mountain pass
Rucăr–Bran Pass
Historic corridor road (DN73) between Brașov and Câmpulung, cresting at Fundata (~1,290 m) with pastoral villages, limestone ridges and views of the Bucegi and Piatra Craiului massifs.
28 km · about 30 min drive
Arges, Romania · Europe
Mățău is worth a stop: 10 minutes from Câmpulung, 33km from Transbucegi.
Mățău is a town located in Arges, Romania. With a population of 1,105, it is an important destination in Europe.
On a road trip, Mățău sits in Romania, where you drive on the right. It's in the Europe/Bucharest time zone. Below you'll find where to stay, things to do nearby, and everything you need to add Mățău to your route.
Mioarele, formerly known as Mățău, is a commune in Argeș County, Muntenia, Romania. Located 4 kilometers southeast of Câmpulung, on the way to Târgoviște, it touches both the Argeș River valley and the banks of its Argeșel tributary. It is composed of five villages: Mățău (the commune center), with Chilii andRead more
Cocenești, as one cluster; Suslănești, the oldest surviving village, is located farther to the east, alongside Aluniș. The commune, like Câmpulung itself, sits just below the Southern Carpathians, and includes Mățău peak, held as the tallest hill in Romania, as well as sediments with fossilized fish from the Oligocene period. Mățău and especially Suslănești are traditional centers for horticulture, as well as for the related plum-brandy industry.
The area engaged in commerce since Antiquity, when it was used as a trading post by the Dacians. Its history remained obscure during the early medieval interlude, and down to the foundation of an early Romanian polity, though archeological finds suggest that the defunct village of Hobaia, located on commune grounds, was inhabited as early as the 10th century AD. Toponymic clues have led historians to suppose that Mioarele's inhabitants included Early Slavs and Cumans, and that some part of the village may be known in written records from 1401 or 1402. A component of Muscel County in Wallachia, Suslănești was first mentioned in 1503, due to its participation in trade with the Transylvanian Saxons; it and Hobaia were inhabited by yeomen—some of whom advanced into Muscel's boyardom, while others became their serfs, and then their sharecroppers. While Hobaia was destroyed in mysterious circumstances, a dominant clan, the Jumăreas, emerged at Suslănești during the 17th century. The Jumărea ascendancy coincided with a regional migration, at the end of which Mățău was established as a secondary hamlet.
This new settlement thrived while Suslănești went into a relative decline, its land encroached upon by several monastery estates and boyar families—including the Rucăreanus, who had a long feud with the Jumăreas and the other remaining yeomen. Large property was consolidated under the Kingdom of Romania, down to a land reform in 1944. Present-day Mioarele was noted as a scene of heavy fighting during the Romanian withdrawal in World War I, and was vandalized by the Central Powers during a two-year occupation (1916–1918). It emerged from the war as a hub of agrarian politics and an electoral pool for the National Peasants' Party. The decline of the peasant class was curtailed when locals were encouraged to cultivate themselves and advance socially, including by migrating into other areas of the country. Driven by schoolteachers such as Ion Vișoianu and Ion Gh. Nicolaescu-Mățău, this effort made Mățău and Suslănești stand out as the ancestral homeland for a large number of cultural and political notabilities; figures who trace their origin to the area include Muscel's Prefect Alexandru Mușetescu, literary scholar Dan Simonescu, and writer Tudor Mușatescu.
The education-driven institutional modernization was doubled from the 1940s by attempts to introduce intensive horticulture and improve transportation. Such objectives were realized by the communist regime, which incorporated the villages under a single commune in 1956–1967, and made it part of Argeș County in 1968; it also introduced the collectivization of farmlands, with a large-scale cultivation of orchards, and conscripted local youth in projects of road modernization. During its late stages, the regime completed the national road 73, which goes around Mioarele. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, the commune remained underdeveloped due to water deficiencies, though it also completed Argeș's first-ever ski slope, in 2007.
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Mățău is located in Arges, Romania, Europe. The coordinates are 45.2356 latitude, 25.0829 longitude.
Mățău has a population of approximately 1,105 people, making it a town in Romania.
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Essential numbers in Romania
Rovinieta (road tax sticker) required for all national roads.
Full driving guide for Romania8 notable places within an hour's drive.
mountain pass
Historic corridor road (DN73) between Brașov and Câmpulung, cresting at Fundata (~1,290 m) with pastoral villages, limestone ridges and views of the Bucegi and Piatra Craiului massifs.
28 km · about 30 min drive
famous road
Alpine road (DJ713) snaking up the Bucegi Mountains past Bolboci Lake toward the 2,000 m plateau near the Babele rock formations, with sweeping hairpins and dramatic Carpathian views.
33 km · about 40 min drive
photogenic
A wind-carved rock at 2,216 m on the Bucegi plateau that in profile forms a giant human face, beside the mushroom-shaped Babele formations. Reached by cable car from Bușteni or a hike from the Transbucegi road.
36 km · about 40 min drive
castle
Vlad the Impaler's real cliff-top fortress, reached by climbing 1,480 steps above the Transfăgărășan.
37 km · about 45 min drive
castle
A fortress in Transylvania popularly associated with the legend of Count Dracula, perched on a cliff between Wallachia and Transylvania.
38 km · about 45 min drive
castle
A Neo-Renaissance palace in the Carpathian Mountains, one of the most stunning castles in Europe and a former Romanian royal residence.
38 km · about 45 min drive
landmark
A towering 166m arch dam at the southern foot of the Transfăgărășan, topped by the Prometheus statue.
38 km · about 45 min drive
mountain pass
Romania's spectacular mountain road crossing the Carpathians - 'best road in the world' per Top Gear
54 km · about 65 min drive
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