Winter holidays in Banat
The mountainous area of Caraș Severin County, located in the southwest of Romania, is the place to spend the winter holidays.
Daniel Onea, 19.12.2024, 14:00
Caraș-Severin County, located in the southwest of Romania, is a multicultural place and the site of unique tourist attractions. Its mountainous area is truly fascinating, especially around the winter holidays, boasting charming villages, old water mills, which are still in operation, as well as skiing facilities.
Dan Mirea, the manager of the Centre for traditional culture creation and promotion in Caraș Severin, says that this part of Banat can be the perfect destination for the winter holidays.
“Some big cities in Romania have understood that Christmas celebrations must be like those in Europe. What is happening right now in Craiova, Sibiu and other big cities is proof of the fact that we are trying to align ourselves with the latest trends in cultural tourism and religious tourism, because these holidays are all abut bringing families and people together. The area known as Banatul Montan covers the mountains of Banat surrounded by various tourist resorts. These include Semenic and, especially, Văliug, a resort that has reinvented itself in the last ten years. The place now boasts over 30 guesthouses. For the last several years, tourists have come here in large numbers. Right now, in Văliug, hotels are 100% full, and that’s because of the skiing. Văliug has some of the best slopes in western Romania and it attracts lots of tourists. In the past they used to come mainly from Romania, but for the last two or three years, we’ve also had tourists from abroad coming here for the ski slopes.”
EU funds have been channelled to the area, and now there are countless possibilities for visitors wishing to spend their Christmas holidays in these parts. Dan Mirea, the manager of the Centre for traditional culture creation and promotion in Caraș Severin tells us hotels are fully booked. Investments were also made in Muntele Mic massif. Let’s find out more:
“There was a lot of talk about the ski slope there and now, this slope is also undergoing modernisation work. The two slopes, on Mount Semenic and Muntele Mic, will most certainly attract a lot of winter sports lovers in the near future. In the last three years, I myself have spent New Year’s Eve right up there, in Văliug, up the mountain, because there is a wonderful atmosphere. There are also special villages there. For example, the famous Gărâna, which is mostly known for hosting the International Jazz Festival. There are over 30 guesthouses there. Gărâna is a village with German origins, which has developed a lot in recent years, and in the last two years, I spent New Year’s Eve and Christmas holidays in Gărâna, in the guesthouses there and on the ski slope. Two years ago, I actually spent New Year’s Eve on the ski slope.”
“Banat is leading the way”, says Dan Mirea, quoting an old Romanian saying. He explains that the local authorities in this region take tourism promotion very seriously. The Caraș-Severin County Council has even set up a team that will be dedicated exclusively to the promotion of the area and to attracting tourists:
Track: “I think this old saying obliges us to put the spotlight on our past to tourists and visitors to Banatul. We are very good hosts in these parts and we have a lot of attractions. These include the Semenic Mountains and the Danube Gorges, areas which have developed a lot. While in winter it’s the mountains that are the biggest attraction, during summer, every place in the Danube Gorges, all the way to the border with Mehedinți county, is fully booked, especially with foreign tourists. The area boasts that spectacular place where the Danube flows into the sea cutting through mountains. It attracts tourists who come from much further than Europe, as well as many Romanians who live abroad. Banat has the biggest ethnic German community in Romania, but there is also an ethnic Hungarian community, not to mention some who went abroad before 1989 but have since returned and started businesses in Banat.”
The biggest attraction in the Danube Gorges is the likeness of the Dacian king Decebalus, carved in stone. It is 55 meters high and 25 meters wide. To help you imagine the size of the statue, let us just say that it is only six meters shorter than the Statue of Liberty in New York, eight meters taller than the statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro and ten meters taller than the Colossus of Rhodes. It is the tallest stone sculpture in Europe. Very close to the famous statue of Decebalus, lies the Băile Herculane spa resort, says Dan Mirea, the manager of the Centre for traditional culture creation and promotion in Caraș Severin:
“Many historic buildings in Baile Herculane have been renovated. There are many projects and European investments in this resort, the Karlovy Vary of Romania. This year, the Hercules Festival took place in the new fully renovated summer theatre, and every day we had over 3,000 people coming from all over Romania and abroad to see the beauties of Banat. But there is still a lot more to be done and Baile Herculane is still a challenge for the local authorities. But things are looking up, not in small part thanks to the town’s mayor. He has understood the need to restore the town to its former glory, a town that used to host Princess Sisi and the elite of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for their holidays. There are thermal waters here and hotels from the time of Austria-Hungary, as well as the house where Maria Theresa lived, and the original furniture is still there.”
The attractions of the mountainous part of Banat also include a park of water mills, unique in Europe, included on the UNESCO heritage list and restored in the early 2000s by the Astra Museum in Sibiu, using European funds. The mills are located in the village of Eftimie Murgu and are still operational. No less fascinating is Ineleț, a hamlet high up in the mountains and which can only be reached by vertical wooden stairs. Due to the difficult access, the village still looks like a hundred years ago.
