Ceausescu’s villas – a positive legacy of communism

Newsroom 16/06/2008 | 15:47

Of the 68 villas that the National Forest Department – Romsilva – has introduced in the tourism circuit, nine are actually villas built for the Ceausescu family and they are now expecting visitors. “Expecting” may be in fact not be the right word, as it is hard to find a time when they are available due to the high tourist demand.
“Villas in Mozacu, Ivo, Dealu Negru and Resca are most frequently visited since these are also the ones in which the Ceausescu family actually spent some time,” says Dragos Magureanu, representative of Romsilva. Prices for renting a room or even an entire villa are far from prohibitive and room reservations can be made as late as 48 hours in advance. The only problem is that “you have to be very lucky to catch something that is available,” says Magureanu.
Generally, the Romsilva cabins that are part of the tourism circuit have on average five double rooms each with its own bath. The price for renting an entire villa is around RON 500-600 per night. Romsilva also organizes various leisure activities for interested visitors, from trips to horse-riding lessons.
“Unfortunately at the moment, we have no statistical data regarding the number of tourists that are accommodated annually in the villas, nor how much was invested over the years in modernizing the villas,” says Magureanu.
Some foreigners have already heard about the villas and there are also guides who speak English and in some cases French and German.
Most villas are built in places with high tourism potential, offer good accommodation conditions and post tariffs that are considered low for the business class.
The system for online reservations on the site www.rosilva-turism.ro is now on-stream. This is in fact an internet portal on which 16 tourism agencies in the country and the forestry administration operate and is the only way online reservations can be made for now.
Internationally renowned personalities such as King Juan Carlos of Spain and the Sheik of Qatar have spent several nights in the Ceausescu villas. Hollywood star Nicole Kidman was also accommodated in a villa built for the couple when she was shooting the movie Cold Mountain.
The Resca compound was built between 1978 and 1980 on a surface of around 900 sqm in the Resca forest on the Olt river. Besides being known as “the villa of the dictator Ceausescu” it is also located in an area rich in fauna and also close to the Resca naturally protected area where rare plants such as the yellow iris can be admired. The villa is also in the vicinity of the archeological site of the Roman citadel Romula-Malva.
Another villa that hosted the notorious couple was Ivo in the Harghita mountains, an area with a rustic and wild landscape. The villa was built in 1971 mainly for Ceausescu family vacations and has been renovated twice, in 1996 and 2006.
The other two villas where the Ceausescus were accommodated are Dealul Negru, a villa located in a hilly area at 830 meters altitude near the Cusma village in Bistrita- Nasaud county, and Mozacu, located between the plains of Pitesti and Gavanu-Burdea in a forested area that plays an important role in maintaining the biodiversity and natural habitat for many species.
The other five villas of the Ceausescu family are Bratovoiesti, built in 1974 and renovated in 2000 and 2002, Lepsulet, built in 1957 (which was used for protocol), Nemtisor, close to the Neamt monastery, built in 1974 and modernized in 2004, Crujana I in Suceava county which became a tourism highlight for its comfort and the beauty of the landscape, and finally Lapusna built in 1970 and modernized in 2000 in an area with a great deal of forest and rich in fish.
However, Romsilva only owns a portion of the string of villas built for the Ceausescu family. A good example would be the villa in Balea Lac which was under transformation into a three-star villa with rooms equipped with Jacuzzis after 17 years of neglect. The villa was upgraded from two to three stars. “A new wing is being added to the already existing one that will also be modified. Modernizations will be carried out on the restaurant and the kitchen where everything was changed and equipped with ultramodern facilities,” said the manager of SC B

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