Sibiel is a village of three hundred people, a famous painted-glass-icon museum, a stream you can wade in, and roughly seven thousand sheep on the hillsides above. The Mărginimea Sibiului is the shepherding heart of Transylvania — UNESCO is currently considering it as intangible cultural heritage. Casa Cireșelor sits at the end of the village, where the cobbles run out and the meadows begin.
Pavel’s cheese mornings. Three hours, six euros per person, including the burduf you take home wrapped in spruce bark. Kids are usually more enthusiastic than parents. And the painted-icon museum two streets over is one of the small, surprising treasures of central Europe.
- · Cheese-making lessons (on request)
- · Wood stove
- · Garden
- · Pets welcome
- · Library of regional cookbooks
- · Bikes for kids
Pavel’s family has kept sheep on the meadows above Sibiel for five generations. The house belongs to his sister, who lives in Sibiu now, and the cheese-making lessons in the back yard are Pavel’s side project — and our guests’ favourite morning of the trip.
A few of the sights within easy reach of this house.
The most photographed Saxon church — three rings of walls, a famous lock with thirteen tumblers.
The highest range in Romania — Moldoveanu (2,544m), bears, the European Wilderness initiative.
The shepherding villages west of Sibiu — UNESCO is considering them as intangible heritage.
A single-room museum of painted glass icons — one of the most surprising small museums in Europe.