Therapeutic Effects of the Geothermal Water in the Felix Spa, Romania

Abstract

Of the about 160 thermal spas in Romania, 23 are of national importance and also internationally recognized for the therapeutic effect of their geothermal waters. Felix Spa is probably the best known of them, and definitely the largest. It belongs to the largest geothermal area of the country.

It is located 10 km SE from the City of Oradea in Bihor County, the northwestern part of Romania. It is at an altitude of 140 m in a hilly zone at the edge of a beech and oak forest. The climate is mild both in winter and summer. Yearly average temperature is + 10?C (average temperature is -2?C in January and +20.4?C in August). There is little rainfall and low winds. Since the weather is quite stable, people's acclimatization raises no problem.

The existence and development of Felix Spa is bound directly to the natural thermal springs in the area, and to the positive effects of the geothermal waters on the health, well known and testified to through the centuries. One of the first known documents certifying that the waters near Oradea were well known and appreciated in Europe dates from 1405 in a letter written by Pope Innocent the VII. Many suppositions were made about the name Felix Spa. Some researchers thought the happiness of recovered patients has given the name, others associated the name of the spa with that of its first superintendent, Helcher Felix.