OLT VALLEY

A little upper from Calimanesti, the road passes near the architectural assembly of Cozia monastery. In its right is the church of the monastery, surrounded from three sides by the other monastic buildings, and in the left is the Bolnitei church.

The big church of Cozia, founded by Mircea cel Batran, buried here, was built in 1380-1386. It one of the most valuable monuments of architecture from XIV century, and a start for the architecture of byzantine influence from the feudal state Wallachia.

The beautiful decoration of the facades is remarked because of the use of the materials of construction (stone and brick) and of stone carving; the open porch was added by Constantin Brancoveanu in 1707. Interesting and valuable are also the elements of old Romanian architecture from the buildings around the church. From the turret where is the museum, it opens a wonderful view over Olt and of the gate where it came out from. This landscape inspired Grigore Alexandrescu in the writing of the well known poem “Umbra lui Mircea la Cozia” (The shadow of Mircea at Cozia”)

The Bolnitei church, settled at the left of the road, is a small construction was founded by Petru Voda, monk under the name of Radu Paisiu, in 1543. Inside the church very successful are the portraits of Radu Paisie, Mircea cel Batran and his son or Mihail, as well as Stroie nobleman.

Immediately after Cozia, on the other shore of Olt (where it can be reached by boat) Bivolari glade is seen; here preserved the ruins of Arutela roman camp, settled near a thermal springs, used in the thermals of the camp, as well as the resorts Calimanesti-Caciulata. Until this roman camp, the road constructed by Roman from the Danube, along Olt till the heart of Dacia, followed the shore of the river, strewed by camps built for its guarding. The legend says that the Romans wanted to keep cutting the road in the rocky mountains, the place where Olt passed so hardly. After they have been cutting the first rock and have seen how hard it is to conquer the mountains, they renounced and made the road around Cozia mountain. The stone cut by the Romans remained in the left shore and people named it “Masa lui Traian” (“the table of Traian”) and signals the beginning of the journey along the defile. As soon as we enter into the defile we see over the treetops the towers of Turnu monastery. The church built in 1676 and renewed after the fire from 1932 is small and still preserves the original style.
Interesting are the cells cut in the sand stone of the mountain that have been dwelt for 72 years. Even in the yard of Turnu monastery ( its name reminds a guarding tower built by Romans on the mountain that fends the southern entrance in the defile) starts a path that climbs to the top of Cozia mountain. The road passes to Stanisoara monastery and offers us the possibility to know the richness and the various vegetation of this mountain, on which flanks the walnuts, the oaks and the wild roses reach until 1300m altitude and the beech descends to 350m altitude.

Olt defile – wriggling on Olt’s shore and slowly climbing, the road passes trough the gorge of the defile. It is hard to express how beautiful is the landscape that welcomes and enchants us along the road to Cozia until Turnul Rosu. Olt River succeeded to dig till the highest and most massive root of Western Carpathians. The highest point of the gorge has only 350m. altitude ( at Turnu Rosu) and while the peaks of Fagaras mountains, Lotru and Capatanii go over 2000m. altitude, therefore these peaks dominate with over 1700m. this transversal valley from Romanian Carpathians. The southern part of the defile is the most impressive: between Cozia Mountain that sets up its rocky forms at east of Olt and Naratu, the last summit of Capatanii, at west, the waters graved a narrow channel, guarded by abrupt cliffs. Trough them, the eddying Olt river stormy passes the area where the stone stares make it foam, place that was named “Armasarul” (steed) or the mountainous ells of ancient rafters (Carligul Mare and Carligul Mic).
After the first side of the defile, at Gura Lotrului between the mountains Brezoi depression appears. This intra-Carpathian basin, Brezoi-Titesti is a tectonic pit formed between Lotru, Capatanii and Fagaras mountains. Continuing to ascend trough Titesti depression it reaches to Caineni, old settlement (before the apparition of Romans in Dacia), the place of the voivodeship of Seneslau, mentioned in documents at the beginning of the XIII century. After Caineni we enter in the north side of the Olt defile, part that begins at Turnu Rosu and is embraced by the main top of Fagaras mountains and Lotrului mountains. Less impressive, the landscape is picturesque due to variety. After a stop at Cabana Oltului-chalet and after passing Turnu Spart, named also “Turnul romanilor” ( the tower of Romans), fortification built for protecting the gorge, we reach to the end of the defile, where we meet another fortification that dominates the road- Turnu Rosu, from which the gorge borrowed its name. It was built in a533 after the crumbling of Turnul Spart and it is said that was painted with Turkish blood. The legend says that a big Turkish army was devastated in 1493 and the bloods of 15000 dead people redden Olt waters.

After Turnul Rosu, the road begins to distance Olt and ascending Talmaciu hill, the beautiful “Fagarasi country” guarded by the highest mountainous peak of Romanian Carpathians opens to the viewer.

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