As well as having a UNESCO listed fortified Saxon church, the Romanian village of Viscri is associated with King Charles.
Having visited the church (see separate review – Saxon Fortified Churches), it was a hike to the opposite end of the car-free village which was founded by German-speaking Transylvanian Saxons in the 12th century. The houses were in the same style: long, single-story buildings with steep tiled roofs, thick lime-plastered walls, and high street-facing façades hiding inner courtyards and gardens. The front gates had large wooden doors big enough for a horse cart, and the windows were small and symmetrically placed. Many houses were originally painted pastel blue to ward off insects, and over time, the colour has become a village trademark. It was all beautifully maintained, with wicker lidded baskets tied to the trees for rubbish, and it felt like a throwback in time.
King Charles fell in love with Viscri during a visit in 1998 and since then, he’s visited Romania many times. He has purchased and restored several properties including a ‘blue house’ which has been converted into a training centre for traditional crafts and rural skills and is open to the public.
We paid the reduced entrance fee of 15 Lei each (£5.07) but declined the option of an audio guide as we could see the signs were also in English. However, the helpful lady gave us a quick verbal overview of the layout.
Several information boards in the grounds explained not only the King’s links with the country, but other royal connections: Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Marie of Edinburgh, was married to King Ferdinand I of Romania; and Prince Philip was godfather to the Romanian Princess, Margareta.
A building at the back had two exhibitions.
The first was on a book, Transylvania Florilegium, commissioned in 2012 by the King. A group of the world’s best botanical artists were invited to Transylvania and over the next five years, further groups visited for two weeks at different times of the year and recorded a selection of the flowering plants. Each artist painted up to six plants and offered them for selection in the book, information on each plant accompanying every painting. The finished work is made up of two massive hand-bound volumes, the Spring and Summer collections. 150 copies were printed using traditional letterpress and archival-quality paper and a copy was displayed in a glass case along with single plates.
The second was a temporary exhibition, ‘Lee Miller’s Romania’. Having seen the 2023 film ‘Lee’, starring Kate Winslet, I knew of her transformation from a high-fashion model into a fearless World War II photojournalist for Vogue. As well as focusing on her life story, the exhibition featured photographs from her time in Romania when she captured the country’s villages, traditional rituals, and key historical figures before and after WWII.
At the rear was a small, informal vegetable garden, which village children known as ‘Little Gardeners’ visit every Friday to learn how to grow herbs and vegetables using organic, sustainable methods. They can take the fruits of their labours home for their families.
There was also a barn with an exhibition on tiles and roofs demonstrating traditional ceramic roofing techniques. One tile had Charles’ signature etched into it.
The house has several rooms and bedrooms, and we were able to visit the royal bedchamber. Naturally there were no modern amenities, such as televisions and radios, in order to disconnect from the digital world.
We had a final visit to the gift shop with a range of books, postcards, herbal remedies, jams and preserves which were made locally.
