The town beneath the Rarău
A long field between two mountains, which was a republic for four hundred years. What happened here, and how you get here.
The town has no citadel, no cathedral, and was never the capital of a country. It has something rarer: four centuries in which the people here obeyed no boyar. They governed themselves, elected their own judges, and paid for that freedom by guarding the passes into Transylvania.
The rest is geography. A ten-kilometre corridor of meadow on the river Moldova, with the Rarău to the south and the Obcina Feredeului to the north. Along it passed princes, Austrians, the railway and, in the end, the road that brings you.
From the field with no name to the town of today. Tap an era and it opens.
before 1411
A village older than the country
The settlement existed before Moldavia was a state. The name says everything about what the first person to arrive here saw: a long field, a tongue of meadow stretched between mountains, on the upper course of the Moldova. It was not built on a hill, as was done for fear of raids, but along the water, in a corridor that links Transylvania to the rest of Moldavia. That geography decided its fate for six hundred years.
1411
14 April, the deed of Alexandru cel Bun
It appears in a charter by which Moldovița Monastery receives the village of Vama, described as being „below Câmpulung”. So Câmpulung was already there, known well enough to serve as a landmark for someone else. The first mention of a place is often like that: not about it, but about its neighbour.
1411 – 1775
The Ocol of Câmpulung: 15 villages, its own laws
The thing that makes the town truly singular. For almost four centuries, Câmpulung and the villages around it were a community of free people who obeyed no boyar. They governed themselves, through reeves, headmen and elders chosen from among the villagers, and judged their own disputes. Dimitrie Cantemir wrote in 1716, in „Descriptio Moldaviae”, that the people here „make up a kind of republic”. Eminescu would later name the thing outright: a peasant republic. The privileges were no charity: the Ocol was a fortress of the road, guarding the passes towards Transylvania, and the princes renewed them for that service.
1541
and leaves a wooden monastery behind
The chronicler Grigore Ureche writes that the prince, returning from Transylvania, „crossing the mountain came out at Câmpul Lung”. That same year he raises, in the Hermitage Clearing at the foot of the Rarău, a wooden monastery. Later, after Bukovina was annexed, it is moved across the massif, towards Chiril, where it stands to this day: it is Sihăstria Rarăului, the closest of them all to us.
1775 – 1918
The end of autonomy, the beginning of the town
On 7 May 1775, by a Turkish-Austrian convention, Bukovina passes to the Habsburgs. Military administration follows until 1786, then attachment to Galicia, and from 1848 the status of an autonomous duchy. The peasant republic dies out, but the town and its institutions appear: in 1794 Vienna grants it the rank of market town, in 1866 the rank of town, and after 1867 it becomes a district capital, one of the nine in Bukovina. The railway comes then too, the one that brings you here today.
1918 – 1950
Câmpulung, without a surname
After the Union, Bukovina is divided into five counties, and Câmpulung is the capital of one of them. Until 1950 it is called simply Câmpulung, without „Moldovenesc”. The addition comes so it is not confused with the Câmpulung in Argeș, and since then the town carries a double name that also tells you its region.
1950 – today
15,642 people, 600 metres above the sea
The county disappears in the 1950 reform, and the town remains what it is today: a mountain town stretched over ten kilometres along the water, with the Rarău on one side and the Obcina Feredeului on the other. In 1995 it becomes a municipality. It never truly industrialised, and that is its luck: you can hear the river, and wood is still worked here.
Six things you won't find elsewhere, or not in this form.
In a Europe of serfs, the people here were free, chose their own leaders and judged their own disputes. Cantemir wrote about it in 1716 as an oddity of Moldavia. It was no oddity, it was a bargain: autonomy in exchange for guarding the passes.
„Câmpulung” does not come from a prince, a saint or a boyar. It comes from what could be seen: a long field. The town was built to the shape of the valley, not the other way round, and that is why it is still one of the most spread-out in the country for the number of people in it.
One of the few in Europe devoted solely to wood: tools, household objects, joinery techniques without nails. In a land where the house, the church, the spoon and the toy were made of the same material, this museum is not a curiosity, it is an autobiography.
Raised by Petru Rareș at the foot of the Rarău, it was moved after 1775 to the far side of the massif, to Chiril, to escape the new administration. Few buildings in Romania have crossed a mountain in order to stay what they were.
The Rarău, 1,651 metres, with the Pietrele Doamnei rising out of the forest like limestone fangs. The Giumalău, 1,857, round, covered in spruce to the very top. You have both less than an hour from the centre, and the town runs between them.
The Via Transilvanica starts at Putna, but the stage that passes by us, Vatra Moldoviței – Sadova, is one of the finest of the whole trail. From its clearings you see the Rarău with the Pietrele Doamnei.
Four ways, with distances, timetables and fares taken from official sources, not from estimates.
Suceava is 82 km away. The rest are fallbacks.
The flight schedule above is the one valid between 29 March and 24 October 2026, published by the airport. It changes in winter. Information: office@aeroportsuceava.ro, 0230 529 999, Monday to Friday, 7:30–15:30.
The DN17, the road that links Bukovina to Transylvania
Winter tyres are compulsory on roads covered with snow or ice. The DN17 is cleared constantly, but the roads to the villages are cleared later.
Five trains a day from Suceava
The train is the finest way into Bukovina. The line climbs the Moldova valley, and the last half hour is worth spending at the window.
Fewer services, but direct
Timetables change often and are not centralised anywhere. If you come by coach, check autogari.ro the day before.
Without a car you see the town. With a car you see Bukovina. There are no rental firms in Câmpulung, so the car is picked up in Suceava and driven here.
SCV Terminal, Salcea
The desks are in front of the arrivals terminal. Enterprise has an office there, and the airport publishes the full list of firms on its site, under „Rent a car”.
You take the car on landing and leave it on departure, with no extra journey.
You need a valid licence, issued at least 12 months ago, an identity document and a card in the driver's name. For licences from outside the EU an international permit is also required.
offices in town
Several firms have offices in Suceava, not only at the airport. Some will bring the car to the railway station free of charge. It is the logical choice if you arrive by train.
Fares are usually lower than at the airport.
The town offices work daytime hours. If you arrive in the evening, there is nowhere to collect the car.
The details on flights, parking and the transfer to the station are those published by „Ștefan cel Mare” International Airport Suceava, and those on trains by CFR Călători, checked in September 2026. We have no arrangement with any rental firm and recommend no one in particular: fares and fleets change from one season to the next, so it is worth comparing before you book.
Further on
Book direct
No platform commission. Self check-in, late check-out when possible and free cancellation up to seven days before.
Via Transilvanica