Govora Baths Are Featured on the Map of the Museum of Architecture in Romania – MuzA

© Tudor Constantinescu

27.07.2026

Following its opening in June in Bucharest, MuzA—the Museum of Architecture in Romania—will be in Băile Govora from August 1 to September 20, 2026, to Băile Govora, where it will open the exhibition“MuzA at theSpa” at the Ștefănescu Hotel, one of the resort’s iconic buildings, built in 1902. Curated by the IDEILAGRAM Association and produced in collaboration with Studiogovora and S T O A, the exhibition is part of the MuzA journey, a national initiative that, over the next four years, will document architecture and people’s relationship with their surroundings in 11 communities across Romania.

On the MuzA map, Băile Govora holds a special place. The resort in Vâlcea County developed in the late 19th century, modeled after the great European spa resorts, during a period when a new concept of health was taking shape: mineral waters, nature, and architecture could all contribute to healing. Thus was born a town conceived as a unified whole, where the park, the hotels, and the spa facilities were all part of the same therapeutic experience.

In the context of the curatorial year dedicated to Fantasy, Băile Govora thus illustrates one of modernity’s boldest visions: that of a city built around the promise of a better life.

MuzA’s presence at Băile Govora also serves as a recognition of the efforts to research and revitalize the spa heritage undertaken by local partners Studiogovora, a collective of specialists who support the rehabilitation of the built environment and carry out revitalization projects through art and civic engagement. Through their initiatives, more and more people have rediscovered Băile Govora and the value of its architecture, and the resort has returned to the public eye as a place worthy of protection and promotion.

“For us, MuzA la Băi is confirmation that Govora’s fragile heritage can remain a living, indisputable landmark—not just a memory—on the map of Romanian architecture. If the resort was born from a fantasy of times past, today our goal is to build a new one, starting from the shared assets we have inherited, one that integrates both the heritage and the spirit of the present—a hallmark of the process of interpreting European cultural values. In this regard, our work has focused on how we can harness the local resources capable of creating a new reality for the community in the future. Govora is one of the very few examples of resorts where this type of experiment is still viable.” – Radu Tîrcă, architect and co-founder of Studiogovora

MuzA Exhibition Program in Băile Govora

Those who live in or are vacationing in Băile Govora are invited, on the weekend of August 1–2, 2026, to attend the opening of the MuzA la Băi exhibition. The program includes guided tours of the resort led by architects and historians, architecture workshops for children and teenagers, and evenings dedicated to artistic performances: a multimedia projection by Amural and a concert featuring Cristina Lupu and Lucas Contreras.

Admission to the exhibition and all events isfree.

Schedule

Saturday, August 1, 2026

11:00 a.m.Guided tour with Irina Leca — Primordial Fantasy. Nature as Healer (meet at the Palace Hotel)

11:00 a.m. Workshop for children (ages 9–12) “Playing Architecture”— Views from the Baths (Palace Hotel). *The workshop lasts three hours, including the guided tour.

7:00 p.m.Dan Perjovschi Pop-up: Live Drawing (Hotel Ștefănescu)

8:00 PM Public opening (Ștefănescu Hotel)

10:00 PM Amural Screening (Ștefănescu Hotel)

Sunday, August 2, 2026

11:00 a.m. Guided tour with Ștefania Tîrcă — The Fantasy of Modernity and the Collective Fantasy (meet at Hotel Ștefănescu)

11:00 a.m. Workshop for teens (ages 13–19) Playing with Architecture — Views from Băi (Ștefănescu Hotel) * The workshop lasts three hours, including the guided tour.

3:00 p.m. Film screening: Sahia Vintage & Agora OAR Sibiu-Vâlcea (Ștefănescu Hotel). Participants: Ștefan Bâlici, Irina Iamandescu, Alex Răuță, Zsolt Varday, Alexandru Mexi, Radu Tîrcă, Ștefania Tîrcă, Ruxandra Pop, Cătălina Frâncu. Moderators: Dan Felix Paraschiv and Ilinca Păun Constantinescu

5:00 p.m. Guided tour with Irina Leca and Ștefania Tîrcă — “Suspended Fantasy and Reactivated Fantasy” (meet at Hotel Ștefănescu)

6:00 p.m. Inclusive reading workshop, Superheroes Among Us Association (Ștefănescu Hotel)

8:30 p.m.Concert byCristina Lupu & Lucas Contreras (Ștefănescu Hotel)

Special Program | Monday, August 3, 2026

11:00 a.m. Meeting with the “Superheroes Among Us” Association, the community of people with disabilities, and the Ideilagram Association (Ștefănescu Hotel)

Visiting Hours

From August 10 to September 20, 2026, the exhibition will be open Friday through Sunday according to the following schedule:

Theme of the MuzA la Băi exhibition: Fantasies of the Good Life 

While the exhibition in Bucharest, “MuzA at the Palace,” conceived by the program’s curators Ilinca Pop-Gălățianu and Tudor Elian, explored four dimensions of architectural fantasy (utopian thinking, representation, design, and habitation), the one in Băile Govora explores the result of a fantasy turned reality: the belief that architecture can contribute to the process of care.

The exhibition is organized into five sections: “Original Fantasy: Nature as Healer” presents the emergence of the resort and the beginnings of modern thermalism. The Fantasy of Modernity: Society and Leisure explores the social life that complemented spa treatments. The Collective Fantasy: The Infrastructure of Care traces Govora’s development during the socialist era, when spa treatments became accessible to a broad public. “The Suspended Fantasy: Fragmentation and Distance” analyzes the resort’s decline after 1990, while “The Reactivated Fantasy: From Preservation to Transformation” highlights contemporary initiatives that are rediscovering and revitalizing the spa heritage.

“Govora Spa is one of Romania’s great modern fantasies: an idealized world in miniature, built around the idea that health is closely linked to necessarily beautiful architecture, carefully organized nature, and a rich social life. Wellness thus became a spatial experience, and the city itself became part of the therapeutic process.

The exhibition explores how each era has shaped its own vision of care, modernity, and well-being, questioning how this historical model can be reinterpreted and revitalized. Spa towns continue to exist through a network of shared resources—springs, parks, promenades, pavilions, public buildings, memory, and knowledge—that together form both a therapeutic landscape and a collective project. Today, when spa heritage is clearly a legacy that is as valuable as it is fragile, Govora invites us to view it beyond nostalgia, as a common good for which we are all responsible, capable of generating new forms of cooperation and a new discourse on the fantasy of the good life.”– Ilinca Păun Constantinescu, curator of the exhibition “MuzA la Băi,” MuzA program coordinator

About the Ștefănescu Hotel: “A World in Miniature”

The venue for the MuzA la Băi exhibition is the Ștefănescu Hotel (170 Tudor Vladimirescu St.), which will open to the public for the duration of the exhibition. Built in 1902 by the Ștefănescu brothers, the hotel was one of the landmarks of social life in Băile Govora and was described at the time as “a world in miniature” due to the modern amenities it offered.

Its architecture, featuring wooden galleries, carved columns, gazebos, and openwork balustrades, is one of the iconic images of the Băile Govora resort and a representative example of early 20th-century resort architecture. After more than a century of transformations—from a hotel and center of high society to a resort and treatment center—the building is now owned by the Băile Govora Parish and has been undergoing restoration for several years.

About MuzA, a traveling museum for four years

MuzA—the Museum of Architecture in Romania—is a strategic project of the Romanian Order of Architects, under the High Patronage of the President of Romania, funded through the Architecture Stamp, and carried out over the next four years by the Ideilagram Association.

Between 2026 and 2029, MuzA will visit 11 locations across Romania, with each stop adding a new chapter to an ever-expanding exhibition. The museum documents the built heritage, revitalizes spaces of cultural value, and invites the public to view architecture as a shared experience that shapes the relationships between people and the places where they live.

MuzA will travel across Romania, starting in Bucharest and continuing through Băile Govora, Brăila, Reșița, Cluj, Eforie, Brașov, Văleni, Timișoara, and Petrila, before finally returning to the capital. Each stop will contribute a new exhibition module, so that the museum will grow exponentially throughout the journey.

In Băile Govora, the exhibition will feature the inaugural module, “Dreamcatcher, ” created by alt.corp and cryptic.k and first presented in Bucharest, to which is added the new module dedicated to Govora, created by S T O A. The journey continues in October to Brăila, where the exhibition will expand once again. All modules created in the 11 communities will be brought together in a large-scale final exhibition, to be presented in Bucharest in 2029.

About the organizers:

The Romanian Order of Architects is the organization that regulates the profession, protects the title of architect, and promotes the quality of architectural practice and products. For the OAR, architecture represents a cultural act of public interest, with urban, economic, social, and ecological implications that are fundamental to quality of life.

The Ideilagram Association develops cultural and research projects that investigate and revitalize public spaces. The association supports participatory and interdisciplinary processes that connect people with the city and with the memory of their places, and considers research, documentation, and critical interpretation of the city to be essential tools for the sustainable development of communities.

The Studiogovora Association is one of the emerging initiatives dedicated to protecting Romania’s architectural heritage. Active since 2019, Studiogovora is recognized for its architectural interventions, cultural and educational projects, and, above all, for building a systematic body of knowledge dedicated to the heritage of Băile Govora, which previously did not exist in an accessible form. The architecture of the “MuzA la Băi” exhibition was designed by Studiogovora (Ștefania Tîrcă, Radu Tîrcă, Ariana Popescu).

S T O A is a creative architecture and design studio specializing in spatial concepts and architectural visualization. For MuzA la Băi, the team designed the exhibition module—the second module that will accompany MuzA on its four-year journey across the country.

With the support of: Băile Govora Parish – Archdiocese of Râmnic

Institutionalpartners: O.A.R. Sibiu–Vâlcea Branch, “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism, Union of Architects of Romania, De-a arhitectura, Supereroi printre noi
Event partners: La Fântâna, Venetic Wineries, Cepari Winery, BandBook, Băile Govora Society, Cazicom, Vâlcea Community Foundation

Strategic media partners: TVR, Radio Romania, Radio Romania Regional, Radio Romania Cultural, Scena9, Zeppelin, Arhitectura, Igloo

Follow MuzA’s journey: MuzA at the Baths, MuzA on Facebook, MuzA on Instagram

Contact:
Laura Cicioiu, PR & Community Development
Anca Vancu, Communications Coordinator
comunicare@muzeuldearhitectura.ro

© Tudor Constantinescu

© Tudor Constantinescu

© Tudor Constantinescu

© Tudor Constantinescu

© Tudor Constantinescu

© Tudor Constantinescu

© Tudor Constantinescu

© Tudor Constantinescu