Welcome to No. 18, Viscri Village
No. 18 - The beautifully restored traditional Saxon village house in the village of Viscri is ready to welcome you.
The house is made up of two buildings and dates from the first half of the 19th century. Built of bricks and lime mortar with ornamental motifs on the street façade and lime washed in yellow ochre, covered with handmade fish-scale type clay tiles, the house makes up, along with other houses in the village, an incredibly well conserved ensemble of traditional architecture. Its restoration has been completed and, having been refurbished in the traditional style, the house is ready to receive guests.
Accommodation
The left house has 1 large master bedroom, complete with double bed, separate shower room and toilet and a small summer dining room. There is a simple but modern kitchen area that allows you to be self-contained if you wish. It is complete with all you will need to prepare simple meals.
The right hand house has 1 large master bedroom (with double bed), a single bedroom and bathroom.
Both houses have traditional tiled Saxon ‘soba’ (stoves) for heating. Wood will be provided for you when the weather turns cold.
Outside there is a large grassy garden and covered barn – plenty of safe space for your family to let off steam or for you to relax with a good book whilst watching butterflies dance amongst the flowers. The house benefits from no internet access, so you can safely switch off from the stresses of work!
Meals
Breakfast can be provided at the house by arrangement or you can purchase all you need locally. Sit on the small terrace taking in the morning sun.
There are several options for eating in Viscri in the evening. You can book to eat with a local family, join other visiting groups or take meals at the small café near the school. Sit outside watching village life and the storks nesting on the school. Food is simple and tasty - traditional recipes with local ingredients washed down with home produced wine and tuica ! A true zero food mile experience.
There are 3 small shops that double as local bars in the village. Here you can buy basic provisions or simply enjoy a cold beer under the shade of an umbrella.
Exploring Viscri
Visit the Saxon Church – the stunning fortified church dates back to the 1100’s when the area was first settled. Listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site, it has been faithfully restored and houses a museum to Saxon life.
Enjoy a horse and cart ride through the flower rich meadows, visit a shepherd camp, discover the secrets of traditional cheese making and enjoy a picnic high above the village.
Visit the local charcoal burners –who are still using techniques that disappeared from the west years ago.
Visit a traditional brick kiln set up by the Mihai Eminescu Trust to provide materials to help preserve the character of the Saxon Villages.
There are marked walking and cycling routes around the villages and through the forest to Messendorf.
In the early evening make sure you are back in the village for the daily cow parade when livestock returns home to each household.
Viscri is a perfect base to explore the other Saxon villages and the nearby medieval town of Sighisoara, another UNESCO World Heritage Site.
After a few days in Viscri and the Tarnava Mare region - you will see why HRH Prince Charles fell in love with Viscri and Saxon Transylvania and chose to support activities to help preserve its traditional way of life, rich natural and cultural heritage, and promote a sustainable future for the area. To find out more about the area visit www.mihaieminescutrust.org or www.discovertarnavamare.org
How to book
If you are a Pro Patrimonio foundation member, bookings can be made by contacting viscri.no18@gmail.com.
If you are not yet a member, please join us, this will give the opportunity to stay in House n° 18, leaving a donation to maintain the house. This supports local employment and the upkeep of the house. Information about how to arrange activities will be provided upon booking.
This annual membership fee gives you the possibility to stay in our charming Villa Golescu on the south side of the Carpathian Mountains, in Arges County, and you will be advised of our activities, with our internet newsletter, but mainly you will be a contributor helping us in our mission, protection, restoration and rebirth of Romanian heritage.
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PRO PATRIMONIO |
OVERVIEW OF PROJECTS 2000-2009
History and cultural heritage – literature, music, art and especially buildings – offer people and places cultural identity. Buildings are the most representative part of cultural heritage and an important historical source. Buildings, as an essential means to discover and understand the past, are part of the history of a place and a people. Cultural heritage also allows us to establish relations with cultures other than our own, to show respect for the heritage and sets of values of other people and to better understand our origins and cultural identity.
Pro Patrimonio Foundation, a not-for-profit, non-governmental international organization, with branches in the UK, France and the USA, was established in 2000, its main objectives being: saving, conserving and restoring the architectural and natural heritage, lobbying for its protection, raising awareness of the Romanian public about its importance, giving support towards restoration and adaptive reuse of buildings in order to be introduced into the cultural and economic circuit, and promoting traditional building crafts and techniques.
Among the current projects of Pro Patrimonio Foundation are:
- Golescu villa and garden in Câmpulung-Muscel, Argeş county
- A traditional household in the Saxon village of Viscri, Braşov county
- Restoration of the park of Banffy Castle in Bonţida, Cluj county (in collaboration with Transylvania Trust, the restorer of the castle)
- Restoration of the Şiiacu fortified house (“cula”) in Slivileşti, Gorj county
- Rehabilitation of Lipscani historic quarter in Bucharest
- Financial support for cleaning the frescos in the naos of Voroneţ church and Părhăuţi church, Suceava county
Golescu Villa and Garden in Câmpulung-Muscel
Golescu Villa belonged to one of the oldest families in Wallachia, whose history dates back to the 15th century.
Irina and Elena Golescu, the last descendants of the family, donated the house to Pro Patrimonio Foundation with everything that was inside: period furniture, library, carpets and numerous other objects. Built in 1910 by their father in neo-Romanian style, typical for this region, the property comprises the villa and a small annex. Easy to see on the hill above the town, the buildings are surrounded by a wonderful park on several levels, where rare or exotic trees were brought and planted by the owner of the house, Vasile Golescu.
The result of the 5-year long restoration, achieved with the generous help of Lafarge Romcim, is a combination of Golescu memorial house, with most of the furniture restored; comfortable centrally heated guesthouse, consisting of entrance hall, drawing room, dining room, kitchen, 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms; and centre for seminars, lectures and other cultural events.
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| Golescu Villa, front view | Interior detail |
In restoring the property, Pro Patrimonio's intentions from the very beginning have been to involve the local population, work with schools and the local media, and co-operate with the town council. A Câmpulung branch of Pro Patrimonio, which is housed on the ground floor of the annex, was established to encourage membership and devise a programme which would guide people towards a greater understanding and appreciation of their architectural heritage. The villa has regularly hosted open days and garden parties, and events for school children have included imaginative projects like 'The Story of My Tree' where each child chose a tree in the garden and observed its development over a whole year.
Church organ and traditional household in Viscri
Viscri is a village situated in the heart of a region in Transylvania inhabited, ever since the Middle Ages, by Saxons – a Germanic population. The beautiful fortified church dating from the 14th century is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Pro Patrimonio contributed to the restoration of the organ, which was inaugurated in May 2008.
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| The restored organ, May 2008 |
Service at the Saxon Festival in Viscri, August 2008 |
Pro Patrimonio purchased an old household in Viscri, with a typical Saxon rural architecture. The ensemble is made up of two buildings and dates from the first half of the 19th century. Along the yard there are a barn, some stables and a small vegetable plot. Built of bricks and lime mortar with ornamental motifs on the street façade and lime washed in yellow ochre, covered with handmade fish-scale type clay tiles, the house makes up, along with other houses in the village, an incredibly well conserved ensemble of traditional architecture. Its restoration has been completed and, having been refurbished in the traditional style, the house is ready to receive guests.
Bánffy Castle Park, Bonţida
The park of Bánffy Castle at Bonţida used to be the largest in Transylvania, more than 200 hectares. Using Versailles and Schonbrunn as models, it was laid out and planted by Johann Christian Erras even as J. Fischer von Erlach was re-shaping the medieval castle into a Baroque ensemble. Two hundred years later, in August 1944, Count Miklos Bánffy, the last of an illustrious dynasty to live at Bonţida, witnessed the destruction of the castle and park by the retreating German army.
The restoration of the castle by the Transylvania Trust has been going on since 2001 by means of practical workshops in plastering, masonry consolidation, carpentry and stonemasonry, led jointly by Romanian and British craftsmen where students learn through practical restoration projects directly on the castle buildings. Pro Patrimonio was so impressed by this enlightened method of restoring a building that it proposed to undertake the restoration of some 35 hectares of parkland immediately to the south and west of the castle buildings. Pro Patrimonio was keen to engage in a landscape project to demonstrate the importance of the setting, without which the castle would be greatly diminished.
Since neither landscape architecture nor garden archaeology were at that time taught in Romania or Hungary, Pro Patrimonio, with the support of the Leche Trust and in collaboration with the Transylvania Trust, organised a seminar for the students of the post-graduate course in the restoration of historic monuments at the Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj. The seminar was directed by the landscape architect, Kim Wilkie, and the garden archaeologist, Brian Dix.
Since then, a topographical survey of the area has been prepared, but the all-important arrangements with the County Directorate (Direcţia Judeţeană) of Romsilva, the nominal owners of the land, have still not materialised."
Bánffy Castle Park in Bonţida The remains of the park nowadays
The “cula” at Şiiacu, Slivileşti, Gorj county
During the 18th and early 19th century in Oltenia a building type known locally as “cula” (from the Turkish “kule” meaning tower) was built to provide the small landowner with a house which could resist raiders with guns of limited firing power. Fourteen of these fortified houses have survived, several having been restored in the 'sixties and 'seventies of the last century, and all being listed ancient monuments, a classification, however, which has by no means guaranteed their conservation. Unlike their equivalents in Serbia and Bulgaria, which are austere blind towers, these Oltenian fortified houses open out at the top with beautiful arcaded belvederes.
Pro Patrimonio is negotiating a lease with the owners of the “cula” at Şiiacu so that it can carry out a full restoration, putting the “cula” back into the tourist circuit either as a museum or as a place to rent for a holiday. Finding the shingle roof collapsed, it has already had the debris cleared and a temporary roof put on to protect the arcaded belvedere.
Şiiacu “cula”, Slivileşti, Gorj county
The monasteries and churches of northern Moldavia
Pro Patrimonio has given financial assistance to Voroneţ Monastery to:
(a) replace the metal sheet roof finish on the church with traditional wood shingle;
(b) clean and consolidate the Stephen the Great frescoes in the nave of the church.
Pro Patrimonio has given financial assistance to the parish church at Părhăuţi to start cleaning and consolidating the frescoes in the pronaos and naos of the church.
Voroneţ after restoration of the roof Restorer Gianina Roşu at work in Părhăuţi church
