This medieval city, picturesquely situated nearby the Postavaru Mountain, is both fascinating in itself and is close to Transylvania's major mountain resort area, with first class hotels (see the page on the Mountains).

Look for its old Saxon architecture around the 14th century Black Church, the ruins of the citadel, and the 18th century Old Town Hall.

The Bran Castle and the Royal Resort of Sinaia

Beginning with the stark contours of the Bran Castle, where Prince Vlad Tepes, the legendary Dracula,   is said tohave lived

A trip to take from Brasov is to the castle of Bran, supposed to have been the home of Prince Vlad Tepes, who inspired Dracula's legend. Also, don't miss the castle of Peles, fancifully built in 1883 at the foot of a mountain side for King Carol I, in Sinaia. This resort was first made popular by the King and it is worth a stay either in summer for its glorious mountain scenery, hiking and riding, or in winter for skiing, not to mention health cures.

Sibiu

Sibiu, also Saxon in origin, is a very pretty town, with cobbled streets and pastel colored houses. The open air Museum of Folk Technology in a forest by a lake is a "must" to visit, just as the Brukenthal Art Museum.

The town is well placed for excursions to mountain villages, such as Sibiel, where there is a fascinating museum of icons.

Further away near Deva stands the Corvin Castle, rebuilt in the 15th century in Gothic style by Prince Iancu Corvin, who gave it a sumptuous Knights Hall and towers and buttresses that remind one of the Chateaux de la Loire.

Banat

This south-western corner of the country has a drier, more Mediterranean climate than most of Romania and is also slightly different from the cultural point of view.

Timisoara a city famous throughout the world since the dramatic days of the December 89 revolution

Habsburg rule until 1918 gave it an Art Nouveau architecture, while almost 1,900 years earlier the Romans had established a spa at Baile Herculane that is still one of Romania's most fashionable ones. Nearby Mount Domogled is a 60,000 ha protected area, while the Semenic Mountains have a few small ski resorts. Finally, the capital of Banat, Timisoara, is the city where the 1989 Revolution started.

Medieval Sighisoara Originally a Roman town, Sighisoara is one of the greatest medieval cities left in the world. The city has a walled citadel on the hilltop, secret gateways and passages, a 14th century Clock Tower and the house where Prince Vlad Tepes lived.

Sighisoara, one of the great medieval cities of Europe

Festivals and Folklore

Wherever you go in Transylvania, you will discover rural traditions that are a real part of everyday life. Shepherds produce large round cheese which you will see for sale by the roadside.

The house doors are intricately carved. Colorful traditional costumes are worn on Sundays and for weddings and festivals because they have special meaning.

As to festivals, you will find them in full swing from Easter on.

An Ideal Place to Get Away

To sum it up, both in summer and winter, the valleys and mountains of Transylvania are refreshingly unspoilt and welcoming, an area where you can genuinely get away.

MARAMURES

The fierce individuality of the Maramures mountain valleys in the north-west of Transylvania is legendary. Their inhabitants are of Dacian descent and their independence as a State reached its peak under Decebalus in the first century AD, before the Roman conquest. Wave after wave of invasions followed. A unique lifestyle Nonetheless the villagers here continued to vividly assert the independence of their customs and their folklore. Today you can visit and admire their unique lifestyle. Few other parts of Europe have developed so distinctive a rural culture.

Traditional headscarves during an outdoor religious celebration

An inheritance of folklore

Agriculture has always been the lifeblood of existence in the mountains. Local traditions reflect this, as there are festivals in April, May, August and December.

The one in December is held at Sighetu Marmatiei, with carnival parades and revelers wearing animal masks.

Sighetu Marmatiei is a typical Maramures town, famous for its markets, peasant costumes and lively atmosphere.

The Museum of Maramures has many carnival masks among its exhibits. Here from you may easily drive to the mountain resort of Borsa and such villages as Bogdan-Voda and Rozavlea, renowned for their wooden architecture.

Creativity in wood and costume

A typical high-steep  led Maramures church

Woodcarving skills are the dominant feature of Maramures crafts. Particularly characteristic of the villages are wooden churches, with tall steeples and shingled roofs, some dating back to the 14th century. Highly developed too is the embroidery of traditional costumes. On Sunday afternoons both women and men often parade and dance as they have for centuries. Women wear colorful headscarves and flowered skirts with black sheepskin jerkins; men wear black trousers and white jerkins, though costumes vary from village to village. The Easter festivals are a particularly good time to see them.

Touring the valleys

Baia Mare lies at the heart of this region. Its modern hotels make it the point of departure for many tours. A popular local expedition is to Surdesti, which has the tallest of the region's wooden churches. Another is the one to Sapanta, famous for its "merry cemetery", where carved tombstones and humorous epitaphs are a remembrance of the dead.

The "merry cemetery" in Sapanta - the "gravestones" are carved in wood depicting the deceased's role in life and humorous epitaphs.

MOLDOVA AND BUCOVINA

Bucovina - the north-eastern province of Romania - is renowned for the beautiful exterior frescoes on the walls of its monasteries. These triumphs of Byzantine-influenced art reflect a development of Moldavian civilization in the 15th and 16th centuries, under the patronage of Stephen the Great (1457-1504).

Plenty more to discover - from buffaloes to vineyards

Moldavia has an extensive countryside of forests and hills, with many lesser known delights to discover, especially in the region of Targu Neamt. You might even catch a glimpse of a buffalo, a species which is being reintroduced into a natural reservation.

There are hiking routes and camping facilities, as well as good hotels in the main towns. And Moldavian wines have been known for five centuries. There are vineyards that can be visited.

Iasi and Suceava

These former capitals entice you to a stop on most Bucovina itineraries. Iasi is the home of Romania's oldest University and a centre of intellectual life.

Many well-known Romanian writers' houses are preserved as memorials. The best known monument of the city is the Trei Ierarhi Church, dating from 1639. In Suceava, which has direct airline and rail links with Bucharest, it is worth going up to the ruins of Stephen's princely citadel on the heights near the city.

Remember to ask for specialties of Moldavian cuisine in the restaurants. Moldavian cooking and local wines are widely appreciated.

Targu Neamt

A glimpse on the Agapia convent which stands among the simple but lovely houses of the nuns

This town is the access point for a remarkable group of monasteries and fortresses that are definitely worth a detour. The 18th century convent of Agapia gleams as white as if it stood on a Greek Island. The Monastery in Neamt is the oldest in Moldavia, while the Neamt fortress used to be a key to the region's defence. A little to the west is the mountain and ski resort of Durau.

The Monasteries in Bucovina

The decorated monasteries are the major attraction in Bucovina because of the vivid frescoes on their churches.

The latter depict Biblical and other religious scenes, designed in segments almost like strip cartoons to stir the imagination of the local people and so educate them in the Orthodox spirit.

The churches stand in the centre of the monastery complex and all of them have high pitched roofs and little sunlight comes inside. There are five main monasteries of this kind.

Humor

Humor, founded in 1530, is quite small. Its paintings include illustration of a poem on the "The Siege of Constantinople", which shows the feelings of the Romanians towards the Turks.

The aim was to maintain the Christian faith among Romanians. On other walls are the "Return of the Prodigal Son" and the Devil amusingly pictured as a greedy woman.

Centuries ago the monks here at Humor ran a school where calligraphers and miniature painters learnt their craft.

This "Sixtine Chapel of the East" was built by Stephen the Great in 1488 and the vivid colours of its frescoes added later.

The "Sixtine Chapel" of  the East - Voronet

The paintings show an adaptation of classic Byzantine art to Moldavian realities. Thus the archangels' trumpets take the shape of the local shepherds' horn or "bucium" and souls doomed to hellfire wear the turbans of the Turkish enemy.

The "Sixtine Chapel" of the East - Voronet

Sucevita

The Sucevita Monastery complex, set in a beautiful green valley, is fortified like a citadel with watch towers at its four corners.

Legend says it that the artist fell off the wall scaffolding and was killed, so it remained undecorated. When you go there, look for the complex "Jesse's Tree" on the southern wall.

Moldovita

Striking shades of red, blue, yellow and brown characterize the monumental scene of the "Siege of Constantinopole" on the walls of the Moldovita church.

Inside, 16th century furniture survives, including Prince Petru Rares' chair, as large as a throne. The Prince built Moldovita and his statue stands outside.

Arbore

Quite small, and without the high cupola that distinguishes most monastery churches, Arbore is predominantly decorated in shades of green. Look for the scene from "Genesis" along the western wall, since it is particularly lively and graceful.

TIME BOUNDARIES

Although we face the beginning of the third mi llennium, Romania will impress its tourists with the strange sounding of a wooden plate, a ritual which calls the people to church. Regardless of the modesty or the grandeur of the churches, they are places which benefit from the most precious Romanian fortunes: the landscape, the building art and last but not least, valuable objects, from silver or gold jewelry to the most delicate tissues.

All the important moments in the Romanians' life are tightly related to the church: the birth, for the sacred mystery of the baptize, the wedding, the death and the most important holidays of the year, such as Easter and Christmas. Especially in the villages, the church and also the cemetery are places where one can witness picturesque proceedings, which usually take place when feasting or blessing the food and the drinks for holidays. There are also some proceeding to invoke rain, fertility or to drive away malefic spirits. All these rituals are based on the belief in God, Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary.

Most of the Romanians are orthodox. In Dobrogea, at DERVENT, in the middle of a deep forest, issued like a miracle in a dry aria, we find the monastery and the cave where Saint Apostle Andrei preached Christianity for the first time on Romanian land. These lands are the birth place of remarkable people of the Christian world, such as St. Ioan Casian and Dyonisius Exiguus.

As there are many Catholics and Greek-Catholics in Romania, we can find here wonderful establishments serving these religions. Many other ethnic groups were welcome here, and the whole country is adorned with religious edifices belonging to Magyars or Transylvanian Saxons, to Israelites or Turks, to Armenians or Greeks, Lippovans, Serbians and Tartars. By seeing the Romanian churches - regardless of the religion they were dedicated to - a tourist will easily understand the story of the people who gave them life.

Romania's Carpathians - The Pleasure of Freedom

The Carpathians, denominated in ancient times "Corona Montium", form a third of the country's territory, and represent the second European mountain chain after the Alps. Even if they are not as high as the Alps, The Carpathians are equally picturesque and spectacular.

Placed as an arch inside the country, the Carpathians are formed of three mountains chains (Oriental, Southern and Western Carpathians), each of them with its particular beauty and hospitable landscapes.

The Oriental Carpathians stretch from the north-eastern frontier up to the Prahova Valley. They are the longest volcanoes chain in Europe, comprising the massifs Oas, Gutai, Tibles, Calimani, Harghita, Bodoc and Baraolt. The second mountains chain, the Southern Carpathians, is placed between Prahova Valley and the Timis-Cerna corridor. Here there are the highest mountain peaks in Romania (Peak Moldoveanu in Fagaras Massif 2544 m, Negoiu 2535 m, Parângu Mare 2519 m, Peleaga 2509 m, Omu 2505 m).

The Western Carpathians are placed in the west side of the country, between the Danube and Somes. They are famous for their caves - Scarisoara (where there is a millenary glacier, unique in Europe) and Pestera Ursilor - the Bears Cave - (name inspired by the bear fossils discovered here).

Anywhere in the Carpathians aria one can find mountain resorts intended for winter sports or summer holidays, resorts with thermal waters and rarely therapeutic elements, with a modern infrastructure of hotels, villas, Alpine chalets, camping, telecabin, telechair and accessible roads.

Skiing is one of the tourists' favorite activities, as there are modern, specially arranged tracks, lit up in the night. Among the most known tracks there are those on the Prahova Valley and the surroundings (Sinaia, Azuga, Predeal, Poiana Brasov), those on Valea Jiului and from the Massif Semenic. The glacial circles in the massifs Fagaras, Rodna, Retezat and Semenic, placed at 1900-2000 m, allow winter sport practice until the end of the spring.

The mountaineering and the alpine climbing are perfect sports in these mountains. The most important alpine climbing centre of Romania is in Busteni (in the Massif Bucegi).

The pollutant civilization did not touch the Carpathians Mountains yet. The secular woods, the invigorating ozone rich air, the mountain paths between pretty alpine chalets are strong motivations for the nature loving tourists.

Other attracting elements are the reservations and the natural parks that shelter rare animals - the lynx, the bear, the Carpathian stag, the European bison, the black goat etc.

Hunting is another sport that can be practiced in the Carpathians. Amateur hunters take great pride in the trophies obtained "fighting" with the wild boars, bears, hares or the pheasant and wild ducks species.

The roads intended for mountain cycling, the glacial lakes, the caves hiding a wonderful world, the strange forms of peaks and rocks, the cascades and mineral water springs are other reasons to visit the Carpathians.

The famous mountain resorts of Romania - Sinaia, Predeal and Poiana Brasov, Tusnad, Vatra Dornei and Sovata, Baile Herculane and Calimanesti-Caciulata, Paltinis and Borsa -are all departure points for charming trips in the mysterious world of the Carpathians.

BLACK SEA RESORTS

Holidays in a Mediterranean style

Golden sands stretch for 72 km (45 miles) along Romania's southern  Black Sea coast

Marvelous weather from spring to autumn and miles of golden sand make Romania's Black Sea resorts the ideal destination for beach holidays. One can find everything there: modern hotels and facilities, a busy night-life, a wide range of sports facilities and numerous inland attractions from castles to vineyards. Now, while the country is heading towards a promising future, the Black Sea is coming back onto the European tourist agenda.

From Wildlife to Water sports

Altogether, the Romanian Black Sea coast stretches out for 245 km (153 miles) from the fascinating unspoiled natural reserves of the Danube Delta to the leisure activities of numerous holiday centers. Whereas the Delta is strictly protected from intrusion, the southern 72 km (45 miles) area has been developed into a string of beach resorts and health spas catering for all ages and interests, from little children to exigent grandparents.

All waited on by the employees of the local tourist and transport services in the city of Constanta. Furthermore, the Black Sea tides are practically not-existent, so swimming is safer than in most parts of the world.

Constanta

With an international airport, a busy seaport, express trains linking it to Bucharest (2 1/2 hours) and a 2,500 year history (the Roman poet Ovid lived in exile here), Constanta is the very kind of cosmopolitan place a seaside vacation needs.

Hotels, shops, ancient monuments, a magnificent casino by the sea and interesting museums complete the picture. All the Black Sea resorts are easily accessible either by train or bus.

Mamaia

The major resort near Constanta is Mamaia, sited north of the city, between a magnificent 7 km (4.5 miles) long beach of unbelievably fine sand and a lake. It is especially designed for families with children.

Sports like sub-aqua diving and paragliding offer thrills from May to October. Restaurants, bars and nightclubs enliven the evenings. Typical country villages, the ruins of the ancient Greek fortress of Histria, and the Danube Delta are easily accessible.

South of Constanta - beauties and gods

From Constanta, a 50 km (31 miles) strip of fine golden sand stretches all the way to the border with Bulgaria; and it hosts a series of resorts poetically named after women and mythological gods.

The Black Sea at its Best

Among the most popular are Neptun and Olimp, built as leisure sites for the rich of the communist era, now offering de-luxe villas and excellent hotels, some on the beach, others in the quiet Comorova forest between the shore and a lake.

Tennis and other sports, open air restaurants, discos, night clubs and cabarets all cater for demanding visitors.

Economical and Youth Holidays

Southwards, the resorts of Jupiter, Cap Aurora, Venus and Saturn offer a variety of inexpensive hotels, campsites and rented accommodation, while Costinesti is mostly a youth resort, with basic accommodation and informal entertainment.

Mangalia is renowned for therapy treatments

The 6th century BC fortified town of Callatis became today's spa of Mangalia, with a special cure hotel. Here, as in Eforie Nord, Eforie Sud and the spa in Neptun, a wide variety of therapeutic treatments are available, including mineral-rich mud baths, thalassic-therapy and the famous Romanian Gerovital cure.

Medical staff is highly qualified and clinics and consulting rooms remain open all through the year. So you can combine professional treatment with all the pleasures of a seaside holiday.

Local Tours

As well as long-distance tours to the Danube Delta with its birdlife and mysterious waterways, or even to Bucovina and the legendary decorated monasteries, or to Bucharest, there are plenty of sites available in the immediate hinterland to tempt you away from sunbathing for days. The 7th century BC Greek city ruins at Histria have already been mentioned.

At Adamclisi, 62 km (39 miles) inland from Constanta, stands the impressive circular monument built at the end of the first century AD to commemorate Emperor Trajan's victory over the Dacians. Cottage industries like woodcarving and pottery thrive in the villages. Vineyards producing Romania's savory wines, including the famous Murfatlar, cover the hillsides.

Traditional costumes are displayed in folklore centers. And, if you feel like getting to the heart of the warm welcoming Romanian experience, there are Romanian feasts with local dishes, plum brandy, wine, music and dancing that will remain in your memory as part of a special seaside holiday

Considered the second river in Europe after the Rhine in point of length, the Danube is flowing on 2.858 km, rising in the Black Forest Mountains and flowing into the Black Sea. Its basin, of over 800.000 sq. km, comprises about 80.000.000 inhabitants in nine countries (Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Yugoslavian Rep., Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine).

The Danube was mentioned in Herodotus's Histories (484-425 BC.) and Napoleon named it "the king of the European rivers". On Romania's territory the Danube covers its last 1075 km, entering our country at Portile de Fier and ending its journey in the Danube's Delta, the most representative delta in Europe and one of the most complex in the world. Romania has 12 riverside districts: Caras-Severin, Mehedinti, Dolj, Olt, Teleorman, Giurgiu, Calarasi, Constanta, Ialomita, Braila, Galati and Tulcea.

Caras-Severin is remarkable for its picturesque caves in the mountains Banat, for the karst lakes and underground rivers. This is where you can find the beautiful resort Baile Herculane. Among the touristic objectives of the district Mehedinti you might want to see: the ruins of the Roman bridge at Drobeta, built after the drafts of the architect Apollodor of Damasc, The Museum "Portile de Fier" (Iron Gates) in the town Drobeta-Turnu Severin, the cave at Topolnita, the harbour Orsova (where you can take voyages on the Danube, at Cazane - Danube's Strait), the natural bridge at Ponoarele (60 m long), the artificial lake Portile de Fier (the largest on the Danube) and the hydroelectric plant.

In the district Olt, you can visit the ruins of the Dacian and Roman fortresses from Romula, Limes, Rusidava si Sucidava. The dance "Calusarii", renown all over the world has its millenary origins in this area. Downstream there is another town, Giurgiu, an important harbour on the Danube since the 10 century; it was founded by the Genoveses in the place of an ancient Roman fortress, by the name of San Giorgio. Downstream there are another three important localities: Cernavoda (the ancient Axiopolis - where the Romanian atomic electric power station is situated), Braila (important harbor used as a departure point for numerous cruises on the Danube, hunting and fishing programs) and Galati (shipyard).

Spas and Health Resorts 

The Romans initiated the Romanian tradition of health cures 

For many people a holiday in a spa is an agreeable relaxing luxury. To others, mineral water, nd mud baths are the compounds of a thorough treatment for aches and pains.

To both kinds of visitors Romania can be quite a miracle. Prices are very reasonable and no less than 3,000 mineral and thermal water springs are located here.

The country has 70 health resorts, some founded by the ancient Romans. Today patients come from all over Europe to receive therapeutic care from specialists in well-equipped clinics of the leading spas, while enjoying their magnificent holiday locations.

They are no miracles, but Romanian cures often seem miraculous

The main spas offer relief for rheumatic and cardio-vascular diseases, respiratory ailments, various disorders of the digestive and nervous system, and dermatological and gynecological problems.

All treatments are conducted under strict supervision by the official Institute of Physical Medicine, Balneology and Medical Rehabilitation.

The normal length of a stay at a spa is of two to three weeks, at the end of which you are given a full medical bulletin, including diagnosis, the results of tests and recommendation.

If you feel miraculously better afterwards, it's because treatment is methodical and performed skillfully.

The curative water from one of Romania's 70 spas

The most renowned health resort is Baile Herculane, established by the Romans in the wooded Cerna Valley in the southern Carpathians, an idyllic site. Open all year round, its fifteen mineral and thermal springs treat rheumatic, nervous and nutritional problems. The facilities include massage rooms and indoor and outdoor thermal swimming pools. The hotels are modern and comfortable.

Baile Felix

This "Spa of Happiness", Romania's largest, is close to the city of Oradea in the north-west and enjoys a mild local "micro-climate" even in winter.

The thermal waters, very rich in oligo-minerals, are supplemented by mud in treating rheumatic arthritis, lumbago as well as gynecological and nervous disorders.

The international clientele gives a sparkle to the life of the modern three-star hotels.

Sovata - a favourite spa for women

At 490 m (1,600 ft) above the sea level in the stunning forested countryside of Transylvania, Sovata has a most extraordinary heliothermal lake, called Ursu. Instead of becoming colder, the water is warmer and more salty deeper down than it is at the surface! This chlorosodic water and the sapropelic mud of the lake are especially effective for gynecological disorders, for rheumatism and peripheral nervous disorders.

Thermal springs add their therapeutic properties to the cure

Up-to-date installations and hotels, plus a stimulating dry subalpine climate make a stay in Sovata extremely agreeable! Other Spas in the Carpathians There are numerous health resorts in the mountains. Sinaia, near Brasov, is a sought after holiday centre. Tusnad, north of Brasov, by a calm and picturesque lake, is important for bicarbonated and gaseous mineral waters and mofettes for treating cardio-vascular diseases.

The French Emperor Napoleon III received water from the Olt Valley in the southern Carpathians; today its twin resorts of Calimanesti and Caciulata heal disorders of the digestive tract and kidneys in the elegance of Belle Epoque balneary pavilions, combined with totally up-to-date treatment centres.

Nearby, the small spa of Baile Olanesti provides cures for digestive and kidney disorders, gout, obesity and diabetes, again amid fine mountain scenery. Down on the long sandy beaches of the Black Sea, and endowed with all the holiday attractions there, are the spas of Eforie Nord, Eforie Sud, Neptun and Mangalia. Eforie Nord is the most important.

Treatment centres in picturesque, vivifying surroundings

All utilise the fine, smooth, sapropelic mud from Lake Techirghiol to tackle skin problems and rheumatic, post-traumatic, and gynaecological problems. Thalassotherapy is also available. Thanks to heated treatment centres, these spas stay open all year round.

The Aslan Therapy and how to find out more

No account of Romania cures would be complete without mention of the therapy pioneered by Dr Ana Aslan. This utilises the biotrophic properties of two products, Gerovital H3 and Aslavital, to postpone ageing.

In particular the therapy counters memory loss, improves blood circulation in the brain and helps revitalise the internal organs.

It is available as an additional treatment at most Romanian Spas, as well at the specialised Otopeni Clinic outside Bucharest and the Flora Hotel in the capital itself.

Finally, for more information about the many curative programmes in Romania, write to ONT "Carpati" S.A, 7 Gen. Magheru, Bucharest, phone: 021-6145160, fax: 021-3123907. "Litoral" SA, Mamaia, Bucharest Hotel, phone: 0241-831152, fax: 0241-831276. "Felix" SA, Baile Felix, phone: 0259-261338. Or to Romanian Tourist Information Offices abroad.

Baile Herculane/The Herculane Spa

The thermal and mineral waters from this spa were discovered and exploited a very long time ago by the soldiers of the Roman legions who conquered ancient Dacia.

Because of the curative properties of the waters, the Romans named this place "Ad acquas Herculi Sacras".

The resort had been extremely prosperous in the 19th century, in the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's occupation, when it had become a fashionable spa frequently visited by the emperor Franz Joseph and Queen Elisabeth, who each possessed one pavilion in the resort.

Situated in the surroundings of a mountain area, the spa is placed in the valley of the river Cerna, in between high calcareous walls, 19 km away from the accumulation lake of Orsova, on the Danube and 40 km away from the town Drobeta Turnu Severin. The spa is a railway station for all the express trains following the route Bucharest - Timisoara (border units: Jimbolia or Moravita). Home and international airports: Timisoara and Caransebes.

Climate. Very mild, with sub-Mediterranean influences, without strong winds and low continental temperatures (both during summer and wintertime). Altitude - 160 m.

Natural factors. The area is rich in thermal-mineral waters with big concentration of: sodic chloride, bicarbonate, iodine bromide, with a total mineralization value situated between 0.6 - 3.5 gr./l, recommended in external and internal treatments. There are also thermal-mineral waters of the following types: sulphurous, with sodic chloride, rich in calcium, with iodine bromide (2-7 gr./l), very much used in the complex balneary treatment (internally and externally). The spa benefits of all the advantages given by a calming bioclimate, having a strong negative ionisation of the air which is specific for a 3000 m altitude.

Therapeutic recommendations. Degenerative rheumatic illnesses, inflammatory or sub-articulator affections or of the following kinds: posttraumatic, neurological, peripheral, metabolic and nutritional, respiratory, ORL, etc.

Hotels. Total capacity: 4100 places in hotels of 1-2 stars (Roman, Hercules, Diana, Minerva, Afrodita, Cerna - 2 stars).

Entertainment possibilities. Indoor swimming-pools, swimming-pools in open air, Olympic ones with thermal water; Fishing, trips in the mountains, hunting, speloogy, trips to the Roman vestiges and relics, excursions by boats on the Danube. Also trips to the towns of Orsova and Drobeta Turnu Severin (where traces of the Roman and medieval local civilizations constitute the main point of interest) etc.

Those enabling the knowledge of the ethnographic phenomenon are the Romanian peasants, creators of the culture and its continuer.

They are the ones who continue to wear the popular costumes, to keep the customs and traditions, they make the objects that enter the area of the popular values and creations.

The range of the ethnographic aspects which should draw the tourist attention is wide: from the large structure of the place, type of households, specific architecture details and inside arrangements, to the work tools used in the occupations specific to the place, to the popular costumes, customs and traditions.

Often, these ethnographic values are interesting just for the fact that they can be seen and known right in the nearby of their creators or directly from the same. Each ethnographic region has its representative characteristics as for the life, culture and civilization of the inhabitants.

Thus, Tara Motilor (Bihor region inhabitants), well known due to its peasant craftsmen specialized in wood, iron or clay working, or the Banat region, whose inhabitants excel, in the ethnographic field, in home made fabrics of an impressive variety - are only two examples of popular culture born in various parts of our country.

The popular art creations in woods - the distaffs, spindles, shepherd sticks, mallets used to "beat" the laundry while washing, the spindles created in Hunedoara area, the furniture pieces made in Valcea county or the dowry cases from Banat region, the black woolen mantles specific to Avrig village, the inside decoration fabrics specific to Orastie area, the breastplates, sheepskin coats and girdles from Fagaras or Rasinari, or the glass icons and the painted eggs are the expression of a certain civilization.

From the Danube Delta, where the villages continue to keep not only the Lippovan custom of preparing the fish borsch, and the interesting fishing tools and techniques but also the small houses with reed roofs, and up to the North of Moldova with the specific hearth ovens built in the peasant yards or the farming and craftsman tools specific to the place, and, further, from the wood painting, the artistic skin dressing and the Calusari dance specific to Oltenia, to the houses with veranda and upper floor, or the sheepfolds in Muntenia, the Romanian people conserves its language and costumes, destinies and traditions, its spiritual integrity - in one word, it keeps its individuality.

The Romanian popular costumes adorned with specific textures, seams and colours, the wall carpets woven with rose or peony motifs, whose chromatic is based on "secrets" known only by the peasants, the wood laces and the glaze covering the wide variety of clay pottery, the unwritten theatre, the dances, popular poetry, customs and traditions are charming, full of meaning messengers of the Tracian-Dacian-Roman culture.

The folklore fully reflects the historic events, thus, the Romanian peasant songs have been, for ages, a mirror of its soul, of its life filled with joy or sorrow.

In the doina (a specific lyric song) they used to sing the woods, their nostalgia, sorrow, pity, hope, deception, wish for freedom.

The Romanian carols are as old as the doinas. They carry in their lines the confidence in doing good deeds, in the kindness and hospitality of the Romanian people.

The folklore is composed of an impressive number of songs, carols, good wishes all showing the popular philosophy of life.

CHARMING TEMPTATION: the Village and its Traditions

The holidays, the traditions and the customs have preserved their entire originality and, often, their impressiveness only in the villages. They should have, as this is where they appeared. As there is no month of the year without several events of this kind, with their irresistible picturesque, it was only natural that this "calendar" be adopted up to its tiniest details, by the rural tourism. This, of course, offers other arguments that cannot be refused by the stressed man of our times.

Fancy, for example, isn't it wonderful to watch at night, before going to bed, a sky crowded with stars, as you just cannot see in the town invaded with advertisements and lights? What could possibly be more optimistic when waking up in the morning than a green meadow, covered with wild flowers, whose scent you can perceive through the open window, before you walk towards it barefooted in order to verify the promises of the naturist therapy about the direct contact with the earth and the dew? After all that, instead of pre-packaged and half-prepared food, you are offered a meal with hot fresh milk, eggs from the hen cackling in the yard, a pear, an apple, a plum - which you could pick yourself - the mystery of an oven revealing baked pies, home-made cookies, food that you taste now for the first time. But we won't tell you everything in these pages.

The Transylvanian villages have a whole Scheherazade story to tell you, sometimes in three languages - Romanian, Magyar or German. Search them in any season. At Christmas or New Year's time you will be charmed by the processions of masked people, carol singers and waits. The Easter brings red painted eggs and religious sermons gathering impressive processions with lit candles. It is followed by the celebration, on the 23rd of April, of St Gheorghe (George), the protector of the vegetation, Noaptea de Sânziene, the Midsummer day, in June, when the people pick healing plants and light huge purifying fires, Cununa de seceris (Harvest Garland), at harvest time. There are also the fairs - the most important ones were turned into folk feasts, such as those on the Peak Gaina in the Mountains Apuseni, the pastoral traditions, with Sâmbra Oilor or Masuris, the regular fairs, held weekly or at holidays, with the bustle of the buyers and sellers of cattle, agricultural tools or house-hold objects. For an Occidental traveller, coming from a world where urbanization and civilization have long transformed the rural life, it will be amazing to find that in Transylvania there still are women who spin the wool as they did in the Middle Ages or work linen or carpets with the old weaving loom.

Many villages still preserve the custom of ancient dances, and, on Sundays at the church or for the holidays, the old men wear their national costume as the entire community used to in the old days. The ethnic groups who, besides the Romanians, live in Transylvania - Magyars, Saxons or Romanies - contribute to the colourful originality of this charming picture.

A magical archaism will take into possession the one who searches for this kind of exploring. In the end, as the millennium that has just begun values the mystery, the miracle and the adventure, a holiday in a Transylvanian village, with its feasts and traditions, could be a very interesting choice. The elegant villas - some of them endowed with pools and romantic hunting panoplies - the modern pensions, the rustic setting elegantly adapted are not missing from the offer of a rural tourism continuously developing, not only in Transylvania, but everywhere in Romania, from the North where you must see the gorgeous land of Maramures and Bucovina, up to the south frontier, with the Danube resting after passing through a vast part of Europe.

Tales need their halo, just like they were born. Does anybody want to change Snow-White's destiny? Do we need other variants for Little Girl with Matches, Hansel and Gretl and Sleeping Beauty? Today people have enough resources to make up their own tales, as their imagination will never be exhausted.

As for the old tales, they have the magic power to become younger with every generation. It is obvious that nobody will get rid of the extraordinary Dracula, this romantic vampire, sometimes bloody, sometimes lonely and pining for love, who's haunting the world since his father, the Irish Bram Stocker, put him in a novel. The strange creature had the power to get out of these pages, to cross over the threshold of movies, videotapes and especially of trips.

His fate began and ended here, in a pass of the Carpathians- Bargau Pass - in Romania and it worth, of course, to come from the other part of the world to see these places with your own eyes, just like you go and contemplate Romeo and Juliet's house or the inn in which it is said that the wizard Faust's shadow still haunts ...

It will always be fascinating to search, to walk on the places of the creature that became irresistibly famous. The one who reigned when Henry VI and the English fought in the war of two roses, when in Hungary reined the Romanian king Matei Corvin, when the sultan Mohammed II frightened the Christian Europe with his armies. He wandered through the historical Romanian provinces like no other prince. You can meet him, and this is not a figure of speech, where you do not expect to. These Middle Ages, with the shadow of the prince whom chronicles recommended as a prototype for a book character to Stoker, have their ghosts in many places: the town-burgh Sighisoara, where there is the house in which was born Vlad Tepes; Bucharest, capital of Romania, which keeps as birth certificate a document from 1459, issued by the prince who had his residence there, with the ruins which can be still seen in a mysterious corner of the town, the citadel Poienari, on the peak of a mountain, rebuilt as in important strategic place, the town Targoviste, where he massacred the unfaithful landlords, Sibiu, another burgh of Transylvania, or the Bran castle, around Brasov, where his impetuous incursions could be felt. It is said that his tomb is at Snagov where a church situated on an island in the middle of a big lake keeps the mystery of some underground shelters. May such details change in the mind of the traveller who comes in these regions his image of the "ideal" Dracula? We can not risk and give a firm answare.