The therapeutic springs in the
\nsouth-western Romanian spa of Baile Govora have acquired their fame in time.
\nEarly documentary evidence for the thermal water springs is dated 1878, when
\nmention was made of several watchmen who had to keep an eye on the waters in
\nthe region. It was only a couple of years later that two men searching for
\ncrude oil, engineer Ioan Claus and the mayor of a village in the area,
\ndiscovered some sort of black-coloured, iodine-smelling mineral water. It was
\nthe first time when the waters in Govora had been documented. They are rich in
\nchlorine, sodium, sulphur, magnesium and calcium, and are extremely useful in
\nthe treatment of rheumatic ailments, and not only. The date mentioned by the
\ntwo for their discovery is very specific: September 30, 1881. The area has
\nsince been developing at an amazingly rapid pace, with the locality and the spa
\nbeing actually established around those springs, in a region previously home to
\nforests alone.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Romania’s
\nLiberal Prime Minister before the Great War, Ion C. Bratianu, was one of the
\npeople who actively promoted the spa. Ionela Nitu, the author of the book The
\nHistory of Govora Spa 1879 – 1989 told us more about the history of the Govora
\nSpa:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
As an administrative entity, documentary evidence on the Govora Spa was
\nfound much later, in 1908. It was then that the village of Baile Govora was
\nfounded, clustering several other villages in the neighbouring areas. Now,
\nreturning to Bratianu, he got very much involved in the development of the spa.
\nIt was he who sent doctor Zorileanu in 1886, with an ambulance and military, to
\nmap out the area. Zorileanu realized the therapeutic importance of the waters
\nhere and urged Bratianu to have the state invest in everything that was related
\nto the expansion of the spa.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In 1887, the state granted the spa
\none million lei’s worth of credit, and that is how the first constructions
\naround the springs came to be erected, such as the first spa facility. Ionela
\nNitu:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
It was basically a wooden cabin. In the following years, the first
\nthree state-run hotels were built and that’s how the expansion of the spa
\nbegan, as apart from the first buildings erected by the state, there were also
\nthose erected by private entrepreneurs. Of the first buildings erected in late
\n19th century, some can still be found today, such as State Hotel number 1, the
\nStefanescu Hotel, built around 1900 and which presides over the centre of the
\nspa, then there’s the Post Office, a building erected at about the same time
\nand which still exists, fortunately. Yet the spa saw its boom after 1910, when
\nthe Govora Calimanesti Company was founded, a joint venture based on a
\npublic-private partnership. Thanks to the company, the construction of the
\nspa’s iconic building was possible, the Palace Hotel, located in the park of
\nthe spa. The construction began in 1911 and was completed in 1914, it was a
\nunique building at the turn of the 20th century, and was designed as a model
\nfor hotels across Europe at that time. There were very few hotels that had
\nrestaurants, the treatment facilities and leisure rooms on their premises. And
\nthat’s how it was thought out, as an all-inclusive system. It was also then
\nthat the spa establishment was rebuilt. The old constructions were brought
\ndown, only to be replaced by other buildings, which survived in the spa’s park
\neven to this day.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The expansion of the Govora Spa
\ncontinued in the interwar period. A growing number of private entrepreneurs’
\nvillas emerged, concurrently with other tourist accommodation facilities. Also
\ninvestments were placed in the locality’s infrastructure: roads were
\nmodernized, as well as the sewage and water supply system. Ionela Nitu speaks
\nabout other iconic sites in the Govora Spa:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Among the special constructions, there are the Casino, the Cinema
\nbuilding, for which construction works began in 1928 and which was designed by
\nthe first woman architect, Virginia Andreescu-Haret. The building was partially
\ncompleted in 1930. It was not entirely completed, as part of it remained
\nunfinished to this day. In 1936, the Balneara Hotel was inaugurated, lying in
\nthe centre of the spa and built in cubist style.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Today, very few people know that
\nduring the war the spa hosted an impressive number of Polish refugees. In
\nOctober 1939, around 700 refugees could be found here, and in 1941, several
\nmembers of the Polish government who were in exile were accommodated in the
\nGovora Spa.<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An outlook on one of Romania’s oldest spa resorts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":125689,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[43956,45523,45522],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-169230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-govora-spa","tag-ionela-nitu","tag-therapeutic-springs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n