an "Altar", with its superb stalagmite-columns, very close to one another. Its roof resembles the one of a great cathedral, one that stalagmites climb, as if they were using a stair.
Other important limestone adornments are the "Amvon", "Petrified Waterfall", "The Turk's Hall", "Small Chandeliers" and the "Great Dome". In the "Turk's Hall", you'll find a "Santa" and in front of it a Turkish dancer (Cadana), a female nude above which there's a huge bird of prey's head, with a menacing beak. You'll also want to stop and have a look at the "Stone Lace" and then visit "The Hall of Wonders". All in all, you'll have 1100 meters to go and many galleries and wonders to explore.
The name "Muierilor Cave" (Women's Cave) comes from the old dwellers of Baia de Fier and refers to the fact that in ancient times, during wars, women and children hid in the cave, while men left to fight the wars. The galleries of this natural monument were created by the Galbenul River and measure up to 3600 metres, displayed as 4 carstic levels. Two sectors are part of the inferior level: the north one (1500 meters) and the southern one (800 metres), both very important for scientists, since they're a reservation and can't be visited by tourists.
We have to mention that the visiting areas were electrified in 1963 and 1978, making the cave the most popular and visited monument of its kind in Romania and attracting tens of thousands of visitors each year. An impressive part of the cave is the northern sector,that includes a network of labyrinths, with a length of 1650 metres. You'll access it via a tight gallery, situated in the western side of the upper floor, 30 metres from the northern side entrance.
The Muierilor Cave is filled with limestone decorations and fantastic works of art shaped by nature over millennia, like "the Organ" or "Bazinele Mici", made out of stalactites and stalagmites, or the "Little Dome", some sort of strange castle. There's also an "Altar", with its superb stalagmite-columns, very close to one another. Its roof resembles the one of a great cathedral, one that stalagmites climb, as if they were using a stair.
Other important limestone adornments are the "Amvon", "Petrified Waterfall", "The Turk's Hall", "Small Chandeliers" and the "Great Dome". In the "Turk's Hall", you'll find a "Santa" and in front of it a Turkish dancer (Cadana), a female nude above which there's a huge bird of prey's head, with a menacing beak. You'll also want to stop and have a look at the "Stone Lace" and then visit "The Hall of Wonders". All in all, you'll have 1100 meters to go and many galleries and wonders to explore.
The name "Muierilor Cave" (Women's Cave) comes from the old dwellers of Baia de Fier and refers to the fact that in ancient times, during wars, women and children hid in the cave, while men left to fight the wars. The galleries of this natural monument were created by the Galbenul River and measure up to 3600 metres, displayed as 4 carstic levels. Two sectors are part of the inferior level: the north one (1500 meters) and the southern one (800 metres), both very important for scientists, since they're a reservation and can't be visited by tourists.
We have to mention that the visiting areas were electrified in 1963 and 1978, making the cave the most popular and visited monument of its kind in Romania and attracting tens of thousands of visitors each year. An impressive part of the cave is the northern sector,that includes a network of labyrinths, with a length of 1650 metres. You'll access it via a tight gallery, situated in the western side of the upper floor, 30 metres from the northern side entrance.
Vidraru Dam and Lake, a Wonder of Nature, Confined by Man
If you're travelling along the river Arges, you'll reach the area of Pleasa and Vidraru Mountains, 40 km away from Curtea de Arges. This is where the Vidraru Dam was built, a true modern work of art, as most engineers and scientists consider it. As most communist era gigantic structures, it was built with great human sacrifices (80 deceased), between 1961 and 1966.
In order to build this great dam, the workers had to drill and dig underground galleries, 42 km in length and they also excavated more than 1.7 million cubic meters of rock (1 million underground). Part of this monumental effort was also the pouring of 930.000 cubic metres of concrete and the mounting of 6300 tons of electromechanical equipment.
The Vidraru artificial lake hosts 465 million cubic meters of water and is 10.3 km long and 2.2 km wide (in the area Valea Lupului – Calugarita). Its maximum depth is 155 metres and the electric powerplant it fuels is placed underground, 104 metres deep, providing an annual electric energy production of 400 GWh.
When the Vidraru Dam was inaugurated, it was the fifth in Europe and the ninth in the world, a double curve dam with a height of 166.6 metres and a coronament length of 307 metres. At night, its contour is lighted, so it can be spotted even while travelling by plane. In order to visit the dam, you'll have to access it from the eastern bank of the lake, that goes all the way up to Balea. From the end of the dam, on the left you'll continue your road towards the Cumpana depression.
The construction of the dam was am ambition of former communist president Gheorghiu-Dej, who didn't live to see it built. Some claim that his passion for such initiatives came from his former job as an electrician. Till 1989 the powerplant near this structure beared the ruler's name. The debut of the construction brought many workers in the area, with a maximum of 10.000 people working on it, most of them coming from Moldavia, where the Bicaz dam had just been finalized.
Most of the workers who had gone through the Bicaz experience were present also at Vidraru and the authorities built the new dam in the purest soviet style, as a structure with great weight and sparing no materials and money. The construction came at the cost of 1 billion 470 million lei in the time's currency, an investment that was recovered in 28 years. What's impressive is that the main structure suffered no major modification or upgrade till now, working with the same technology as in the sixties. The only novelty is a new alarm system installed a couple of years ago.
The structure can withstand an 8 Richter degrees quake and it incorporates a seismic warning system. During the great 1977 quake, the dam suffered no damage at all and this construction is guaranteed to last another 50 years or so, or better said 100 years from 1965, when it was built.
Tourists can climb the Belvedere platform to have a look at the surrounding gorgeous scenery. One of the landmarks of this area is the statue of Prometeus, placed on Pleasa Mountain. The Statue was created by sculptor Constantin Popovici and it shows a gigantic "god" holding a thunder in his hand, as the symbol of electricity.A couple of hundred meters away from the dam there's the Arges House and the boat house, where tourists can hitch a ride on a little boat for fun. The same dam also hosts one of the highest bungee jumping spots in the country. While Vidraru is a great source of income for Curtea de Arges, it can also be considered some sort of Damocles' sword, since a crack in the dam or its destruction would send tons of cubic metres of water racing towards the settlement, killing all of its population.
In spite of an incident in 1977, that resulted in hundreds of tons of water destroying houses in a couple of local villages, the officials from Vidraru claim that such a calamity is impossible. What's certain is that the Vidraru Dam and Lake are visited by thousands of tourists each year, who are stunned by this monument of engineering works.
Hunedoara
A gothic marvel
The legendary and mythic Transylvania hides the most beautiful architectural buildings that Romania has. Usually, Romanians refer to Transylvania as “there”… where everything looks and is better than the rest of the f the country. “There”, you can find a city that hosts Romania’s biggest and most impressive gothic-style secular building, Hunedoara. The past, the legend
The place where the city of Hunedoara rises today is charged with history from ancient times. Stone age tools were discovered in the hill near the castle called Sanpetru (Saint Peter) and in the surrounding villages. Iron has been extracted in this region from the Iron Age of the Thracians and later, in the Roman times. The importance of this site is attested by the many archeological discoveries such as: the remains of eight Dacian iron furnaces, Dacian and Roman imperial coins. The place where the actual Hunedoara stands was very important for the Roman Empire due to its richness. Thus, there were discovered in the surroundings of the actual city a Roman castrum on Sanpetru hill, and also the remains of a Roman village.
After the Roman military and administrative retreat due to migrations of people from the east in 267 AD, the Romanized and Christianized population continued to thrive in the mountains and isolated valleys and was able to keep faith and connections with the Byzantine Empire and the civilized world. This is attested by discoveries of artifacts and Christian burial places around the city. Thus, Romanians were born, in the passing of time. Around 1000 AD, small political feuds arose and Transylvania fell under the Hungarian Kingdom and became part of it. Later on, an autonomous principality arose, with populations of Romanians, Hungarians, Szeklers and Saxons. The first recorded evidence of the city was made in 1265 under the name Hungnod. Soon enough, Hunedoara became an important centre of extracting and processing iron. Documents mention Mogos, Radu and Iancu, sons of Voicu. Ioannus Corvinu (Hungarian: János Hunyadi; Romanian: Iancu Corvin de Hunedoara), the son of Voicu, spent his childhood here. He married Erzsébet (Elisabeta), a Hungarian noblewoman, and advanced to be named voivode of Transylvania, which was by then an autonomous part of the kingdom of Hungary. He consolidated the citadel on top of an ancient fortress and took care of the small city
Besides being a skilled and devoted warrior, the voivode also was interested in his kingdom and the way it looked like, so he consolidated the castle and the feudal domain. . The castle of Hunedoara became one of the biggest in the world, standing as a witness to the greatness of this family of noble warriors and statesmen, in an era of war and despair, as the Ottoman Empire approached Central Europe.
The castle
It is a relic of the Hunyadi dynasty. In the 14th century the castle was given to a Vlach knyaz Serb, or Sorb by the German-Roman emperor and king of Hungary Zsigmond as severance, restored between 1446 and 1453 by John Hunyadi. It was built in Gothic style, but has Baroque and Renaissance architectural elements. It features tall and strong defense towers, an interior yard and a drawbridge.Most haunted
In February 2007, Hunyad Castle played host to the British paranormal television program Most Haunted Live! For a three-night live investigation into the spirits purported to be haunting the castle. Built in the 14th century, on the place of an old fortification, on a rock below which flows the small river Zlasti the castle is a large building, with tall and diversely colored roofs, towers, windows and balconies adorned with carvings in stone.
Being one of the most important properties of Iancu de Hunedoara, the castle was transformed during his ruling. It became a sumptuous home, not only a strategically enforced point. With the passing of the years, the masters of the castle had modified its look, adding towers, halls and guest rooms. The gallery and the keep – the last defense tower (called "Ne boisa" = Do not be afraid), which remained unchanged from Iancu de Hunedoara's time, and the Capistrano Tower (named after the famous monk from the castle court) are some of the most significant parts of the construction. Other significant parts of the building are the Knights' Hall (a great reception hall), the Club Tower, the White bastion, which served as a food storage room, and the Diet Hall, on whose walls medallions are painted (among them there are the portraits of Matei Basarab , ruler from Wallachia, and Vasile Lupu, ruler of Moldavia). In the wing of the castle called the Mantle, a painting can be seen which portrays the legend of the raven from which the name of the descendants of Iancu de Hunedoara, Corvini came. (The Romanian word for raven is corb, from the Latin corvus) . In the castle yard, near the chapel built also during Iancu de Hunerdoara's ruling, is a well 30 meters deep. The legend says that this fountain was dug by three Turkish prisoners to whom liberty was promised if they reached water. After 15 years they completed the well, but their captors did not keep their promise. It is said that the inscription on a wall of the well means "you have water, but not soul". Specialists, however, have translated the inscription as "he who wrote this inscription is Hasan, who lives as slave of the giaours, in the fortress near the church".
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