Arrival in Băile Herculane begins, fittingly, with one of its most striking monuments: the railway station, built in 1878 and widely regarded as one of the most beautiful in Romania. Even in its present state, weathered and awaiting the renovation it badly needs, the station’s grand imperial architecture is a memorable first impression, a sequoia tree standing beside it and the limestone peaks rising immediately behind. From the station, a short bike ride along the Cerna River leads into the historic centre, the most picturesque part of town, which stretches from the Roman Catholic church to the old stone bridge over the river. This is the imperial heart of Herculane, and it can be explored slowly on foot in a couple of hours.

The centre’s focal point is Hercules Square (Piața Hercules), presided over by the bronze Statue of Hercules, cast in Vienna and installed in 1847, depicting the hero with the skin of the Nemean lion and his club resting on his shoulder. Around the square and along the riverbanks stands the resort’s extraordinary ensemble of nineteenth-century spa architecture, a mixture of neo-Baroque, Eclectic, and Art Nouveau styles built during the Austro-Hungarian heyday. The most imposing of these is the Neptune Baths (Băile Neptun), a masterpiece of imperial bath architecture with its own bridge over the Cerna, a sumptuous domed lobby, and twin pavilions that once housed the most modern spa facilities in Europe; today, like several of its neighbours, it stands derelict but slowly being stabilised through restoration efforts. The grand old Casino, built between 1862 and 1864 at the request of Emperor Franz Joseph, anchors the small Central Park, flanked by once-prestigious hotels now classed as historic monuments and, in some cases, under restoration toward a new future. In the historic centre, the Apollo Baths (Băile Apollo) house a modest museum, while the small Nicolae Cena Museum, set within the Roman Baths complex, preserves Roman artefacts including an ancient bas-relief of Hercules and the votive tablet attesting to the town’s two-thousand-year history. Many of the buildings can only be admired from the outside, but the overall effect, of grand imperial architecture in a state of romantic, melancholic decay against a backdrop of wild mountains, is genuinely unlike anywhere else in Romania.

A short, easy walk from the historic centre, near the Roman Hotel and the Roman Baths, leads to the Outlaws’ Cave (Grota Haiducilor), reached by a five-minute forest trail. The cave was once a hiding place for the local outlaws, the haiduci, and its walls are carved with names and inscriptions, the oldest dating back to the eighteenth century. The cave itself is modest, but the short walk through the forest and the sense of history etched into its walls make it a worthwhile pause on the way out of town and toward the mountains.

Beyond the cave, the trails climb steadily uphill into the Domogled-Valea Cernei National Park, the largest national park in Romania and a true sanctuary of biodiversity. The park protects the steep limestone gorges of the Cerna Valley, ancient beech forests, and the distinctive Black Pine of Banat, the umbrella-shaped pines that cling improbably to the bare limestone cliffs above the town. The warm microclimate created by the thermal springs supports a startling richness of life: sub-Mediterranean plants found nowhere else this far north, the harmless Carpathian scorpion, and, most famously, more than 1,500 species of butterfly, which have made the area world-renowned among entomologists. Marked trails of every difficulty level start from in and around the town, from the gentle 45-minute walk up to the White Cross (Crucea Albă) viewpoint, with its sweeping view over the valley, to longer and steeper ascents toward the summit of Domogled itself. For those who prefer their thermal water wild rather than indoors, small natural pools known as cădițe sit right beside the Cerna River, where visitors can soak for free in the open air, much as the Roman legionaries did two thousand years ago.

Băile Herculane’s railway station, a beautiful but faded monument from 1878, sits at the lower end of the long, narrow town, around five kilometres from the historic centre, since the resort stretches out along the Cerna River from the station up toward the hydroelectric dam. A short bike ride along the river leads from the station into the historic centre and Hercules Square, mostly along the valley floor. From the centre, the route to the Outlaws’ Cave is a short and easy walk, while the trails into the Domogled-Valea Cernei National Park climb steadily uphill and are best tackled on foot once bikes are left securely in town. The terrain in the valley itself is gentle along the river but becomes steep as soon as the trails leave it for the mountains. For onward travel, the same rail line connects back toward Drobeta-Turnu Severin and the Danube corridor, as well as north-west toward Timișoara, so Băile Herculane works well as a one-day excursion or, given the wealth of things to see in the surrounding mountains, as a longer base for exploring this corner of Romania.