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ArgumentNo. 4/2012

Borsec – a bitter memory

Abstract

Not so long ago, simply mentioning the word Borsec brought to mind the connection between the mineral water and the resort. The access route with the bridge from which wagons, pulled by the narrow-gauge steam locomotive and packed full with mineral water, would leave for the rest of the country, became its symbol up until the ‘90s. This explains why postal cards still linger in the minds of the generations born shortly after 1945.

If you venture up to the resort, nowadays only the mineral water bottling plant suggests some activity – unfortunately modernized without identity and with the utmost disrespect towards the context, as it is surrounded by houses made of pine wood with attic and balcony fretwork and therefore participates wholeheartedly in the extinction of local architectural values by formally opposing them despite it being the single major economic support.

An unplanned trip leaves you with a bitter taste and if you attempt a walk on the “boulevard” towards evening, you may as well feel like in one of Andrey Tarkovsky’s scenes from Stalker (1979), in the role of Aleksandr Kajdanovky – what a sinister accident, what beautiful recollections!

The stoic existence of some of the villas, as well as the continuous flow of mineral springs, captured and indexed since the past century, assures the continuity of these places.

The obvious intention of the authorities is to bring the matter to the attention of people before it becomes too late, so that the return to normality can be made, its final stage being the reintroduction of Borsec in the international balneal touristical circuit.

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