A spa is reborn in Transylvania: a ‘healing hotel’ amid Romania’s forests and mountains

A castle in the Carpathian mountains with a turbulent history has been restored by the original family owners

The Zabola estate’s wrought-iron gates swing open and an avenue of chestnut trees stretches before me. Beyond them lies a serene Transylvanian landscape of rolling hills, lakes and gardens surrounding a grand yellow-ochre castle (which has the comfiest beds I’ve ever slept in). I instantly feel myself relax – this place, hidden in a forested valley in Romania’s Carpathian mountains, is a dreamy oasis for a winter weekend, and somewhere I have been before for proper R&R.

In past centuries, people from all over the Austro-Hungarian empire, of which the region of Covasna, surrounding Zabola village and castle were once part, came here to heal. The area, above a dormant volcano (last eruption: 20,000 years ago), has bubbly mineral springs below the surface but was never as famous as the spas of Bad Gastein in Austria or Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic, and hence is still affordable. Rooms at Zabola range from €80 to €300 a night, with treatments from €30, while the bus from Braşov city to Covasna takes an hour and costs less than €20.