Spa tourists in Băile Herculane - © Balate.Dorin/Shutterstock
Spa tourists in Băile Herculane - © Balate.Dorin/Shutterstock
After decades of severe decline, the historical spa town of Băile Herculane is gradually flourishing again. The credit goes to the efforts by a group of young people who mobilised to save the heritage and reclaim the spaces, and to EU funds
“The fin-de-siècle stucco might have come straight out of an icing gun; there were terracotta balustrades, egg-shaped cupolas and glimpses through glass double-doors of hydrangeas banked up ornate staircases”. This is how English writer Patrick Leigh Fermor described, in 1934, his impressions of Băile Herculane, a spa town located at the bottom of a narrow valley in the Western Romanian Carpathians.
We are half an hour's drive from the Iron Gates, the gorge that leads the Danube into the Wallachian plain. It is a very green area, where natural parks abound: at short distance from Băile Herculane there are five national parks, plus other protected areas. Even today it is a relatively remote area: the nearest cities are at least two and a half hours away by car.
Traces of ancient splendor
Despite its secluded location, Băile Herculane is among the oldest and most popular spa resorts in Romania. Founded by the ancient Romans, the resort reached the peak of its splendor in the second half of the 19th century, when the region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and high society – starting with Empress Sissi – enjoyed spa vacations.
The most iconic building in Băile Herculane is the Austro-Hungarian era spa, the “Imperial Baths” designed by prolific Hungarian architect Ignác Alpár. It is flanked by a series of Belle Epoque hotels, a charming train station, the former casino and some villas and gardens.
With a few exceptions, most of these structures have fallen into a state of serious abandonment after the end of communism, to the point that some of them have partly collapsed. Wild privatisations, mismanagement and repeated investigations into corruption and embezzlement have seriously tangled up the ownership of buildings and land, partly hindering its recovery and relaunch even today.
In the meantime, tourists continue to come to Băile Herculane – almost 300,000 arrived in 2024 – but most of them end up in the large hotels built in the socialist era or in the myriad of guesthouses and bed and breakfasts that have sprung up in the last fifteen years.
It is a summer and autumn tourism fuelled essentially by Romanians of a certain age. “Apart from the spa and a few hikes, there is not much to do around here”, says Oana, an architect originally from Timisoara. “For sure there isn't much happening for the younger generation: there is no cinema, no concerts, and nowehere to dance. There is not much social or cultural life”.
Rebirth from below
Oana is one of the people who, for about ten years, has been working to change things in Băile Herculane. In 2017, she founded “Herculane Project” , an initiative designed primarily to preserve and revive the historical and architectural heritage of the town, but which over time has also begun to organise exhibitions and cultural events.
“Herculane Project” developed within the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Timisoara and is still animated mainly by its students or graduates, now scattered throughout various areas of Romania. Some of them, like Oana, regularly travel to Băile Herculane and spend time there in order to monitor construction sites and projects.
Although in recent years the initiatives carried out by “Herculane Project” have benefited from the support of some sponsors, the organisation operates largely thanks to donations from below. “We are very well known in Romania, sometimes people even recognize us in the street and ask to take a picture with us”, says Oana. Some of the volunteers who took part in initiatives carried out in Băile Herculane have then launched similar heritage care projects in other places in Romania.
The role of the authorities
Oana and her colleagues have managed to stem the degradation of the Imperial Baths and to start the recovery of a series of other places in Băile Herculane, including some walks along the Cerna River and green spaces that were previously inaccessible or abandoned.
However, much remains to be done. The biggest limitation is the lack of public funding, says Oana. Her organisation has a good working relationship with the local government, which is however a small municipality with limited resources: what is seriously lacking is above all state funding.
In recent years, however, funding from the European Union has begun to arrive in Băile Herculane, thanks to cohesion funds earmarked for the development of tourism. The projects supported by European funds allow the Municipality to carry out otherwise impossible infrastructural interventions, and which civil society organisations such as “Herculane Project” cannot take on: resurfacing roads and bridges, renewing street furniture, and so on.
Since 2014, thanks to the support received from the EU, the Municipality of Băile Herculane has thus managed investments for the equivalent of almost 12 million Euros, all aimed at increasing the influx of tourists and the notoriety of the location abroad, and creating new job opportunities.
The mobilisation of European funds and private sponsors is a necessary complement to the activities carried out by “Herculane Project”. As Oana explains, “at the beginning of our work we wanted to do everything: we made so many sacrifices, it was so, so hard. Then we realised that we could not turn into the municipality: we are here just to help, but we shouldn't take the burden that is of local or state authorities. It was very important to find a good balance”.
At the same time, for Oana it is very clear that the authorities cannot be left to act on their own: “people's involvement is crucial. It is really important to get people to see the beauty and the potential of this place”.
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