The History of Govora Spa

An outlook on one of Romania's oldest spa resorts

Christine Leșcu, 02.03.2019, 12:53

The therapeutic springs in the
south-western Romanian spa of Baile Govora have acquired their fame in time.
Early documentary evidence for the thermal water springs is dated 1878, when
mention was made of several watchmen who had to keep an eye on the waters in
the region. It was only a couple of years later that two men searching for
crude oil, engineer Ioan Claus and the mayor of a village in the area,
discovered some sort of black-coloured, iodine-smelling mineral water. It was
the first time when the waters in Govora had been documented. They are rich in
chlorine, sodium, sulphur, magnesium and calcium, and are extremely useful in
the treatment of rheumatic ailments, and not only. The date mentioned by the
two for their discovery is very specific: September 30, 1881. The area has
since been developing at an amazingly rapid pace, with the locality and the spa
being actually established around those springs, in a region previously home to
forests alone.

Romania’s
Liberal Prime Minister before the Great War, Ion C. Bratianu, was one of the
people who actively promoted the spa. Ionela Nitu, the author of the book The
History of Govora Spa 1879 – 1989 told us more about the history of the Govora
Spa:

As an administrative entity, documentary evidence on the Govora Spa was
found much later, in 1908. It was then that the village of Baile Govora was
founded, clustering several other villages in the neighbouring areas. Now,
returning to Bratianu, he got very much involved in the development of the spa.
It was he who sent doctor Zorileanu in 1886, with an ambulance and military, to
map out the area. Zorileanu realized the therapeutic importance of the waters
here and urged Bratianu to have the state invest in everything that was related
to the expansion of the spa.

In 1887, the state granted the spa
one million lei’s worth of credit, and that is how the first constructions
around the springs came to be erected, such as the first spa facility. Ionela
Nitu:

It was basically a wooden cabin. In the following years, the first
three state-run hotels were built and that’s how the expansion of the spa
began, as apart from the first buildings erected by the state, there were also
those erected by private entrepreneurs. Of the first buildings erected in late
19th century, some can still be found today, such as State Hotel number 1, the
Stefanescu Hotel, built around 1900 and which presides over the centre of the
spa, then there’s the Post Office, a building erected at about the same time
and which still exists, fortunately. Yet the spa saw its boom after 1910, when
the Govora Calimanesti Company was founded, a joint venture based on a
public-private partnership. Thanks to the company, the construction of the
spa’s iconic building was possible, the Palace Hotel, located in the park of
the spa. The construction began in 1911 and was completed in 1914, it was a
unique building at the turn of the 20th century, and was designed as a model
for hotels across Europe at that time. There were very few hotels that had
restaurants, the treatment facilities and leisure rooms on their premises. And
that’s how it was thought out, as an all-inclusive system. It was also then
that the spa establishment was rebuilt. The old constructions were brought
down, only to be replaced by other buildings, which survived in the spa’s park
even to this day.

The expansion of the Govora Spa
continued in the interwar period. A growing number of private entrepreneurs’
villas emerged, concurrently with other tourist accommodation facilities. Also
investments were placed in the locality’s infrastructure: roads were
modernized, as well as the sewage and water supply system. Ionela Nitu speaks
about other iconic sites in the Govora Spa:

Among the special constructions, there are the Casino, the Cinema
building, for which construction works began in 1928 and which was designed by
the first woman architect, Virginia Andreescu-Haret. The building was partially
completed in 1930. It was not entirely completed, as part of it remained
unfinished to this day. In 1936, the Balneara Hotel was inaugurated, lying in
the centre of the spa and built in cubist style.

Today, very few people know that
during the war the spa hosted an impressive number of Polish refugees. In
October 1939, around 700 refugees could be found here, and in 1941, several
members of the Polish government who were in exile were accommodated in the
Govora Spa.