We wandered through Bunesti until a likely looking dusty parkup presented itself. The vanlife “diesel telegram” is often more of a rumor mill than a sure thing marked with an upside down crimson teardrop on Google maps. Come to think of it Google Maps in Morocco is far from a sure thing as well.
We could see the old village up a forested path at the top of a knoll.
Suffice it to say, it’s steeper than it looks and sadly we found that we had to give up all that ground due to walls and fences that led us back down, past their quaint shops in town.
There are a lot of wobbly, ankle twisting cobble streets in this town but the real bonus was that several nesting storks were using their nest supporting structures mounted on houses, light or telephone poles.
While driving through Romania we’ve noticed that some communities seem to be really enthusiastic about having nesting storks and some aren’t.
We’re on the hunt for something we’d heard were called fortified churches. Turns out there were over 300 hundred medieval fortified churches in Transylvania. Almost every village had at least one, but only six out of the 150 that still remain are UNESCO listed, and this one in Bunesti is supposed to be one of the best.
It seems the Ottoman-Turks, Mongols, and Tatars were frequent and uninvited visitors in these parts starting in the 1200s. In response, many villages built walls around their whole town or, if they couldn’t afford that, then just their church for defense. These sprouted castle-like, curtain walls, reinforced gates, and defensive towers, that were usually within sight of the neighboring town’s tower.
While the enthusiastic German caretaker regaled Marce with historic tidbits, and Marce tried keeping up with his German dialect, I slipped away for a reconnoiter but he had the place locked up.
Luckily by this time Marce had charmed him into finding the large ornate key to unlock the church for us. I’m glad he did. We were gobsmacked.
Originally a Catholic Church, this country church was richly decorated with saintly frescoes. But during the Reformation they were painted over, leaving a daunting project to try to restore what they can.
This is the manual hand pump for their pipe organ which was sent away for restoration but no one knows where it is any more. Nearly every one of these churches has a pipe organ, and many are still working.
Outside in the church courtyard.
Marce’s favorite, a trip up the tower.
To go from knowing nothing about fortified churches to having this amazing experience has been humbling. I think we’ll have a bit of a wander through Bunesti on the way back to Escape Velocity.
Turns out King Charles owns this charitable compound in Bunesti.
Ok fun seekers, you escapees might be seeing more of these in the near future.