The place in Romania that became holy. The tunnel of the 365 saints, an attraction for tens of thousands of believers

A place in Romania has become holy. It is a quiet area that is now regarded as a tourist attraction. Believers from all over the country barely hear about this tunnel of the 365 saints. Surely many of them are going to make their way to this special place where you can pray and sit for a few minutes in silence. Where is it located and what can you discover there? The tunnel connects a main road and a church.

Special place in Romania that has become an attraction: the tunnel of the 365 saints

A special place for believers is right in the Straja mountain resort in Jiului Valley. More precisely, the destination is not far from the Vâlcan Massif, which is part of the Retezat-Godeanu Mountains.

A 54 meter long concrete tunnel was built there. The tunnel is truly spectacular and connects the main road from the Straja resort to the small wooden church dedicated to Saints Constantine and Elena.

The place where the 365 saints are found arose from the desire of locals and tourists to reach the special church in winter. The snows in those parts are abundant, which until then prevented everyone from reaching their destination. Access to the wooden shelter was becoming almost impossible.

“And to make it last forever, I made it out of concrete”

“There is a lot of snow in Straja and it was always quite difficult to reach the hermitage. That’s why I said to make this tunnel to the Straja Hermitage. And to make it last forever, I made it out of concrete. After that, while I was looking at an Orthodox calendar, I said that we, the Orthodox, have a saint every day.

That’s how I came up with the idea to paint the entire Orthodox calendar in this tunnel; in fact, let it be an Orthodox calendar in images”, declared Emil Părău, who fully financed the construction of the hermitage and the tunnel.

The tunnel was built in 2006. Inside it are the 365 saints of the Orthodox calendar, one for each day of the year. At the entrance to the tunnel is a huge wooden gate that indicates your place.

The months of the year occupy the left side of the tunnel, from the entrance to the inner courtyard of the church, and on the ceiling there are scenes from the Old and New Testaments. Next to the wooden church that you will reach at the end of the tunnel there is also a cross that is 18.6 meters high and 9 meters wide.