Swiss Tourism

Vidraru is a place where legend and present tell their success stories. 40 years after the building of the hydro-energetic node, it is hard to know which the priority is: industry or tourism. If the Hidro Plant is still functioning after the same rules, the tourism is privatized and served by powerful companies.

Vidraru is a place where legend and present tell their success stories. 40 years after the building of the hydro-energetic node, it is hard to know which the priority is: industry or tourism. If the Hidro Plant is still functioning after the same rules, the tourism is privatized and served by powerful companies.

The Posada society is one the most known ones in the Arges District. Several locations in ideal areas lift it up above the competition. The investments made are another advantage. 55 million euros is the total sum invested in the six chalets and hotels: Posada, Cumpana, Camping Cumpana, Valea cu Pesti, Paraul Capra and Popasul Casa Argeseana. The connection between some of these locations can be made with the company’s ship that goes across the Vidraru Lake every day. Besides these, the company has already started the work for five other projects, and Cetatea Poienari seems to be the most spectacular of them. The Motel that is to be built will bring back to life the medieval atmosphere. Just for the clients. The building will have the architectural characteristics of those times, and here we include everything from furniture to the personnel’s outfit.

THE DICTATOR’S CHALET. Like many other chalets, Valea cu Pesti had an exact destination: the accommodation of the former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu during his hunting periods. Like all the others, the building was transferred from the state’s protocol to the former OJT, but it was privatized after 1990 when it became the Posada society. Its former manager, Dumitru Grecu, became a stockowner like many of the employees. The chalet was taken out of the unknown imposed by the former monopolist party by the investments, which transformed it into a modern one, which contrasts with the surrounding nature. The fireplace and the carved chairs don’t go to loggerheads to the isolated terrace. It is as comfortable as it needs to be. The foreigners come here a lot, but the Romanians are more, and they heard about the Valea cu Pesti (the Valley with Fish in English), where the trout is the specialty. The investments go on now with the help of some PHARE funds, and the managers promised to extend the number of rooms, which are able to accommodate only 49 people at the present.

THE CASCADES. Capra - one of the former hunting chalets owned by Nicolae Ceausescu - is one of the highest places where a tourist can accommodate. It is situated at 1680 meters high up in the mountains, and it was built by the army when the Transfagarasan highway was being constructed. It is a hotel with 11 rooms and 1 suit that seems to be part of the movies in which the fireplace and highly rated hunting treats cannot miss. It is no further than 200 meters from the Carmen and Pisatoarea Caprei Cascades. Some of the present and former dignitaries came here only for breakfast or lunch, but there were a lot who stood here for a longer time to hunt the black goats. Its manager, Onel Smaranda, knows the history of the place by heart. He was born near Caracal, he graduated from the cooking school, and then he became the manager of the location that used to be administrated by the former OJT.

In the same time, Onel was part of the mountain lifeguards that save lives every year. He came here before 1990, and, due to his love for the mountains, he moved here and started a family with a local woman from Curtea de Arges. He even saw Ceausescu hunting here one moth before he was executed. "He was here in November to hunt black goats and he killed 18 of them. He was a really good hunter. I think he had no idea about what was going to happen to him one moth after", the chalet’s manager remembers.

The avalanches that killed tourists and mountain lifeguards darken the history of the place. "The mountains are like the sea. There is a tribute to pay", the brown manager told us. At 43 years old, he has already grizzled, but his blue-sky eyes tell his true age.

THE CUMPANA GROUND. The place that the youth want the most is the Cumpana Ground, where the accommodation capacity is a lot higher than in any other location. The chalet can accommodate up to 100 people, the camping has several tens of houses, and the land for the tents and the trailers has a surface of 3,000 square meters. Few steps away from the pontoon where the ships come or from where the hydro-bicycles go across the Vidraru Lake, the ground has a wooded mountain in the back that tempts you to escalade from the moment you arrive. The disco is 50 meters away and the youth never miss it.

THE SMALL INVESTORS. Tourism around Fagaras doesn’t end with the Posada society, which is truly the most developed tourism company in the district. More locals built chalets due to their wish of proving they can manage without investments of millions of euros. One of these small investors is the owner of the Paltinu Pension, Nicolae Velcescu. Aged 31, the young man was involved for a few years in the commerce from his natal village, Corbeni, and then built brick by brick a chalet with 11 rooms, restaurant and terrace at 1200 meters high in the mountains. "Until now, I spent 100,000 euros, but I was lucky to know some things about constructions and carpentry, because, otherwise, I would have needed a lot more money", the owner of the pension told us, in the same time in which he was serving his clients.