Showing posts with label Romania. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Romania. Show all posts

Thursday, 15 May 2025

Romania (7): From Braşov back to Bucharest


This is a new post, though it covers the events of the 1st of July 2023
It will be moved to its appropriate chronological position soon

Peleş Castle and Dealul Mare Winery

Where are we Going?


Romania
On Saturday we headed south starting on a slightly more easterly trajectory than on yesterday's visit to 'Dracula's Castle', following the main pass through the Carpathians from Brașov. After 60 km we reached Peleş Castle – once a royal home, though never a real castle. A further 50km south, just before the city of Ploiesti, we swung left towards Ceptura in the Dealul Mare wine region. After visiting the Rotenberg Winery we completed the remaining 80km south to Bucharest.

Braşov to Bucharest via Peleş Castle and Ceptura

Some Necessary History


Prahova County
This was our last full day in Romania. On our first full day we left Wallachia for Transylvania and today, not long after leaving Brașov we entered Prahova County, leaving Transylvania for Wallachia.

In the second half of the 19th century the once mighty Ottoman Empire started to decay. New countries popped up all over eastern Europe and the Great Powers – Great Britain, France, Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire – watched carefully, ever ready to step in when matters did not develop to their liking. They apparently believed that what new countries needed were kings, someone the Powers thought reliable and whom the locals (they hoped) would look up to. As German unification approached completion in 1871 there were abundant spare German princelings eager to be matched up with appropriate realms.

The first proto-Romania was formed in 1856 by the unification of Wallachia and Moldavia. Transylvania, despite having a majority Romanian speaking population remained part of Austro-Hungary until that empire followed the Ottomans into history in 1918. Political instabilities in 1866 brought the Great Powers Regal Tinder App into play and matched them up with Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who duly became Prince Carol of Romania.

The shape of Romania 1856-1918
copyright Anonimu, reproduced under CC BY-SA 4.0

Unsurprisingly parachuting in kings had a high failure rate, but Prince Karol, who became Karol I when Romania gained full independence in 1878, was a great success.

King Carol I on his horse in Bucharest

Peleş Castle

The Carpathians are a serious mountain range, but our route south had passed through nothing more dramatic than pleasant wooded hills which eventually gave way even gentler foothills. King Carol and Queen Elisabeth visited these foothills in 1866, liked the area and in 1872 bought a plot of land and built a hunting lodge and a summer retreat.

The Building

Every king needs a castle, and a new king needs a new castle, and here, King Carol decided, was the place to build it. The first plans submitted were rejected as being unoriginal. More to his taste was a design by German architect Johannes Schultz for a palatial alpine castle incorporating Italian elegance and German aesthetics.

The building, as completed in 1914, was much influenced by two other architects, the Silesian-born Carol Benesch and the Czech Karel Liman.

Peleş Castle

Perhaps that is why my photographs of the façade from two different angles appears to show two different buildings.

Also Peleş Castle

It does acquire some unity, with a touch of fairy tale, when photographed from greater distance, particularly in the snow - though we never found the right spot.

Maybe I am being picky, but the claim that Peleș Castle was the first ever castle built with electricity, central heating, running water and telephones is shaky. In the 19th century there was a fashion in the UK for rich men to build themselves a country house, stick crenellations on the top and call it a castle, the biggest and most egregious being Castle Drogo in Devon. The OED says that a castle is a fortified building,…. built for defence, so these are not castles and nor is Castelul Peleș, to give Peleș Castle its Romanian name. It could, though, be reasonably called a palace,

The Interior

The castle has 170 rooms, so a complete description is beyond the scope of this blog. However, I hope the selection of photos below catches the tone and style.

The main theme is dark wood and heavy furniture. I like light and I find Peleș at worst threatening...

Entrance Hall, Peleş Castle

…and at best gloomy, even when at its most grandiose.

The three storey Hall of Honour, Peleş Castle

Some rooms are for display, and the Grand Armoury wobbles on the border between collecting and hoarding.

Grand Armoury, Peleş Castle

Other rooms evoke distant places, and they worked hard to differentiate the Moorish room….

The Moorish room, Peleş Castle

...from the Turkish hall.

Turkish Hall, Peleş Castle

The Florentine room has some good pictures. The one below is clearly not of Florence and, like almost all the paintings, ‘school of…’ rather than by a named painter, but it is pleasing

The Florentine Room, Peleş Castle

There are also functional rooms. The dining room is very formal…

The Dining Room, Peleş Castle

…and although I am unsure what this one for, it clearly is not designed for comfort.

Room in Peleş Castle

Elsewhere Carol and Elisabeth oversee the heavy, dark furniture.

Carol and Elisabeth oversee the heavy, dark furniture, Peleş Castle

Carol has been described as a disciplined, rigid, and duty-focused, and the palace would seem to reflect that. Elizabeth had a lighter touch and the painting of her with her daughter Maria in the Working Cabinet is a rare moment of joy.

Elizabeth and Maria in the Working Cabinet, Peleş Castle

The story ends sadly, though, with Maria dying, aged 3. Their marriage thereafter has been described as one of mutual respect but emotional distance.

Leaving the castle for the bright light outside was a relief. We strolled up to the crowded café where we procured a light lunch, before rejoining Vlad for the penultimate stage of our journey.

Ceptura and the Rotenburg Winery

Continuing our southward journey we left the main road before the city of Ploiești and drove east towards Ceptura.

Dealul Mare


Ceptura
After passing through flattish green countryside, we eventually approached the flank of a large hogs-back hill covered in the first vines we had seen on our Romanian travels. We had come to visit a winery, so this was good news.

‘Is this a designated wine area?’ I asked Vlad. ‘Yes.’ He replied. I waited for more information but none came. ‘We don’t see much Romanian wine at home,’ I continued ‘and the only regional name I have encountered is Dealul Mare, though I am not sure where it is.’

‘It’s there’ said Vald, pointing through the windscreen, ‘Dealul Mare, The Big Hill.’ A little learning is a dangerous thing, my Latin O level (1965) and smattering of French had led me to imagine that Mare referred to the sea. I had forgotten our 2018 Moldova trip when we heard much of the national hero King Ştefan cel Mare şi Sfint (Stefan the Great and the Saint) (see Chişinău, a Modest Capital City). So I had been reminded that 'mare' means 'great' or 'big', I knew the -ul suffix was the definite article, and had learned that 'deal' means ‘hill.’

The vines were easy to find, but Ceptura was more elusive. It is a ‘commune’ of 6 villages with combined population 4,000 covering an area of 50 km², so there was little to find. Fortunately, Vlad knew where were going and swung confidently up the gravel driveway of the Rotenburg Winery. It consisted of storage and wine making facilities on either side of the drive and a reception area at the end.

We were greeted by the woman in charge; indeed she may have been the only person there, in some months nothing much happens in a winery.

She showed us the recent vintages, maturing peacefully in their Romanian oak barrels…

Romanian oak barrels, Rotenberg winery

…and bottled wines slumbering quietly.

Bottled wines in the Rotenberg winery

Mihail Rotenburg made his pile in the tech industry. Then he quit and now divides his time between his mango garden in Tel Aviv and his winery in Ceptura.

He bought the winery in 2007 with its 23ha of vineyards mostly planted to Merlot. By hand picking the grapes and using painstaking traditional production methods his aim has been to produce the best Merlot in Romania. They now are usually listed among the top four or five.

Inside we tasted four wines. Tastings usually start with whites, and this was my very first white Merlot. It was also the whitest – most nearly colourless – wine I have ever seen. 15% alcohol and bone dry, it was assertively clean and a little floral.

Very white Merlot, Rotenberg Winery

Mihail Rotenburg is also interested in old musical instruments, one of which can seen on the label above – and 'in the flesh' below.

Stroh violin, Rotenberg Winery

A little googling tells me this is a Stroh violin, invented by Johannes Stroh in London in 1899. The horn amplified the sound and directed it for use in phonographic recordings.

Their Merlot rosé was a big 13.9%. Sweetish Californian Merlot Blush may have contributed to Merlot becoming unfashionable in the US in the early noughties. This was totally different, rich, dry and tasting of summer.

They also do a Cabernet Franc called, Frank. Fruity, complex and tannic, we liked it very much….

Frank, the Cabernet Franc at Rotenberg winery

…. in fact, more so than the regular Merlot (it was not their very top cuvée). This, we were assured was fruitier and more complex. We disagreed quietly, thinking the Merlot a tad dull. We decided to purchase a bottle of the white Merlot, as a curiosity, and one of the Cab Franc, a decision that was looked on as mildly perverse.

We would have bought more, the prices were keen for quality wines, but everything had to fit into our hold luggage, so we had no choice.

On to Bucharest

Leaving Ceptura we continued south. Monocultures are generally a bad thing, but I like the sight of a hillside covered with vines, and it is difficult not to be cheered by a field of sunflowers

Sunflowers, nearing Bucharest

Back in Bucharest

Stavropoleos Church


Bucharest
After a long day, Vlad dropped us back at the well-positioned if rather charmless Bucharest hotel we had stayed at last week. We said our goodbyes and wished him well, he had been an excellent guide, driver and travelling companion.

A little later we ventured out into the warm early-evening sunshine to select a restaurant from the dozens lining the nearby pedestrian streets. Chance led us to the church of Stavropoleos instead.

Stavropoleos Church, Bucharest

In 1724, a Greek monk called Ioannikios Stratonikeas founded a religious community and built a church in Brâncovenesc (or Wallachian Renaissance) stytle – like Cozia Monastery which we visited on Monday. Stratonikeas became Bishop of Stavropolis and the church was named after his see. They thrived until the monastery was demolished and the community disbanded in the 20th century. They are now flourishing again, are guardians of a library of rare books and nurture an expertise in early Byzantine music.

Dinner

Bumping down from the sublime to the ridiculous, we had found on previous visit that a lot of restaurants does not necessarily mean a lot of choice. There had been no improvement in our absence, so we picked a random establishment, selected a pleasing bottle of plonk…

All we need now is...

…and ordered sausage and chips. Again. To be fair Romania offers a variety of sausages, some short and fat..;

Short, fat sausages, Bucharest

….others long and thin. They may be made of pork, lamb or wild boar, some are spicey, some nor, but they are all indubitably sausages. The food may have been modest, but it is pleasure to sit outside as the sun sets (at about 9.15) leaving you in the embrace of a warm night.

Long, thin sausages, Bucharest

We ate some good meals in Romania; my ‘Peasant’s Platter’ in Sibiu, and Tripe Ciorbă here in Bucharest and Lynne’s Bean Soup in Bread in Sighișoara were worthy efforts but generally the food had been disappointing. Perhaps surprisingly, in 2018 we found the much less affluent Moldovans, who speak Romanian and regard themselves as country cousins, have better produce and more ideas about how to cook it.

02-July-2023

We had an uneventful journey home.

Friday, 30 June 2023

Romania (6): Bears and Dracula's Castle (?)

The Libearty (sic) Bear Sanctuary and Bran Castle

Where are we Going Today?


Romania
Our plan today was to visit the Libearty Bear Sanctuary (I really dislike that name, I understand what they mean and sympathise with their aims, but the pun feels forced and false. A Romanian organisation should use a proper Romanian name.) Vlad would then drive us the short distance to Bran Castle, much advertised as Dracula’s Castle and thence back Brașov.

Emerging onto Council Square in the morning we were pleased to see that whatever shenanigans the army had been up to last night, it had all been tidied away. Even better, the Romanian summer, which had deserted us at Sighișoara was back; the sky was (largely) blue, the sun shone and the light sparkled. We met up with Vlad and were soon on our way.

Bran is 25km southwest of Braşov, the Libearty Sanctuary is about 10km north of Bran

Vlad drove us the short distance to the bear sanctuary. On the way Lynne could not resist the usual picture of the antique agricultural practices, which still survive in odd corners.

Making hay

Bears in Romania

Romania has one of Europe’s largest populations of brown bears, some 6,000 to 7,000 individuals. The dense, unspoiled forests of the Carpathian Mountains provide an ideal habitat, with an abundance of the nuts, berries, insects, and small mammals that comprise a bear’s diet. They help maintain the ecosystem by dispersing seeds and controlling populations of other animals.

Bears get into trouble when they cross paths with humans. Typically solitary, they roam vast territories which are increasingly threatened by logging, infrastructure development, and general human encroachment. Bears beg for food along stretches of highway where they have been previously fed. The dangers of mixing large animals with fast moving vehicles is obvious, but the food is not good for them. either. Mr Ranger, Sir, often told Yogi, that bears should eat nuts and berries not the contents of picnic baskets, and he was right.

And while some people feed bears at the roadside, bears wandering into human settlement in search of food are never welcome.

Libearty Bear Sanctuary

The Libearty Sanctuary opened in 2005 and is now home to over 130 rescued bears. Some danced in the streets or begged for food outside hotels while their handlers begged for money. Others rode bicycles in a circus.

All spent off-duty time in cramped and barren cages. The least fortunate were driven slowly insane, living permanently in such cages outside restaurants, hotels or guesthouses as tourist attractions. Such mistreatments are now illegal.

Bear cage

We were shown the 69-hectare site, provided by the nearby town of Zărneşti on a 49-year lease. The fences, we were told, were to keep us out, not the bears in. Beyond the wire an oak forest provides shade and trees to climb, they have pools in which to bathe and access to an appropriate diet.

A bear at Libearty

Many bears gravitate towards the fence and human company, because that is all they have known. One, kept for years in a tiny cage, has settled into a corner of the sanctuary with fences on two sides. She creates two more mental fences and continues to live in the only way she understands.

This may be the bear mentioned above, or not - all bears look the same to me

They live here at higher density then they would in the wild, but they seem comfortable in each other’s company.

Solitary animals sometimes chose to relax in groups, Libearty

Neither of us are particularly sentimental about animals, and I wonder about those who treat their cats, dogs or horses as people who have unaccountably grown tails, but we should not wilfully mistreat animals in the name of dubious entertainment; these bears deserve a break. Laws, and more importantly, attitudes have changed. I would hope Libearty would work itself out of a job before its lease is up – but with humans you never can tell.

Bran Castle

Vlad drove us the 10km to Bran where the rolling Transylvanian countryside meets the foothills of the Southern Carpathian Mountains, which rise to a series of peaks around 2,500m (8,500 ft).

Rolling Transylvania and the edge of the Carpathians

Bran castle stands on a rocky protuberance near the Wallachian border overlooking the pass through the mountains that connects Wallachia to Brașov and the Transylvanian interior. The first castle on the site, then known as Dietrichstein, was a wooden fortification built in 1212 by the Teutonic Knights.

Dietrichstein​ Fort was destroyed by marauding Mongols in 1242, but after the death of Ogedei Khan later that year, the Mongol threat receded. It was not until 1377 that Louis I of Hungary gave the Transylvanian Saxons of Kronstadt (now Brașov) permission to build a new stone castle on the site – at their own expense. The relevant documents are the first time the name Bran appears in writing. Over the centuries that castle has developed into the present structure.

Bran Castle

The settlement of Bran soon grew at the foot of the castle. Today it is the largest of the five villages making up the commune of Bran.

Looking back to Bran from Bran Castle

Although the Ottomans did not take Constantinople until 1453 their first serious incursion into Wallachia was in the 1390s and the principality was under loose Ottoman control for most of the next 400 years. Transylvania remained part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire throughout this time and Bran castle played a strategic role maintaining the status quo.

Dracula's Castle?

Bran Castle should not be confused with Castell Dinas Brân in North Wales (see the Llangollen post), or Brian Castle, the retired (2015) Bishop of Tonbridge. Nor should it be confused with Dracula’s Castle, though it is advertised as such.

Bram Stoker started writing Dracula when visiting Whitby. The novel is set mainly in London, where Stoker lived, Whitby and Transylvania. Stoker never visited Transylvania and his knowledge of the landscape and customs came from his reading and fertile imagination. Dracula’s Castle is a generic local castle modified for the requirements of the story, his descriptions is nothing like Bran Castle.

And Who was Dracula?


Mircea the Elder
On Monday (it feels like an age ago) we visited Cozia Monastery. It was founded in 1388 by Mircea I The Elder. He was Voivode (Military ruler/Warlord) of Wallachia 1386-1418, a rare period of stability even if he was interrupted for a couple of years while his cousin Vlad I The Usurper earned his nickname.

After his death all his sons, and then grandsons, plus a few other relatives wanted their turn as Voivode, there were 14 of them before 1500 averaging less than 6 years each. But it was more complicated than that, quite a few had two or three stints as ruler, two of them managed four, coming and going with the fortunes of war. Some were backed by the Ottomans, some by the Hungarians and this instability continued until Wallachia combined with Moldavia in 1862 to form the first Romania.

Vlad II Dracul (Vlad the Dragon) was Mircea’s second son who ruled 1436-42 and 1443-47.

Vlad II Dracul
Vlad III Dracula (Vlad, son of Vlad the Dragon) later gained his own soubriquet Valad III Țepeș (Vlad the Impaler). He fought against the Ottomans and was Voivode of Wallachia 1456-62 and 1476-7. He is assumed to be the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Vlad Țepeș
1488 woodcut, Pub Dom
Impaling was Vlad’s favourite form of execution. In skilful hands a sharp stick straight up the backside and out between neck and shoulder provided a long and painful death. Vlad liked to impale Turkish prisoners of war, and it was said he considered dinner without the company of a squirming Turk was not a proper meal. Although Turkish writers exaggerated Vlad’s inhumanity for political reason and Vlad never complained if his fearsome reputation deterred potential rivals, it seems likely he was a psychopath. There is, however, no evidence he was a vampire.

Unfortunately, these characters were not as comic as the look.

Whose Castle is it Anyway?

Originally built and owned by the Transylvanian Saxons of Kronstadt (Brașov), Bran passed at some stage to the Hungarian kings. In 1533 Vladislav II defaulted on loan payments and the castle reverted to the city of Kronstadt.

When Transylvania became part of the Kingdom of Romania in 1920, the Saxons of Kronstadt-Braşov, who could no longer afford to maintain the time-damaged castle, gave it to the Royal Family. It became a favourite retreat of Marie of Edinburgh, Queen Consort of King Ferdinand and a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, who oversaw extensive renovations. On her death in 1938 Bran passed to her youngest daughter Princess Ileana who converted it into a hospital during World War II. In 1948 the Royal Family was expelled and the castle was seized by the communist authorities.

In 2005 the Romanian parliament passed a law allowing restitution claims on properties illegally expropriated. Bran now belongs to the surviving offspring of Princess Ileana, who run the castle as a private museum in collaboration with the people of Bran,

The museum contains furniture…

Most of the furniture on display was heavy, dark wood. 19th Century I would think, though information is in short supply

…regalia….

A crown and sceptre, but whose? Bran Castle

….and some arms….

Weaponry, Bran Castle

…among other things.

Some rather more modern glassware - but still no information

In a nod to the Dracula legend it devotes a couple of rooms to the ‘Dreads of Transylvania’, the Sântoaderii, a wild and dangerous group of horseman who roam the Earth on specific nights, Iele female spirits of otherworldly beauty who are both revered and feared being benevolent or malevolent depending on how they are treated, Strigoi, malevolent, restless spirits or undead entities, the Solomonari who ride on dragons and can summon storms, hail and blizzards, also the Grim Reaper, Ghosts and Werewolves who need no explanation. Interestingly the list does not include Vampires, though Strigoi have some vampire characteristics.

Exit/Entrance and queue, Bran Castle. Dark and forbidding? No

In Conclusion

Bran Castle is not Dracula’s Castle. It is not the castle Bram Stoker wrote about and it was never the castle of Vlad Dracula aka Vlad the Impaler. And Vlad has as much to do with Stoker’s Dracula as Birds of the West Indies author James Bond, has to do with 007. They are merely borrowed names.

And does the fluff of the tourism industry and Hollywood in any way invalidate Bram Stoker’s novel – of course not. Nor does it invalidate Bran castle, it is worth a visit in its own right.

Lunch in Brașov

Back in Brașov, Vlad dropped us in Council Square, arranged a meeting time for the morning and as Brașov is his home town, went off to see whoever it is he sees when he comes home. We sat outside one of the many restaurants lining the square for a late lunch.

Council Square, Braşov

We like to eat local, but after exhausting the varieties of supă and ciorbă, the local cuisine left few appealing choices for a light lunch. The restaurant claimed to be Italian so we decided to share a small pizza. Many generations ago, Neapolitan emigrants took the secrets of their carefully crafted pizzas to the United States. In that melting pot of nations, they simplified the pizza so that everybody could enjoy it. They worked so hard to produce a dish that would offend nobody, that they long ago simplified their secrets out of the recipe. When it had finally been reduced it to a dough-y carbohydrate disc topped with a slick of trans-fats, they exported it back to Europe so a huge swathe of people from Iceland to Romania and beyond think what we ate in Brașov was a pizza. While fine pizzas are the norm in Italy and commonplace in France, everyone else remains in the dark. The worst pizza I have ever encountered was in Ulan Ude in the Russian Far East (at end of that post).

Council Square and the Black Church, Braşov

We spent much of the afternoon in the shopping streets around the square, looking for gifts to take home and a bottle of țuică (the plum brandy that is Romania’s national drink) for us. For the țuică we probably needed a supermarket, but we were not in that sort of shopping street and instead found ourselves in an upmarket bottle shop. They had no țuică, but suggested instead pălincă, a plum brandy produced specifically in Transylvania (and Hungary, but they did not tell us that). Despite the rather hefty price, we bought it. They are more differences than just region of origin, țuică is single distilled, sold at 20 to 40% alcohol (I think most we drank were closer to 40%) and considered an aperitif. Pălincă is double-distilled and sold at 40+% (ours was 45%). It is deeper flavoured and smoother and considered a drink for ceremonial and festive occasions. [ours did not last long after we got home - we must celebrate and fester a lot!].

After spending so much money we went back to the hotel to lie down in a darkened room. Then we tidied ourselves up and set out find dinner

Dinner in Braşov

When we again stepped out into Council Square the lovely, warm early summer day had become an equally lovely evening. The cafés and restaurant lining the square continue down the wide pedestrian boulevards that feed into it, and here, tables and chairs were not just outside restaurants, they also colonised broad strips down the centre of the streets. This abundance offered an illusion of choice, but the menus varied little and yesterday’s duck with pickled cabbage and pork with stuffed cabbage and sauerkraut was as adventurous as they get. To prove the point, we sat down not quite at random and then independently decided chicken and chips was the best offer. The chicken was on the bone, there was a dipping sauce and just for once, a salad. I would, though, just like to remind the restaurant owners of the wisdom of Mr John Finnemore

Chicken and chips, Braşov

We ordered țuică which arrived, as it often does, in small conical flasks which would look more at home in a laboratory than on a dining table. and a slightly more expensive bottle of wine than usual.

Drinking țuicǎ, Braşov

Colocviu la Paris translates as Colloquium in Paris. Colloquium is an odd word but maybe it sounds better than Seminar by the Seine as a wine name. A limited edition, it comes from Cotnari in the Moldovan Hills wine district. The grape is Busuioacă de Bohotin a variety unique to the region, taking its name from Bohotin, a village, like Cotnari, in Iași County (see map). Little known local grapes makes a pleasant change from the regulation Cabernet, Shiraz, Sauvignon Blanc etc. and you can discover anything from a hidden gem to a stark reminder of why it is Cabernet and its pals that are known worldwide. Bohotin is well towards the positive end of this spectrum. Purple grapes make it a natural for rosé and although it is usually vinified sweet, this example was fully dry. Pastel peach in colour, with an aroma of ripe berry fruits, crisp on the palate with what Winestatistics calls a wide flat feel. This strange phrase is an odd but accurate description of the mouthfeel, unique (as far as I know) to Romanian whites and rosés. I rather like it.

Colocviu la Paris, Braşov

I have written at length about the wine, so what about the food? Chicken and chips is chicken and chips ‘nuff said.