When I saw the photo above in House & Garden, I was filled with an enthusiasm and joy imagining myself having a picnic in this pleasant setting within the green. I was wandering where this photo, which I think is a wonderful image of spring, vivid and impelling like the season itself, might have been taken. (Photo above: Rhapsody Images, houseandgarden.co.uk)

The place is in the village of Cris in Transylvania, Romania. The pleasant outdoor dining area (lead image) is on the Bethlen estate belonging to the Bethlens, one of the noble families of Transylvania among whose ancestors are Prince of Transylvania and Prime Minister of Hungary. Count Miklos Bethlen had grown in the Castle on this estate and lived in Cris until he was exiled to Austria after the Second World War during the rise of communism in Romania. When he returned to Transylvania, he found his ancestral home in ruin and focused on raising funds to restore the village, the castle and to support the local community. He provided scholarship programs for the young and achieved UNESCO status for the castle. (bethlenestates.com)

Bethlen Estates Transylvania, launched in Spring 2021, is led by Gladys and Nikolaus Bethlen, wife and son of Count Miklos Bethlen. They had continued the Count’s mission after he died in 2001 and launched a project to preserve the region’s cultural heritage through tourism funds. They are gradually buying and restoring the empty Saxon houses in and around Cris and renovating them into guest accommodations.

Caretaker’s House (former house of the castle’s caretaker), Depner House (a Saxon house built in the 18th century for Depner family), and the Corner Barn (a former haybarn) are the restored guesthouses of Bethlen Estates. The Bethlen family manor house had also been renovated maintaining its original ancient wine cellars.

You can either rent a room from the restored 300-year-old residences or an entire house at Bethlen Estates. There is authentic Transylvanian style inside the guesthouses with a traditional rural design. The interiors are light and calming with soft and pastel colors, natural fabrics, original wooden beams and traditional tiled stoves. For more details about the guesthouses in Bethlen Estates check bethlenestates.com.

You can have your breakfast or dinner in the guesthouse you stay or in the central “Kitchen Barn” where the head chef matches the seasonal menu with local Transylvanian wines. Fruit and vegetables are local, seasonal and organic coming from the family’s orchards and farmland.

I was surprised to read in the website of Bethlen Estates that there is “truffle hunting” tour to pick up truffles from the ancient forests of Transylvania accompanied by guides and trained truffle dogs. They mention that a picnic is served at the forest during the tour. How jolly! Their chef is said to prepare dinner with the freshly picked truffles. There is also “wine tasting” in the torch-lit original cellars of “Count Janos Bethlen’s Manor House” accompanied by home-made bread and local cheeses. You can taste here home-made brandies as well, made with apples and pears from the family’s orchards.

Transylvania is a region in central Romania bounded by the Carpathian Mountains on the north and east, and the Transylvanian Alps on the south. Grand forests, glacier lakes, greenery, wildflower meadows, rare wildlife including but not limited to brown bears, wolves and lynxes signify the wild Transylvanian countryside. You can explore and enjoy the nature around Bethlen Estates with many outdoor activities and tours such as hiking, cycling, horseback riding, horse carriage rides, snowshoe walking, bird or bear watching, fishing or heliskiing, led by their expert local guides. You can check their web site (bethlenestates.com) for details of the tours most of which include a lunch or picnic. I guess picnic is the essence of this place, like the image which captured me at first sight! (lead image of this post).

Transylvania is a historic region with medieval towns. It had been a part of Hungary and an autonomous principality within the Ottoman Empire in its history. Some of the Saxon (Germanic) settlements date back to the 12th century. Many picturesque Saxon villages in the region such as Biertan, Viscri and Sighisoara are UNESCO World Heritage Sites with their medieval churches, castles and fortresses. Transalpina Road and Transfagarasan Road, high roads passing through the Carpathian Mountains, offer nice views.

Bethlen Estates is located in a valley surrounded by forests, meadows and UNESCO World Heritage Sites. They offer and arrange tours which you can attend to discover the wild Transylvanian countryside, picturesque villages and UNESCO sites.

I guess it is not in vain that Prince Charles owns several properties, even a guesthouse open to public close to the village of Viscri, which he had initially bought as a vacation house (The Prince of Wales’s Guesthouse) in this region. I read in an article in House & Garden (Feb. 2022 issue) that he admired Transylvania when he first came here in 1998 and was affected by the local architecture, organic agriculture and biodiversity of the place. The article mentions that he supports Transylvania’s conservation projects.

I have also recently read in a New York Times morning briefing that Romania is ‘rewilding‘ its wolves and bison and that tourists can go on a safari in the Transylvanian Alps and track such animals in the forests and meadows of Transylvania.

When I think of Transylvania, the first thing that comes to my mind used to be vampires and the legend of Dracula. I see it now that Transylvania is much more than this. The region is said to be associated with vampires due to the influence of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel “Dracula”and many later books, TV series and film adaptations. Bran Castle, also known as “Dracula’s Castle“, which is said to be the inspiration for Count Dracula’s castle in Stoker’s book, is in the village of Bran in Transylvania.

Bram Stoker’s character, Dracula, is a Transylvanian Count who lives in a castle in the Carpathian Mountains. Count Dracula is a Transylvanian nobleman and a centuries-old vampire who travels to London in search of fresh blood. According to a popular theory, the character Dracula is based upon Vlad III (Vlad Tepes), the warrior and Prince of Walachia in the 15th century also known as ‘Vlad the Impaler‘ as he impaled his enemies on stakes. His father’s (Vlad II) surname was Dracul and ‘Dracula’ means ‘the son of Dracul‘ in Romanian. It is said that Vlad was held captive in Bran Castle for two months. (bran-castle.com, brittannica.com)

I have recently bought Bram Stoker’s book “Dracula” – added to my reading list. A couple of years ago, we used to watch “The Vampire Diaries” with my son on Netflix – a very nice and gripping vampire series. I also remember that we had very much enjoyed watching “Hotel Transylvania“, the animated comedy film series, in the cinema with my children. Count Dracula was the owner of “Hotel Transylvania”- a human-free hotel where the monsters can stay- in the films. The fourth and final installment of the series ‘Hotel Transylvania: Transformania‘ had been released on Amazon in January 2022. We aim to watch it soon owing to this post!

The fabulous hotel in a charming nature and the adventures of a jolly vampire family (good vampires) in “Hotel Transylvania” series had created a pleasant image in my mind about the Transylvania region of Romania, which got much stronger, with the story of Bethlen Estates. Rustic guesthouses, picturesque villages, castles, picnic, truffle-hunting, bear watching or a horse carriage ride in the wild beautiful countryside … I think Transylvania, the region which gifted the world the vampires myth and the legend of Dracula, is worth to see.