Casa Saxonia sits on the unpaved high street of Viscri — the village Prince Charles bought a house in, the village whose fortified church earned UNESCO status in 1999. From the courtyard, you cannot quite see the church tower over the wall, but you can hear its bell at six in the morning and again at noon. The house is set across three buildings around a working courtyard — the main house, a converted hay barn, and a small bakery that still bakes bread on Tuesdays.
It is the smell of the place. Old wood, beeswax, lime plaster, a wood stove burning oak in October. Anna refuses to install air conditioning — the walls are 80 centimetres thick and they do the work. There is no television. There is a piano. The kitchen has a single Lacanche range that cost more than the car.
- · Wi-Fi (150 Mbps)
- · Wood stove
- · Fireplace
- · Lacanche range
- · Sauna
- · Pets welcome
- · Library
- · Bicycles
- · Off-street parking
- · Crib available
Anna grew up two villages over, in Saschiz, and bought Casa Saxonia in 2011 when it was nearly a ruin. She has spent twelve years restoring it lime layer by lime layer, oak beam by oak beam, and now lives next door with Mihai and three hives of black bees.
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.