Legend has it that the ruler Vlad Tepes tried to punish several Turkish soldiers and threw them into the Sarat Lake. They were kept in the salty waters of the lake for a week, and when Tepes ordered them to be impaled in the forest near the lake, as was the custom, the Turks unexpectedly resisted the torture. The week in the salt water seems to have toughened them. When he realized the miracle, Vlad the Impaler ordered that from that moment on, his soldiers and horses wounded in battle were to be healed in the salty waters of the lake.
The first scientific works referring to the miraculous effects of the lake's therapeutic reservoir date back to 1884.
In 1889, the work was presented at the Congress of Hydrology and Climatology in Paris. It was shown that Lac Salrat surpassed in quality a number of similar lakes in Europe, confirming its European reputation: "the water concentration ranges from 26-45%, exceeding that of all other mineral waters in analogous lakes in Europe".
In 1890, the chemistry laboratory of the Paris School of Mines certified the quality of the water in the Lac Salrat.
Although the opening of the Alma Retreat caught me at a busy time - because we were preparing Spa and Wellness Tourism Congress - I was very curious to see what opened in the third spa resort in Romania inaugurated in 1879 (after Govora and Călimănești).
We arrived in the resort of Lacul Sărat on Tuesday afternoon, with Maria Rendes - the spa consultant in charge of the Alma Wellness & Spa menu.
At 5pm the spa center closed, so we rushed to check in - which was taken care of immediately as we had our rooms already assigned. We entered the room strictly for 3 minutes, during which time we noticed:
Plus, everything is new, generous space - you can really see it's a hotel built from scratch.
After blocking the air conditioning - which I can't stand too well - I went down to the spa to test some mud treatments.
A huge reception - like a ballroom. In the middle of the hall is the actual reception - made of wood - where warm colors, greenery and paintings are dominating, meant to add personality to the area - as we found out later from Loredana Preda, Noblesse designer - who was in charge of the interior design of all the spaces in Alma Health & Spa Retreat.
Marieta Borsovu was waiting for us at the reception and led us to the treatment rooms.
The tub has a button that you press to automatically pour 7-9 kg of sludge. This is followed by about 70-80 liters of salt water, also drawn directly from the Salt Lake and undiluted with nothing else.
Marieta told me that the water is set at 35-36 degrees (if you're taking a prophylactic bath), but I preferred it warmer, so she pushed another button and the last few liters of water went in at a higher temperature.
If you've read articles describing other saltwater and mud baths, you already know that I make a great effort to keep myself in the water because it throws me to the surface. This time, however, I really had to use all my strength to stay - just barely - in the water.
From that moment on I realized that the water was the saltiest, at least that I had tried - in Romania and Italy.
She wanted to put a cold pad on my forehead. I let her just to see how it felt, then assured her I didn't need one. Initially, she insisted that it was mandatory, then made it clear that I could manage just fine without it.
She took me into another room, where there was a bed with a towel and plastic wrap. I sat on the bed with my back to her.
Before he started spreading it on me, he warned me that I might feel the slime a little cold, but that wasn't the case. It was 37 degrees and even though I'm very frigid, this time it didn't bother me at all, I didn't shiver at all when he put it on me.
I immediately noticed how easily it spread over the body. It was like it was specially designed for that - like a body mask.
I think in less than 3 minutes I was all covered in mud, so he closed the foil and then covered me with 2 more towels. It was all good. Not very warm, but just enough to feel myself relaxing.
After 20 minutes, Marieta took the towels off of me and began to unwrap the film. That's when I saw that only very faint traces of mud remained on the sheet. The rest was all on me. I had never encountered anything like this, because in my other experiences, there was a lot of mud left on the film.
I asked her why, and she said their sludge is different.
Just then Andreea Clipota - the spa doctor from Alma Retreat, and Nela Frigator, the therapist who was going to give me the massage, entered the room.
Andreea assured me that she would answer all my questions after the therapies were over, so that I could relax during the massage.
And Nela's massage was really sensational. I love deep massages, but I wouldn't have expected she could do it so well with this mud. If I didn't know what I had on, I would have been convinced it was oil with how well the therapist's hands glided.
Later I told Maria Rendes how impressed I was. She replied that she had expected me to like the massage with Nela, because she, on her own initiative, had also participated in the spa therapists' training. Not to move into the relaxation area, but to learn and be able to integrate the wellness part into the spa therapies they offer.
When the massage was over, I took a shower and was amazed to see how velvety soft the skin was all over my body. And now I can confirm that it stayed exactly the same even after the shower the next morning.
After seeing this, my first thought was a question: why don't we go more often to mud treatments even in our 20+ years - before a party or a moment when we want to look good, to have moisturized and velvety skin like few cosmetics can do?
Why wait until we're 40 to discover these amazing cosmetic benefits?
He was waiting for me in reception.
Before we start talking about Lacul Sărat and the spa center, I was curious to know more about it:
She finished her residency in Recovery, Physical Medicine and Balneology 3 years ago, but since her third year of residency she has been providing consultation and treatment to patients. As professional experience in Wellness and Spa centers, she provided consultations for 3 years at Ana Aslan Health Spa, Eforie Nord and Cocor Spa Hotel, Olimp.
Ever since she was a child, she felt that medicine was her calling. And she still feels the same. In that respect, she considers herself lucky because she loves what she does. She chose this specialization - Rehabilitation, Physical Medicine and Balneology - because she wanted to restore health and vitality to her patients.
We've all experienced back pain in our lives and we all know how unpleasant it is. Andreea was telling me that since 2000, low back pain has been listed by the World Health Organization as the leading cause of disability worldwide, moving up from 18th to 13th place. Musculoskeletal diseases also rank second as a cause of early retirement due to loss of working capacity, and automatically the quality of life of these patients decreases.
She believes that health recovery can be improved through early intervention, education and multidisciplinary care, and Alma Retreat is the ideal place to contribute.
In line with this philosophy still rare in the spa market, Andreea told me that she is about to introduce a signature treatment "MUD FLOATING"
It's all about mud wrapping on the Dry Floating mattress. A single 20-minute session on Dry Floating is equivalent to two hours of restful sleep.
Dry Floating Therapy is a unique dry floating system with super health effects:
- fight chronic pain,
- improve blood circulation,
- relief from insomnia,
- general relaxation and combating stress.
Add to these effects the effects of mud wrapping and the result is sure to be spectacular.
Besides, just from what I noticed at a quick glance, while walking with Andreea and Maria Rendes through the spa center:
As the name suggests, and as confirmed by scientific studies at the end of the 19th century, the water has a very high saline concentration.
It has a dark, bluish-black color. When highly concentrated, it turns a scarlet color. It contains very complex salts: chlorides, iodides, sulphates, phosphates.
At the bottom of the lake there is a layer of black silt, up to 40 cm thick, containing 20% water, 41% mineral principles and 39% organic matter. It consists of clayey dust mixed with fine sand blown in by the wind, as well as microscopic and larger plants and animals that live in considerable numbers in the water and on the banks.
- moisturizes the skin (heals eczema),
- relaxes, inducing well-being,
- fights rheumatic pains,
- detoxifies the body,
- invigorating,
- improves circulation,
- regulates endocrine system functions.
A great advantage of the Alma Retreat spa center is its lakeside location, which allows guests to benefit from all the natural factors of balneoclimatic cure - air, thermal water, mud, sun, physical movement.
Mud therapy influences the cardiovascular system, increases body temperature by about 2-3 degrees, which leads to increased metabolism.
Andreea emphasized the emphasis I place on natural cleansing factors - saline water and mud. But she told me that I also use - as an adjunct to the cure - innovative treatment technologies that are effective and with quick results. The effects and results have been confirmed in clinical studies in prestigious institutes around the world or in NASA laboratories.
The resort's heyday began in the last years of the 19th century, when villas, hotels and restaurants began to be built in Lacu Sărat, and the number of visitors increased, the resort becoming, at the beginning of the 20th century, a famous resort where many famous people came to spend their vacations and to treat themselves.
In the early 1900s, the resort boasted chic hotels and inns, a casino, a casino, a theater hall, an open-air theater, an English park where military bands played, tennis courts, bowling and croquet courts, Romanian, French and German restaurants, a hospital, various shops, and an extremely attractive exhibition of photographs from all over the world, called "Imperial Photoplastic".
Balls and parties, ending with spectacular fireworks displays and flower throwing, were held throughout the warm season. Renowned artists and singers, theatrical troupes, illusionists and conjurors graced the Venetian festivities in the resort every year.
Alexandru Vlahuță, Nae Carandino, Nicolae Filipescu, Take Ionescu, Mița Biciclista, Nicolae Iorga were among the famous guests of the resort, along with famous poets and journalists.
Even Prince Ferdinand paid a visit to the resort after attending a horse race on the racecourse in Braila. And the writer Panait Istrati will be describing the resort's life in detail in his latest book, also published in Romanian under the title "Pasiuni la Lacul Sărat".
The development of the resort also required the construction of an electrified tramway line in 1900, to connect the resort to Brăila and to facilitate the access of tourists. The tram is still in operation today. It carries passengers from the Monument Park in Brăila to the Lac Sărat, a distance of six kilometers, through a forest of acacia trees.
In 1922 a new modern casino was opened, which contributed 301TPTP3T of the funds obtained to the modernization of the resort, and 1924 is the year that marks the peak of development in the interwar period.
Unfortunately, the economic crisis of the 1930s, the war and the years of communism caused the resort to continuously deteriorate. This situation lasted until 2021, when Lacu Sărat was transformed into a resort of national interest.
I noted in the speech Mr. Vasile Dogarescu, the owner Eldomir group of companies and Alma Health & Spa Retreat, that he repeatedly uttered the word "soul".
I asked him what is the connection between dance and balneology. The answer was that he was born in the area, he lived here, he knew since he was a child of the extraordinary benefits of the natural healing factors here, and he wanted to use this investment to support the revival of the resort and the revival of quality spa tourism in the south-eastern part of Romania.
Four years ago they started with a budget of 12 million Euros. It ended up costing 20 million euros. The investment includes:
But what impressed me most was the staff. Both in the hotel and in the spa and spa center. The friendliness, the smiles from a distance, the promptness in dealing with everything I asked them, the professionalism and the quality of the treatments both in the spa and the spa.
In next week's article I'll tell you about the unexpected experience I had at Alma Wellness & Spa with a Voya signature treatment.
Ioana Marian, founder of despreSpa.ro
Founder despreSpa.ro
