Transylvania Castle

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The Sunday Telegraph, 24th of September, 2000:

Next Stop Paddington?
But for the mosquitoes, it would have been pleasant to be perched on a wooden platform in an oak forest in Transylvania, hoping for a bear to come along. Dusk was falling and cuckoos were making a frightful racket. Half an hour later, we spotted our host, Count Tibor Kálnoky, striding jauntily through the forest, holding a clump of leaves before him. His friend, Gabor, a hunter who claimed that there had been a two-year-old bear in the area for the past six days, was by his side. "Look! Bear droppings!" exclaimed Tibor triumphantly. We peered over to inspect the leaves and, yes, there was definitely something there that may have been what he said it was.
Born in Germany and educated in France, Tibor returned to Romania four years ago to reclaim his ancestral properties. Taking in tourists like myself and my friend Adam, Bill and Pamela, from Bristol, and Liz and her father, Oliver, helps to meet the huge cost of restoring his derelict 16th-century manor house.
Bill and Oliver, both keen birders, had gorged on corncrakes and storks and skylarks. For Pamela and Liz, I suspect, the glorious rolling hills and meadows carpeted in wild flowers were enough. But for Adam and me, Transylvania was all about bears. There are 5,500 bears in Romania, so it didn't seem unreasonable for me to hope to see just one.
At the end of the following day, after a fascinating tour of the marvellous medieval town of Sighisoara, the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, we returned to the woods. As we stepped out of the car, the air was filled with the scent of wild thyme, crushed by its wheels.
While the others were content to wait on viewing platforms, I went with Tibor and the hunter Gabor on the trail of the bear, hoping to flush it out towards them.
It was tracking for beginners - like following an army. Swathes of grass had been swept aside by the bear's swinging front legs. There were droppings, logs that had been overturned in its search for food and a tree stump that had been scratched at for ants. We even found a circle of flattened grass where the bear had slept and, in grey-green mud near a stream, a paw print.
"We are too late," said Tibor. "Gabor says the bear was here less than an hour ago. But it will be travelling towards the far side of the forest now." (…)

Nova Magazine, October 2000 issue:

What does Transylvania mean to you?
Gothic castles on jagged mountain peaks, caught in the flash of some terrible storm? A man in a cape with a keen interest in the contents of your veins? A recent US survey revealed that 80 per cent of the American population considered it to be a mythical region, something along the lines of Lilliput, Middle Earth or Sesame Street.
For the most of the last millennium, Transylvania was a country in its own right. It is now the largest of six regions that collectively form Romania. It occupies a plateau in the central part of the country, its edges bound by the Carpathian Mountains in the north and the Transylvanian Alps in the South. Now a new myth keeps the visitors away. One involving miserable orphans, scavenging gypsies and stark, grey concrete tower blocksWhich is a shame because the real Transylvania is more remarkable than any fictional creation; a hidden land of phenomenal natural beauty with enough magic of its own to require no embellishment from werewolves, vampires or Jason Donovan in fishnets. (...).
The fact is, you don't go to Transylvania for its chic new bars. You go for the countryside. The best way to explore is to hire a car and brave the pot-holed gravel tracks - only a very charitable person would call them roads - that thread their way through the bucolic landscape. Once you're in the countryside, go slow - you'll have to. Imagine that you have been transported back to the Middle Ages. Not much has changed since then. If you want to blend in, wear heavy black boots and hats, regardless of summer heat (if you're a man), or what looks like a square of carpet on your back (if you're a woman); it's actually padding against the uncomfortable church pews.
Don't miss the nightly cow parade. At exactly 8pm, the Transylvanian cow population returns home. Theirs is a slow, dignified promenade unaided by humans, bums swaying with the swagger of catwalk models.
You'll be impressed, but cow-watching isn't the mainstay of Transylvanian tourism. The Man with the Fangs is. Bram Stoker, Dracula's British creator, never even visited Transylvania. His evocative (and surprisingly accurate) descriptions of the Carpathian landscape were all culled from guidebooks he found in the Reading Room of the British Museum.
If you visit the beautiful city of Sighisoara, it's best to avoid the grisly museum of genuine torture implements collected under the Dracula banner. Instead, take an hour or two to wander the rambling lanes that climb their way up to the brooding cemetery overlooking the old town. These are the torchlit villages recreated in the black-and-white horror films of the 30s and 40s, which Universal Studios modelled its sets on.
If you'd like a taste of the Transylvanian highlife, you can stay with a real-life count. Count Tibor Kalnoky is a handsome man in his early 30s. He looks like Ralph Fiennes. One of his castles is in the tiny village of Miclosoar. Your friend who works for Oxfam might disapprove if she knew you'd taken a hot bath in a designer cast-iron tub in a village with no running water, but the food (homemade sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and roast hen from the Count's garden) and the fact that you have no pallatable alternative will soon make you feel less guilty. (…)
You'd better move fast if you want to experience Transylvania before it vanishes into the night. Which it will, as surely as a vampire caught in the rising sun.

The Daily Telegraph - Saturday 9th of December, 2000:

been there…
Romania
We were also invited to spend a few days as guests of Count Tibor Kalnoky in Transylvania. Our village accommodation was five-star and Tibor's staff, in Szekely costumes, looked as though they had jumped out of illustrations for a child's fairy tale. And we haven't mentioned the local dancing festival, the birdwatching, the carbonated water springs, the ancient villages with their walled churches, the generosity of all the people we met, the local plum brandy and, of course, the wonderful food. We can't wait to return.

Rough Guide to Romania, new edition 2001:
Continuing north from Aita Mare, the castle of the Kálnoky family in Miclosoara (Miklósvar), a rare example of the Italian Renaissance style, is being restored; this is funded by Count Kálnoky's two guesthouses (Strada Principala / Fo utca 186; Tel / Fax 067 / 377 605, k@transylvaniancastle.com), beautifully furnished in Székely style; prices include all meals and wine, and any excursions you choose to make, including riding, birdwatching or wolf- and bear-tracking. Not far to the north, reached by a 13km track through the woods north from Vârghis, you can visit the Almas (Almásy/Almescher Hohle) cave; entry is by a huge chamber halfway up a cliff, behind which the system continues for a total of 7.5km on four levels. Legend has it that this is where the Pied Piper surfaced with the children of Hamelin. (...)

Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung, , January 24^th, 2001

Tourismus der besonderen Art im Internet angepriesen
Das heutige Schloss des Grafen Kalnoky wurde bereits im 16. Jahrhundert als Jagdschloss von der Familie gebaut, zahlreiche Renaissance-Elemente an Einfassungen von Türen, Fenstern und Toren zeugen heute noch davon. 24 Generationen haben hier seither das Erbe der Vorfahren bewahrt, Tibor will es aber nun auch anderen zugänglich machen. "Die Aufgabe des Wiederaufbaus wurde mir von meinem Vater anvertraut, da ich keine Erinnerungen an die Vergangenheit habe und so unbelastet in die Zukunft schauen kann. Meinem Vater fiel es schlie-lich schwerer, aus Zerstörung und Ruinen wieder Hoffnung zu schöpfen", gesteht Tibor Kalnoky und beleuchtet kurz die Story dieser 25. und vorerst letzten Generation des Szekler Grafengeschlechts.
Wie die meisten Aristokraten musste auch sein Vater noch während des Zweiten Weltkriegs die Heimat verlassen. ... So ist Tibor grö-tenteils in Frankreich aufgewachsen, Deutsch allerdings wurde trotzdem zu seiner Muttersprache, und in Deutschland hat er auch studiert. … Auch seine Frau ist eine gebürtige Szeklerin, und seine drei Kinder (sechs und vier Jahre bzw. einige Monate alt) sind mittlerweile wie auch die Eltern rumänische Staatsbürger. Als solche konnten sie denn auch einfacher ihren alten Besitz wieder einfordern, selbst wenn das so einfach wiederum nicht war. Blo- ein Teil wurde ihnen per Gerichtsentscheid zurückgegeben, "einen Teil haben wir zurückgekauft und einen weiteren auf lange Sicht vom Staat gepachtet". Alles befand sich in einem erbärmlichen Zustand. Nacheinander nämlich war das einst ansehnliche Schloss von Funktionären der kommunistischen Partei, dann von der staatlichen Kooperative und letztlich von der gesamten Gemeinde als Kultur- und Hochzeitssaal mi-braucht worden. "Und unter Kultur verstand man offenbar damals, Wände und Türen einzurei-en, Fenster auszuheben, Volksbühnen aufzuziehen, kurz: alles zu zerstören", bedauert heute Tibor, der unterdessen von Restaurateuren sorgfältig alte Wanddekorationen aus dem 17. Jahrhundert im Schloss wieder aufdecken, jedoch die Gruft in der Schlosskapelle mit den Gebeinen der Vorfahren aus Sicherheitsgründen vermauern lie-...
(also published in Siebenbuerger Zeitung, March 15^th, 2001:
www.siebenbuerger.de/sbz/sbz/news/984663388,29304)

Vivid Magazine (Romania through International Eyes), May 2001 issue

Weekend getaways

Count Kalnoky of Korospatak

Alina Boboc visits a village in the Hungarian region of Covasna and meets an aristocrat who has returned to Romania to run a village tourism project.

             Count Kalnoky loves living in the village of Miclosoara, (or Miklosvar in Hungarian), which is located just north of Brasov, in Covasna. Everyone in this Hungarian-speaking village knows him, and they greet him as he walks by in his green wellies. Count Kalnoky was born in Germany, educated in France, and seems to be the model of a modern European aristocrat. But he feels quite at home in this old Romanian - Hungarian village..
             ...Count Kalnoky only started his business in village tourism last year, but he has already had plenty of visitors; people who adore authentic village life and are only too happy to contribute towards the restoration of an old manor house. Recent guests include the British Ambassador to Romania, who turned up on his Harley Davidson, and various journalists who seem attracted by the idea of a real Transylvanian count living in a castle...
             ...The Kalnoky family was one of the great noble families that ran Tranyslvania when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and although the family had moved to Western Europe after the communists took over, I sensed they never really found another resting place comparable to this one.
             One of the most attractive things about Count Kalnoky is that he appears to hold no bitterness towards those who confiscated all his family’s property and wealth. This is unusual in a country where everyone complains, and everyone finds fault with the system. He tells us that in 1987 he fell in love with Transylvania. He says there is something special here, something connected with the spirit of the place, the natural beauty of the mountains and forests, and that his own family history was entwined with the history of this region...
             ...One of the most remarkable things about visiting Miclosoara, and staying in one of the count’s charming guest-houses, is observing the relationship between the count and the villagers. In western countries the role of the aristocrat in a rural setting has long become defunct; commercial and agricultural pressures have long driven them out of their dominant position.
             In Romania, however, one gets the feeling that the aristocracy still has something to offer a rural population that has virtually no opportunities and no leadership. Count Kalnoky employs a cook, a housekeeper and scores of builders: in terms of employment he’s the only show in town. Not surprisingly, he has interesting views on the "social contract" that used to exist between the aristocracy and the peasantry – a time-honoured relationship that was abruptly ended by the communists, but not replaced by a viable alternative...
             ...Tibor Kalnoky believes that Romania has great potential in rural tourism, but only if there is a change of attitude: "Romanians should understand what their strong points are: the Black Sea coast will never be able to compete with Greece or Turkey, either in terms of price or quality. But Romanian villages, and their cultural heritage, are unique. These should attract foreigners and if they did it would generate income for rural families, which could help save Romania’s rural cultural heritage. But they need to get it right."
             He certainly does it right. In the guest houses in the village everything is planned and thought out brilliantly. Tibor and his wife have a great eye for detail. The rooms have wooden ceilings and are decorated with old painted Saxon furniture. The bath tubs are made of cast iron, the wood stoves have intricate engravings, the sheets are snow-white and the duvets are filled with down-feathers, a rarity in Romania...
             ...We got the feeling that by staying with Count Kalnoky we were contributing in a very small way, to the restoration of Romania’s cultural heritage. He quite openly says that the income he makes from the guest houses goes directly towards the restoration of the manor house in Miclosoara. He has a host of other interesting cultural and environmental projects he will begin, as soon as resources allow for it.

Also mentioned in:
El Pais, travel supplement, 16^th of April, 2000
Hello! Magazine, 26^th of December, 2000
Several hungarian and romanian newspapers, books and guidebooks

TV:

SF2 (Schweizer Fernsehen) "NZZ Format" and also on VOX satellite channel
(shown repeatedly in 2001).
You can order a video-cassette at www-x.nzz.ch/format
Titel: Dracula lebt!
Dracula, der Vampir aus Transsylvanien, fasziniert seit Bram Stokers Novelle von 1897. Was ist wahr an der Geschichte? Auf den Spuren von Dracula Vlad Tepes, dem Vorbild für den blutsaugenden Vampir, trafen wir in Transsylvanien auf einen echten Grafen aus altem Geblüt. Seine Familie ist nach 50 Jahren Exil nach Rumänien zurückgekehrt.

...Er ist nicht Graf Dracula, aber auch aus altem transsilvanischem Geschlecht: Tibor Graf Kalnoky. Fünfzig Jahre lebte seine Familie im Exil in Frankreich und Deutschland. Vor drei Jahren ist er in seine Heimat zurückgekehrt, nach Miclosoara, wo eines der Familienschlösser steht.
...Seine Rückkehr empfindet Graf Kalnoky als Verpflichtung gegenüber der 700-jährigen Geschichte seiner Familie.
Statement Tibor Graf Kalnoky:
"Man ist nicht so wichtig als Einzelner, sondern man ist Teil einer langen Kette, und die Aufgabe der einen Person ist eigentlich nur, soviel wie möglich den nächsten weiterzugeben. Wir möchten ganz einfach die Geschichte lebendig erhalten, und das Leben erhalten, das hier in diesem Dorf pulsiert. Und alles nur authentisch. Wir hängen keine Eggen oder Karrenräder an die Wand, weil das so schön ist, sondern wir benutzen sie hinter den Pferden. Hier haben die Gebrauchsgegenstände noch ihre Funktion."
..."Meiner Meinung nach sollte man Siebenbürgen zu einem Reservat Europas erklären, weil wir hier all das haben, und zwar lebendig, was in den europäischen Sagen und in der Legendenwelt auch vorhanden war, was aber sonst ausgestorben ist. Wir haben hier tatsächlich noch Dorfstrukturen, wie es sonst vielleicht in Rotkäppchen erzählt wird, oder Frau Holle. Wir haben hier tatsächlich Kinder, die sich vor dem Wolf fürchten, nicht wegen der Märchen, sondern weil der Wolf tatsächlich 500 Meter weit vom Dorf gesichtet wird."
...Auf dem Friedhof von Miclosoara werden die Dorfbewohner begraben, in der Kapelle liegen einige von Graf Kalnokys Vorfahren.
... "Fast alle Särge waren aufgebrochen, die Knochen lagen herum, es war wirklich ein grauenhafter Anblick. Alles war einfach übereinander geworfen, so dass ich zusammen mit einer Person, die mir half, die Särge herausholte, die Knochen wieder zurücklegte – ich hoffe, in die richtigen! Aber interessant war, dass viele der dreizehn Personen, die dort zu finden waren, noch sehr intakt waren, und das hat mich erstaunt. Anscheinend war die Luft sehr trocken, so dass es eigentlich fast Mumien waren, die ich dort angetroffen habe, wunderschön angekleidet, in den alten Trachten, Stiefeln." ...
... In Transsilvanien findet man die archaische Welt noch, und das wird wahrscheinlich eine Weile so bleiben in diesem Land am Rande Europas...
... Sagen, Legenden, Leben wie vor hundert Jahren. Das ist der grosse Reichtum dieser armen Gegend, die nicht nur Draculafreunden, sondern allen Romantikern etwas geben kann.

ITV: lwt "Dream Ticket"

January 27^th, 2002
Miklosvar is presented as travel destination besides Cuba and London.
..."On the other side of the world Ashley Blake takes a long weekend in Transylvania. With no vampires in sight he gets away from the hustle and bustle into the idyllic countryside where some still travel by horse and cart."

Also on:
MTV 1 and 2 (Hungarian TV), 2002

Magyar Ház programme: "Nem halandó, amibe bízom"

GUESTBOOK extracts
William and Pamela Nicks, Bristol,
Expectations exceeded. Comfortable, lovely accommodation in harmony with traditional village life. We are sad to leave, but wish you every success.

Oliver M. Ashford, Oxford, (aged 85),
I have rarely been so wonderfully entertained. I feel that in 5 short days we have been able to get an unexpectedly comprehensive appreciation of Transylvania, about which I knew so little before coming here. Thanks to the excellent hospitality, the glorious weather, the beautiful countryside and the interesting birds, this has been one of the most enjoyable holidays of all. Not to mention the stimulating conversations with our charming host and the other guests.

Lee Karen Stow, Yorkshire,
My visit has been too short and I must come again. If only to "listen" to the village. A truly special place. I believe I found what I came to see in Transylvania.

Margaret Ford and Chris Sear, Lincolnshire,
Thank you for the eagles and the bears and your most gracious hospitality.

Daisy Raduleanu, Bucharest,
"A weekend far from reality": You could believe it is another world. These three short days meant more to us than a whole 15-day trip anywhere else. We don't want to wake up from this magic.

Rupert & Alina Wolfe Murray, Bucharest,
"Fantastic… brilliant… incredible"