A recent documentary launched by Cineclic on YouTube It brings us back to the attention of Romania, the black and white frames turning time into a trip that jumps back and forth, wearing the spectator through a country in full transformation, from mountain to sea and from cities to resorts.
It is a visual odyssey of hotels, sanatoriums and tourist attractions from 1950 to 1970 – a world that seems lost, but still breathing in the archives.
Govora Baths: Optimism and Social Health
The story starts from Băile Govora, one of “Winter spa stations” fashionable at that time to present the medical cure they were following “Labor people from all over the country”. Images with “Spacious buses” What they wore to the modern sanatoriums, equipped with hydroelectric baths, inhalations, light baths and therapeutic massages completed the report by showing and what tourists did after treatment: how they relaxed at the club, read the official newspapers or played chess – a mix of recreation, culture and work.
At Govora Băi, the holiday was not only rest, but a reaffirmation of the collective force: “With increased forces, the people of work will return to work, carrying on the fight for the plan”.
Images with the Valcean resort Băile Govora once photo studioogovora
Bucharest: Renaissance of the Capital
From the resorts, the documentary throws us in Bucharest, 13 years after the capital had been devastated by the war. The Lido Hotel, a work of the famous architect Ernest Doneaud – the same one who had signed the plans of the Palace hotel, a historic building that had retained our eyes – appears as a symbol of the urban Renaissance.
The Parliament Palace and the new buildings outline a modern, developing city, while the past images contrast with the rapid evolution: healed war wounds, new blocks and grandiose monuments.
Chaotic, but fascinating, the documentary also captures other benchmarks of the capital – “Bucharest” Golden Age “”: the North Hotel, freshly used; Bijuteria store, witness of commercial life in full effervescence; The last retouching at the Intercontinental Hotel and at the National Theater, where the workers worked on the scaffolding, sometimes without strict respect for the labor protection rules.
Bucharest in communism photo studios Buftea Facebook
The film camera also captures the urban atmosphere of daily life: endless queues from gifts at home appliances, where the TVs were sold like hot bread and empty shelves for New Year’s meal.
Bucharest of the post -war era appears not only as a rebuilt city, but as a city that breathes, works and enjoys life, between modernity and nostalgia of the past.
From spa resorts, to coast: Geoagiu, Eforie, Mamaia and Constanța
The journey continues at Geoagiu Băi, with his thermal springs, then to Eforie, where five new hotel assemblies were just changing the front of the resort, and in Galați, where the Danube hotel presented its rooms and restaurant.
In Iasi, the Ont hotel became an example of modernity, with Pepsi and Martini bottles in the fridge, and Mamaia, with the 33 hotels between 4 and 14 floors, was the epicenter of the summer vacation.
Full beaches, culinary art, modern architecture and simplicity of nature – water, sand, sun – made the coast an unforgettable destination.
Mangalia Litoral in Archive images the archive source.unaarhitectilor.ro
Cities and interior hotels: Sibiu, Bacău, Onești, Baia Mare
The documentary also explores the provincial cities: Sibiu, with the famous hotel Emperor of the Romans; Piatra Neamț, with modern hotels equipped with TVs and bars; Onești, with Trotuș Hotel, “An example of architectural success”; Bacău, with Decebal Hotel; Baia Mare, with the Gutinul hotel and the Culture House of Trade Unions.
Each location presents both the modern comfort and the social atmosphere of the time.
Nature and Recreation: Poiana Brașov, Mureș and Râșnov Fortress
In winter it brings Poiana Brașov, with crowded slopes, teleferic and ice rinks, and spring contrasts with life in the Capital.
The documentary also captures less conventional areas: the sandy islands on Mures, where tourists built their villas; fishing places and beach for tan. In Bârsei Country, at Râșnov Fortress, we discover historical legends such as Mihai Viteazul’s stop.
Poiana Brasov before 1990. PHOTO ORASULMEMOBIL.RO
The road continues: Herculane, Buzău and Iron Gates
The documentary ends the itinerary with Herculane, where “Two millennia of history meet with modern comfort”: saunas, thermal pools and spa treatments. In Buzău, hotels and sites of urban modernization coexist with old neighborhoods, and at the Iron Gates, Orșova comes with new hotels and water sports, in the shadow of the enigmatic bridge.
Romania between two worlds
Cinechlic manages to turn an apparently chaotic amalgam of images and landmarks into a fascinating experience. Romania of the 50s – 1970 appears as a vibrant universe, where the cities were reborn, the Black Sea coast are modernized, the spa resorts attracted labor people, and the mountains and rural areas offered recreation and imagination. Each hotel, every sanatorium, every beach or tourist center is a fragment of story about optimism, progress and holidays impossible to forget.
The documentary opens the gate to a Romania who learned to live again, to enjoy, to heal – a country that rediscover in the mirror of new or renovated hotels, but also of historical attraction points. Through these images, an emotional geography is recomposed: Romania caught between restrictions and the desire to live beautifully. It is not just a story about how tourism is promoted in those times; It’s a story about people. About the rhythm of an era that, although stifled by constraints, always found a way of smiling, resting and celebrating life in the middle of a changing society.
