Welcome to County Argeş in the Muntenia region of Romania! Discover historic Curtea de Argeş and surrounding villages, and understand the rich Muntenia culture unfolding in beautiful Arges. Rest Romania will help you find the perfect hotel or B&B in our Argeş Accommodation section, or a guest house or pensiune in a village nestled in the mountains. Explore all of Argeş from Curtea de Argeş to Piteşti, Câmpulung, and Curtea de Argeş and the smaller towns of Mioveni Costeşti Topoloveni and Ştefăneşti!
Travel by rental car or tour bus and train through the Argeş region of Muntenia in Romania. Hotels in Curtea de Argeş are well-priced, and great travel and tourism activities from shopping, to exploring the villages, folk art, castles, mountains and forests. See all of County Argeş, from Curtea de Argeş to Piteşti, Câmpulung, and Curtea de Argeş and the smaller towns of Mioveni Costeşti Topoloveni and Ştefăneşti!
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Throughout the Middle Ages, Argeş was
the cradle of Romanian culture, protecting it's people in the folds of
her mountain river valleys, whilst the Visigoths, Slavs, Bulgars and Ottomans swept
through on the plains below.
Piteşti,
the County seat and home to fabulous markets every weekend has about
180,000 people and a delightful downtown mall area.
Up towards the mountains are the highly historic cities of
Câmpulung-Muscel and
Curtea de Argeş together with
about 60,000 happy inhabitants. These towns were the first
captials of the nascent Wallachia, Romania's first true nation-state.
There are also the four
regional towns of Mioveni, Costeşti,
Topoloveni, and Ştefăneşti, and almost 100
communes (communes usually have post office and police and serve a
handfull of villages in the immediate area).
So
many tourists, Romanian and American alike, make the sad mistake of
just driving through Piteşti on their ways to
Sibiu, Braşov or Bucureşti.
Despite it's past since 1966 as the home of the national car,
you'll find gorgeous pedestrianised malls in downtown Piteşti with delightful squares and great
shopping, and home to the famous Tulip Festival.
Nestled a valley on the right bank of the Argeş
river, the clubs, restaurants, cafes and
hotels of downtown Piteşti make this proud
capital of County Argeşa
great base for exploring the
surrounding area.
Piteşti fulfils it's role as a market
town each weekend, as the surrounding townsfolk and villagers flock
to the regional centre to bring their wares and foodstuffs to
market, with the annual tulip festival
the highlight of the holiday calendar.
Any visitor expecting a grim industrial city will
be surprised to find a large regional centre supporting the
surrounding agricultural towns, complete with a delightful central
pedestrian mall!
Even if you only have a half hour to spare for this cultural and
historical capital of the Argeş
region, a few photos of the precious gift to architecture that is the
Cathedral of Curtea de Argeş
will go a long way to impress your friends and relatives when you return
home.
Looking more like the whim of an overly ambitious
cake decorator, this monument to all that is arabesque is sure to
delight the eye and impress even the most travel-worn soul.
The old princely court and the county museum,
along with some good cafes and some very charming villages to the north,
welcoming to tourists and great for overnight stays, make Curtea de
Argeş a worthwhile stopping point
as part of quite a few itineraries.
Read more about this special town here!
The Făgăraş Mountains
The Transfăgărăşan highway begins it's
breathtaking journey just north of Curtea de Argeş,
after the shimmering waters of Lake Vidraru,
with it's rock faces plunging into the deep waters, it's tributaries
full of trout and lined with holiday cabins and some great fish
restaurants.
The road twists up and up into the Carpathians,
finally emerging above the treeline and plunging into a near
kilometre-long tunnel, bursting out into a truly amazing moonscape,
barren but for a glacial frozen lake and equally amazing, a top-notch
restaurant and lodges. The scenery is stunning! Check for road
conditions at the foot of the dam at Lake Vidraru.
Poienari Castle, Home of the "Real" Dracula
Looming high on the side of a mountain, with strategic views up and
down the Argeş river valley, the castle built and
inhabited by one of the most feared figures of Romania's past is where
the "real" Dracula story can be found.
Vlad the Impaler had the nasty habit of staking his Turkish
opponents as a warning to those who followed, gaining him quite a
reputation as a bloodthirsty warrior. However, this Vlad was
but a successor in a line of regional princes guarding the Carpathian
mountains from interlopers coming from the south.
His mountain fortress here north of Curtea de Argeş,
nestled in the scenic foothills shadowed by the mighty Făgăraş section of the
Carpathians to the north, offers stunning views of the sweeping
Wallachian plains below and some very interesting history of Romania's
real Dracula.
Nestled
under the twin majesties of the Bucegi and
Piatra Craiului mountain groups about 50km
northeast of Piteşti, the Câmpulung area was
long a historically important crossroads between Transilvania and the
lower Wallachian plains.
This north-eastern region of County Argeş is dotted with
charming villages as the main road (see map)
climbs higher to Rucăr and Bran Castle, used for decades by România's
royalty in the last century.
Câmpulung, with a population of over 45,000, is situated among the outlying hills of the
Transylvanian Alps, at the head of a long well-wooded glen traversed by
the river Târgului, a tributary of the Argeş. Its pure air and
fine scenery render Câmpulung a popular summer resort.
Pack a great picnic lunch with meats and cheeses from the local
store, and enjoy in the churchyard or parks by some of the two dozen
old churches, inducing a monastery and a cathedral, both founded by Radu the Black, the legendary first Prince of
Wallachia.
For those with an archeological bent, near Câmpulung are the remains of a Roman camp; and just beyond the
gates, vestiges a Roman colony, variously identified with Romula,
Stepenium and Ulpia Traiana, but now called Grădiştea or Jidovi.
Câmpulung
began a program of industrial diversification in the 1970s, and
is home to a facility which produces the all-terrain vehicle, the "ARO".
Several models of this rugged and large Jeep-cum-Range
Rover 4WD have been produced through the years with varying levels of
success on the domestic market.
If you have a choice of rental for you mountain vehicle,
the ARO is sure to provide a memorable experience for the true driving
enthusiast!
Visit the Manufacturing Facility, Str. Traian nr. 223.
Call first on +40 (248) 812 116
Along the Dâmboviţei river valley,
the Rucăr area is actually
two villages with just over 6,000 inhabitants.
Sătic is up the Dâmboviţei
river a bit, and Rucăr proper is where the
Dâmboviţa and Râuşor rivers meet.
If you enjoy mountains, Rucăr
is a rather good spot to be! Surrounded by five major
mountain groups, Rucăr provides a close-by base
for hiking trips into the Leaota, Piatra Craiului,
Iezer-Păpuşa, and Făgăraş mountains, as well as the Bran to
Rucăr pass, used for centuries as a vital trade
route between Transilvania and Wallachia.
Just to the north of Rucăr, Podu Dâmboviţei
on the high reaches of the Dâmboviţei riverborders the Piatra Craiului National park
Solid as a Rock
Cleverly hewn into the local stone, much of
the monastery is a testament to perseverence and engineering
ingenuity!
Bran pass to the north divides the Leaota
Mountains from the Piatra Craiului mountains to the north.
An area of accessible wilderness, the Leaota
mountains buttress the Bucegi range to the east. Whilst not as well
known as their bigger sister ranges of mountains to the north and east,
the Leaota mountains nonetheless offer some great hiking opportunities.
Read More about trails in our
Hiking/Trekking/Bushwalking Section Here!
In the mid-1500s, someone had the bright idea to put a monastery
into a cave. So, just 12km north of Câmpulung Muscel in the high
foothills of County Argeş, the Nămăeşti
monastery was installed in the cave.
Worth the short trip by mini bus to the site above the Târg
river, this curious mix of the ecclesiastic and the geologic marries the
majesty of nature with the mystery of the afterlife. The
tradition of having a deity live in a cave goes all the way back to the
Zalmoxis, God of the original in habitants of the region, the Dacians.
Zalmoxis was believed to have his cave somewhere in the Carpathian
mountains, possibly as far east as the Piatra Craiului mountains to the
northeast of Nămăeşti. Many villages claim this distinction, but it is here in Argeş a credible cave actually exists for the
purpose!
But, the nuns living at this monastery will have no such nonsense of
Dacian tales, and maintain the church and grounds in perfect order.
The icon here is said to work miracles, painted by St. Luke under
instruction by the St. Mary, according to the lore.
Nămăeşti is a completely charming place to
spend a morning before lunch on your way to Curtea de Argeş
or up to Bran and Braşov. Visit during the springtime when the
flowers are at their best!
High Up the Tower at Nămăiesti
Hewn through the rock of the hillside, this tower
appears above the rock, letting light here into the narthex
of the church
Just a stone's throw away from Piteşti to the
northwest, Mioveni has over 35,000 inhabitants, and it beautifully sited
in the Argeş river valley.
With a surprisingly urban feel for such a small regional centre,
Mioveni's main thoroughfare features the House of Culture and a few
other notable buildings of similar regional architecture. In the
main park you can find a bust of local-born philosopher Petre Tutea, who
was once just an unusually observant country lad from the nearby village
of Boteni.
The low foothills surrounding Moiveni are full of tributaries to the
River Argeş, which flows gently past
Mioveni in the Racoviţa quarter,
also home to a Dacia Renault facility, another proud manufacturing
concern for County Argeş!
Topoloveni's Claims to Fame
Sleepy Topoloveni,
nestled on a meadowland next to the Argeş river,
dates from 1421 under the rule of Radu II Chelul.
The town of about 10,000 Argeşeans is home to the largest museum
of it's kind in the world –
the National Police Museum!
If you've ever
been involved or interested in law enforcement, this is definitely the
place for you. Even if you're not, a half hour walk-through will reveal
some seriously interesting uniforms and methods of crime-fighting from
years past, starting with the medieval protectors of the peace, to the
gendarmerie or the modern day.
Made up of four small villages to the north, along with the old
village of Topoloveni itself, Topoloveni is just a 20km side-trip to the
southwest of Piteşti, and is easily accessible by the main motorway
running between Piteşti and Bucharest.
If you have the extra hour or two to stop, have lunch, and tour the
museum and town, Topoloveni makes a reasonable stopping-off point!
Town after little town will whiz by on the train
as you trundle through the verdant and very productive countryside of
southern County Argeş.
Fields of very gay looking sunflowers meld into
little villages laden with plum trees waiting to be made into brandy,
all hugging the main road with maybe a little store and possibly a
petrol station.
But hidden off the main routes are a few gems worthy of that extra
few hour to explore if you're in no particular rush to make it to
Braşov, Sibiu, or Curtea de Argeş before nightfall.
Ungheni in southwestern County Argeş is a
conglomeration of several charming little villages with names like "New
Village" and "The Corner".
The Commune of Ungheni
Actually a conglomeration of villages of
about 4,000 people, Ungheni includes Ungheni, Colţu, Găujani,
Goia, Humele and Satu Nou, or "new village".
This regional agricultural centre built on a gentle wide meadow of
the Teleorman ("Crazy Woods") river is abuzz with
the typical Romanian countryside lifestyle, centring around crops,
farming, viticulture and of course, small-town gossip!
With just over 12,000 people, Costeşti serves
it's function as a minor regional centre well. The
commune proper is made up of six other villages in addition to the old
village of Costeşti proper, which has transformed
into a proper town with all the basic services.
If you're from Iowa, or Ohio, or anywhere from the plains states of
America, Canada, or Country New South Wales, you will feel very much at
home with the people and pace of life in Costeşti and
throughout County Argeş. Here
you'll find that common language known to agrarian peoples around the
world, where a good jam and a chinwag at the local store have a much
greater value than the latest Hollywood film.
Late in the year, the Trivale Park,
formerly a forested area and now a part of the town, turns
into a colourful wonderland, perfect for a brisk walk on
your way to some shopping or a nice warm café!
Throughout the Middle Ages, 
Where
the Medieval History of Romania Begins!
Câmpulung
The photo immediately preceding this notice is Copyright (c)2005 - 2008 Rest
Romania SRL, All rights reserved.
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