The Transalpina, from Novaci to Alba Iulia

The highest road in Romania

The Transalpina, route 67C, crosses the Parâng Mountains over 148 kilometres, to Sebeș. It leaves the orchards of Oltenia and climbs in hairpins through the beech forest to Rânca, a small resort at around 1,600 metres. Higher up, the trees disappear. You drive across short-grass pastures to the Urdele Pass, at 2,145 metres, the highest point of Romania’s road network.

Up there, you pass flocks of sheep guarded by dogs, and shepherds selling their cheese by the roadside. Fog can roll in within minutes. There are many bears, and feeding them is forbidden.

At the Obârșia Lotrului junction, a detour leads to Lake Vidra. The road climbs again to the Tărtărău Pass, then drops through the fir trees towards lakes Oașa and Tău Bistra and the Sebeș valley, in Transylvania. Before the climb, the Oltenian foothills are worth half a day: the monastery and cave of Polovragi, and the Peștera Muierilor.

Further up the valley, a Dacian fortress stands on a hill above Căpâlna. It guarded the eastern flank of Sarmizegetusa Regia, the capital of the Dacian kings, and was destroyed by the Romans around 106, when Trajan completed the conquest of Dacia. It takes about half an hour to walk up. It is one of the six Dacian fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains listed by Unesco.

Sebeș, Mühlbach in German, was a Saxon town. Its Evangelical church has a large Gothic choir, completed around 1380.

The story of the Transalpina

Before the road, there was a shepherds’ path, the Poteca Dracului, the ‘Devil’s Path’. According to one tradition, the Roman legions laid a road here during the wars against the Dacians; nothing proves it. From 1934 to 1939, King Carol II had a road built for the mountain artillery. The Devil’s Path became the King’s Road.

After that, it was left almost without upkeep for decades. Modernisation began in 2009. Work stopped in 2013: the company in charge of the works went bankrupt. It had been started without environmental approval, even though the road crosses five protected areas. Yet the high section officially opened in 2015, without being finished. It still closes every night and all winter.

What not to miss

1. 1Lake VidraA large reservoir at nearly 1,300 metres, east of the Obârșia Lotrului junction.
2. 2The Peștera MuierilorThe ‘Women’s Cave’, where women and children are said to have taken refuge during the wars.
3. 3Polovragi Monastery and CaveA church rebuilt in 1645, painted in 1713; according to legend, Zalmoxis, the spiritual master of the Dacians, lived in the cave next door.
4. 4Râpa RoșieA cliff of red clay carved into columns and gullies, just north of Sebeș.
5. 5The Alba Carolina CitadelA star-shaped fortress built by the Habsburgs from 1715 to 1738, on the Roman camp of Apulum.
6. 6The cathedrals of Alba IuliaSt Michael’s holds the tomb of John Hunyadi; Ferdinand and Marie were crowned in 1922 in the cathedral next door.

The Transalpina in pictures

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Oașa Lake between its fir-clad slopes, on the way down to Sebeș.

Food along the Transalpina

By the roadside, shepherds sell their sheep’s cheeses: caș, which is fresh, and brânză de burduf, packed into a sheep’s stomach or into fir bark. In the huts of Rânca and Oașa, you eat mici, small grilled sausages, and a ciorbă, the Romanian sour soup.

In Oltenia, people drink țuică, a plum brandy. On the Transylvanian side, the Jidvei vineyards, on the Târnave rivers, produce mostly white wines.