Mălâncrav has one street and two churches — the Lutheran Saxon one on the hill, and the older fortress on the rise above. The Apafi Manor sits among orchards at the lower end, behind a white-washed wall. Inside, the rooms are deliberately spare — a chair by the window, a desk, a four-poster, lime-washed walls in a particular eggshell green. The Trust restored it patiently from 2002.
The kitchen garden. The bread oven still works. The orchard apples make a particular Țuică that Cosmin pours after dinner whether you wanted one or not. And the painted ceiling in the south bedroom — original from 1690, faded blues and reds, the kind of thing you do not expect to sleep under.
- · Wood stove
- · Library
- · Kitchen garden
- · Bread oven
- · Bicycles
- · Private dinner on request
- · Heritage walks
Cosmin has run Apafi Manor for the Mihai Eminescu Trust for the last decade. He grew up half a kilometre away in the Saxon part of the village, and knows everyone — including the priest with the keys to the church.
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.