A new tourist road will be built in the Metaliferi mountains. It was called “the king’s road” and connects the royal castle from Săvârșin with the resort of Vața, passing through the native village of Arsenie Boca.
In the village of Căzăneşti, on Drumul regelui, the locals honor Arsenie Boca. Photo: Daniel Guță
More than 42 million euros are invested in the modernization of the “king’s road” that connects, through the Metaliferi Mountains, the counties of Hunedoara and Arad. The project submitted by Hunedoara and Arad County Councils to the West Regional Development Agency received funding and benefits from an allocation totaling 208.6 million lei.
“County road 707 Vața de Jos (Hunedoara county) – Petriș (Arad county), called the King’s Road, receives European funds for modernization through the Western Regional Program 2021-2027. As part of the project, 17.1 kilometers of county road will be rehabilitated, of which 13 kilometers are in the territory of Hunedoara county, five parking lots will be built, as well as a series of works that increase road safety. At the end of the modernization works of DJ 707, eight rural localities will be interconnected directly or indirectly to the TEN-T network, and more than 6,000 inhabitants of the area will be beneficiaries of the investment“, informed the Hunedoara County Council.
The duration of the project’s implementation is 45 months and its completion date is April 2028.
Bath tub. royal destination
The “King’s Road” was paved in the interwar years and represented a connecting route between the royal castle in Săvârșin, Arad county, and the resort of Vața. It was used in the past by members of the royal family.
Vața Bai resort. Photo Vața Bai
The thermal waters of Vaţa de Jos, a commune at the foot of the Zarand Mountains, located in the Crişului Alb valley, were discovered by the Turks at the beginning of the 17th century, at a time when the region was under their occupation.
Over time, the springs rich in calcium, sulfur, sodium and magnesium, with a temperature of 36-37 degrees Celsius, became more and more famous for their therapeutic qualities.
A spa operated in the area in the middle of the 19th century, and publications from the Austro-Hungarian Empire often presented accounts of the benefits brought by the waters of Vaţa. At the beginning of the 20th century, the baths at Vaţa were often visited by King Carol II.
In the 1970s, the communist regime expanded the resort, turning it into a place of treatment for tourists with disorders of the locomotor system and peripheral nervous system.
The metal mines of Metaliferi
In the middle of the 20th century, Drumul Regelui had become lively also because the metal mines and limestone quarries in the area of Vața de Jos commune were in full activity, and the Brad – Gurabarza mining center had thousands of employees.
In the first years of the Second World War, hundreds of people worked on the “Căzănești construction site”, at the Mircea, Valea Tătăroaia, Varvara, Pojorâta, Valea Cireșoaiei, Ciungani mines, and the mountains were scoured in search of deposits with high metal content. A small labor camp for Soviet prisoners also operated here.
The copper deposits of Căzăneşti and Ciungani continued to be exploited and, above all, researched during the decades of communism, and several mine shafts can be seen in the forests surrounding the village. In ores with low copper and iron content, geologists have also identified vanadium.
In the 1990s, the metal mines were closed and the villages began to depopulate. The road that connected the villages in the Metalliferous Mountains has lost its importance, being increasingly difficult to access, since most of it is not paved, and the route goes deep into the forests. For several years, however, the area on the Ponorului valley in Hunedoara has gradually regained its tourists.
Arsenie Boca’s village
The Vața resort was reopened in 2022, and another reason why the number of tourists has increased is the growing popularity of the monk Arsenie Boca’s birthplace in the village of Căzăneşti in recent years. The hearth of the parental house of Arsenie Boca (1910 – 1989) was on Bujoara Hill in Vața de Jos commune in Hunedoara, above the village of Căzăneşti.
The place where Arsenie Boca’s house is located. Forum: Daniel Guță
For over a decade, a former residence has been remodeled on the site of the monk’s family home, which disappeared over time, it is not known when. A monk retired here for several years, and the modest house with walls covered with large portraits of Arsenie Boca was often mistaken for his parental home.
At the foot of the hill, in the villages of the Ponorului valley in Hunedoara, the locals honor his memory, decorating their homes with paintings of Arsenie Boca, covering the walls of their houses with large-sized posters depicting him, erecting monuments and trivets in his memory .
The rest stops on the side of the Vața de Jos – Căzănești road are also full of religious souvenirs dedicated to the monk.
