Straja Resort

Straja is a mountain resort that belongs administratively to the municipality of Lupeni, in the Jiu Valley, at an altitude of 1,445 m. It was declared a resort in 2002 and has the status of a tourist resort of local interest. It is reached from Lupeni by an 8 km paved mountain road or by the cable car, more than 2.5 km long, opened on 20 December 2012 along the line of the former chairlift between the town and the resort entrance. According to Lupeni City Hall, the ski area is about 26 km long and has 12 slopes, served by a cable car, 4 chairlifts and 5 ski tows. The longest, the Straja slope, is 8.1 km long and runs from Straja Peak down to the cable car base station. A chairlift climbs to the top of Vârful Straja, at 1,868 m. The resort is home to Straja Hermitage, an Orthodox skete founded in 1999 and dedicated to the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and Saints Constantine and Helen, consisting of a wooden church and a few cells. The skete is entered through a 57 m tunnel lined with icons of the saints arranged according to the Orthodox calendar. Next to it stands the Heroes' Cross, 18 m high and 9 m wide, raised in memory of the soldiers who fell in the First World War.