Voineasa, a place that lives in memories

It’s first hot weekend … iuhuuu … so happy! We couldn’t miss the opportunity to take advantage of the wonderful weather outside, so we woke up in the morning and started a trip to Transalpina … well, if 11:00 means in the morning. We left the road from Sibiu to the Olt Valley and the route that we managed to make in a day with some small stops in order to immortalize the wonderful nature but also Voineasa Resort was: Sibiu – Brezoi – Voineasa – Obarşia Lotrului – Petrosani – Sebeş – Sibiu.

Voineasa, the tourist resort located about 80 km from Valcea, on the Lotru Valley, documented in 1520 during the reign of Neagoe Basarab and became a resort together with Vidra in 1972 with the construction of Lotru-Ciunget Hydro Power Station, now seems deserted and sad, without life.

Once, Voineasa was the resort adored by Romanians who wanted to retreat in a tranquility oasis, away from the agitated city and to take advantage of the clean air with pollution 0 but also the benefits of the balneary treatment base used to treat some diseases such as: nervous asthenia, debilitating states, physical and intellectual overwork, secondary anemia, locomotor and respiratory diseases.

Walking through the famous villas with flower names, now abandoned, the pressure we felt was indescribable.

Vila Brânduşa, Lily, Panseluţa … they were waiting for tourists, alone and deserted, staring wildly among the coniferous branches that surrounded them. That’s what I wanted too, the tourists to come, to resurrect this place! That was what they wanted too … the three men I met sitting on a bench in front of a block of flats. They were part of the few people who worked there, now as guardians of the memories of what was once upon a time, this “pearl of the Carpathians”. They told us stories, with regret in voice, about the glory of this place.

Until 2010, all the villas were functional, the villas and Lotru Hotel gathered in the past over 1600 tourists per day, the accommodation places being insufficient in those times.

I saw some hope in the words of the three who would have done anything to revive this area … “in an hour we can make a villa functional”.

Vidruta, Voineşiţa and Brădişor are closed and only Lotru Hotel works … in the summer. All these accommodation places were divided in 2010 between four large trade union blocks, trade unions that shared their goods with each other and threw them as unusable objects, letting them degrade. Foreign investors have been banished, their interests being above what we can understand.
The Brasserie, the Lotru Restaurant, the confectionery, the food, all are closed, but they still carry the old curtains, blackened by time, in the memory of the glory times.

The ruffles and ruffles are similar to those of my childhood, and nature is as vivid as ever. I lay down on my back and looked at the sky as it came out of the high pines and I imagined how was this place long time ago…I admit it, I would love it to be the same nowadays.

The mysterious restaurant with all the tables thrown in a corner, the image of an old newspaper, the old furniture, the light that penetrates through the cracks in the roof, all in one place managed to transpose me into one of those days.

With heavy heart, I left the resort, looking back once more at a symbol that could have been a landmark in Romanian tourism and for a long time I will not forget those shriveled but hopeful eyes that looked at me … I saw the past through the eyes of the present.

At Obarsia Lotrului the road is branching, the three routes that can be explored are to Ranca, Oaşa and to Petrosani. Unfortunately, two roads were closed, so I headed for Petrosani on a difficult, almost impractical road where I enjoyed the wonderful landscapes and jumped out of the car whenever I wished to spend a few minutes in the face of nature’s splendor.

Love,

A.C.