Transfagarasan Road and Poienari
Places of Interest - Romania
introduction
The Transfagarasan road is one of the most spectacular roads in Romania and perhaps in Eastern Europe. It is a road that is open only three months a year (due to snow-fall) and runs across the highest mountain range in the country. The whole of zigzag roads and hairpin curves calibrates on a car-race-track and connect the provinces "Wallachije" with Transylvania.
The road is also sometimes called the delusion of Ceasescu. After driving through the beautiful Fagaras mountains and forests you come out in the small town Poienari. It was here, situated high on a strategic point where Vlad Tepes" (Dracula the impaler) had his real castle built by Turkish prisoners. The citadel gives you a beautiful view of the surroundings.
highlights
Transfagarasan road:
This roller-coaster that crosses and zigzags the highest mountains of Romania starts at the intersection near the city Curta in the province Transylvania and goes through the Fagaras mountains towards the city Arefu in Wallachije.
Through the many sharp hairpin bends, tunnels and viaducts you reach the summit that is above 2000 meters altitude. Here is the lake Balea; on the road there are no buses (public transport) and you can only ride the road three months of the year because of abundant snowfall.
In the winter a real ice hotel seems to be built here. Built in 1970 we can perhaps report that this (military) road was Ceausescu's most successful project - the construction took about 4.5 years due to the fact that only in the summer months could be worked on.
The project where millions of kilos of dynamite were used to make the construction possible, 38 overworked soldiers found their end was, besides its symbolic value, also built for practical reasons; the Communist dictator was in fact the death that the Soviets would invade, just as they had done in Czechoslovakia two years before construction began. A good base through the highest mountains in the country would therefore come in handy.
Because of this fantastic but perhaps not well thought-over plan it was also called Ceasescu's delusion. On the Transylvania side you drive through beautiful forests and mountains (Fagaras mountains) and along the large Vidraru artificial lake. Just before you reach the village Poienari you drive over the dam that was built to generate energy in the sixties. A stop is more than worth it.
The Poienari citadel: See museum.
tips & advice (2013)
There is no public transport on the TransFagarasan road - you can try to hitchhike, but since most of the people who come here are Romanian tourists who visit the mountain in "full" cars (with the whole family) you have to hope for a "foreign" tourist who is not too full.
The intersection near the city Curta, which is the beginning of the famous road is a great place to try to get lucky.
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Name: Citadel Poienari
Price: 5 Lei
Content:
About 4 km south of the town Arefu where, it seems, the descendants of the "helpers" of Vlad Tepes are located the "real" castle of "Dracula" which was built at the beginning of the 13th century would be. By means of climbing the 1480 steps you reach the citadel that would have been repaired by Turkish prisoners under the eye of Vlad.
When you are upstairs and have paid the entrance fee, two dolls give an impression what the Turkish soldiers saw when they saw the "work" of the impaler. The castle itself is no more than a ruin though it gives an insight into what it must have looked like. The view, on the other hand, is fantastic about the area that is the link between the provinces Wallachia and Transylvania - one of the reasons why this castle was built on this strategic spot.
Legend has it that when the Turks approached the castle Dracula by means of the inhabitants of Arefu could flee into the mountains - his wife threw herself from one of the towers into the valley. When the monarch returned, the inhabitants were rewarded with agricultural land.
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