Cities of Mehedinti
VANJU MARE
The Town of Vineyards
Vanju Mare is a small town located in the South-East of the Mehedinti county, in the region of the Blahnita Valley, spread on 95 km. Its name appeared on a map made by Austrian Fr. Schwantz, in 1723. The town was built on the site of the village of Orehovita, property of the Targoviste Monastery. Declared as town in 1968, Vanju Mare has a rather new history. Its citizens gave the urban look of the place with new streets, a park, a hotel, schools, a hospital, a Hall of Culture and a distillery for wine and brandy. The emblem of the place is the wine of Orevita, appreciated across Romania and abroad. Almost 600 hectares of the Vanju Mare hills (Starmina) are covered by vineyards. The town, the locals call the "the town of vineyards" has its own famous "crama" - a special place for wine tasting of the locally produced: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Feteasca Regala, Tamaioasa romaneasca.
Cabernet Sauvignon 2001 was awarded a Silver Medal at the Wine Master Challenge 2004 international contest, held at the Portuguese town of Estoril.
Vanju Mare has a traditional weekly market with organic food where the villagers from vicinity gather.
The town is in the close proximity of the beautiful woods, the marigolds woods and the Starmina woods, a natural park with protected species of Oriental beech trees, Transylvanian oak, silver lime trees and...the Starmina clove pink, unique in the world. The most outstanding personality of the place is Victor Gomoiu (1882-1960), a famous doctor and historian of medicine. He was the president of the International Society of the History of Medicine in Paris (1936-1958).