Transfixed in Transylvania

By Lucy Mayhew, The Mail on Sunday

Last updated at 08:55 02 January 2008

The medieval town of Sighisoara is home to Casa Dracula

Prince Charles is probably unaware that he has provided me with perhaps the tastiest reminder of one of the most unforgettable trips of my life. I pilfered several bunches of his succulent, jumbo carrots from the vegetable patch of his latest farmstead, more of which shortly.

I have just returned from a tour of the Saxon villages of Transylvania, a mesmerising little corner of eastern Europe. The region provides a rare opportunity to experience rural equanimity, where people, land and homes haven't changed for 800 years.

Without a time machine, this is the closest you'll come to witnessing what life must have been like in medieval Europe.

My trip was organised by Jim Turnbull, a friend of Prince Charles and co-founder of Fundatia Adept, a charity dedicated to protecting common land and local communities in the Saxon villages. The organisation is also expanding its travel arm and from next spring it can arrange for visitors to stay in the property owned by Charles - the farmhouse has been converted into a guesthouse.

Charles has been a regular visitor to this area since 1998 and last year, as part of his campaign to promote sustainable tourism, he bought a tumbledown Saxon home in Viscri. The hamlet has been designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

Viscri is one of 40 settlements built by almost a million Saxon Germans who began moving to the area in the 12th Century to help their Hungarian allies defend the region against marauding Turks.

Like many of the villages, Viscri can be difficult to find - you have to navigate a few miles of bumpy dirt-track to reach it. But when you finally arrive, you'll be smitten by the patchwork of painted Hansel and Gretel houses with chestnut roofs and chunky wooden gates wide enough for hay wagons.

In every village, houses flank an orchardlined thoroughfare, usually with a muddy stream running down the centre. Horses and carts clatter past more frequently than the occasional Soviet-era tractor and the places hum with activity at dawn when herdsmen take the cattle, goats and sheep owned by every villager out to pasture. The excitement is repeated at dusk when every cow and farmyard beast lumbers back for the night.

Bartering still flourishes in these poor communities where life is so connected to the land that no one would think of having a discussion about eating local, seasonal or organic food - it's just taken for granted.

Behind every house lurks a barn, byre and cobbled courtyard for chickens, geese, one or two pigs, sheep and cattle. Beyond the yard there is a vegetable plot, usually followed by an orchard leading to grazing land and the forest further on.

Perhaps it was a little peculiar to become so diverted by the vegetable plot of His Royal Highness but the size of his carrots really struck me. As part of my trip, Clarence House reticently granted me an exclusive sneak preview of the renovated Royal residence and it fell to a local Count, who bears a striking resemblance to the actor Ralph Fiennes, to show me around.

Count Tibor Kalnoky, an impeccably mannered aristocrat brought up in exile in France, has spent the past two decades reclaiming his family's Transylvanian properties confiscated by the communists. He now runs his own guesthouse 30 miles east of the Saxon villages and has also been given the task of restoring Charles's brightly painted home.

As we sit beneath the grapevines sipping local fruit tea, I stop pondering which bedroom the Prince is likely to spend his first night in when he returns to the area and turn my attention to the gardeners tilling the sizeable veg patch. I amuse myself with the notion of roasting the Prince's carrots and drizzling them with Transylvanian forest-honey for a small supper party that I will be having on my first night back in England.

'Do you think I could take some with me?' I ask the Count. 'They're the biggest, healthiest carrots I've ever seen.'

'Would you expect anything less of the Prince's carrots? Of course, you must take as many as you like,' the Count chuckles.

Prince Charles's guesthouse in Viscri will be open for business next spring

Prince Charles's simple yet well finished property will undoubtedly be the wisest place to stay if you're up for witnessing a traditional agrarian lifestyle that is still free from the gawping eyes of other tourists.

And if you're ready for some more basic living, Jim Turnbull's organisation arranges for visitors to stay with families in several villages.

But whether you want to spend a day or a week drinking in all this area has to offer, Turnbull's charity provides translators, transport and local contacts to keep you simultaneously enthralled and humbled by the people of these communities.

I embraced every aspect of what Turnbull calls Fundatia Adept's 'culture-cum-walking-cum-food tours' and let them organise a week of outings.

Whether you're after easy strolls (my preference), day-long hikes in the valleys and woods, picnicking in orchards, donning a beesuit and learning about honey production or visiting the fortified churches, which are about a dozen times more interesting than the prettiest Renaissance churches I've visited, none of these experiences is easily forgotten.

One sunny morning, I took a horse and cart to visit a shepherding family who live all year in the hills. Even when temperatures dip to -20C, they sleep in wooden hutches surrounding their moveable sheep enclosures.

I witnessed the midday milking before being offered a cheese-tasting lunch. And I attended a curious bread-baking ritual, which involved charring bread in a redhot oven until it was covered in charcoal. I even got to take home one of the loaves once I had beaten the cinders from it.

It's this opportunity to buy some of the regional produce that has earned Turnbull the praise of a select crew of well connected environmentalists who fell in love with this magical region at the start of this century.

Like Prince Charles, Zac and Ben Goldsmith, brothers of Jemima Khan, and Michael Radomir decided to involve themselves more actively in an effort to conserve the land and livelihoods of the courtyard farmers who find themselves facing tough choices about the future.

The Saxons were keen buffalo farmers but as they began their exodus to escape communist persecution following the Second World War, buffalo numbers began to fall too. One Goldsmith-Radomir project includes rebuilding herd numbers - they have 400 so far, which is a far cry from the 100,000 that used to roam the area. However, numbers are growing fast and soon you'll be able to sample and take home tasty, lowcholesterol buffalo cheddar.

Lucy, far left, tours the Saxon villages by horse and cart

But decimated buffalo stock is less of a problem than EU rulings threatening the foundations of these communities - Romania joined the Union in January. 'We've struggled through communism, Ceausescu and now the EU,' says one local, echoing the sentiments of every other smallholder I meet.

Whether they're making honey or sheep cheeses, which seem to be responsible for the uncannily youthful skin of the local women, overcoming red tape and complying with EU edicts endanger their small enterprises. Combine this with rocketing production costs and falling prices and you've got a big survival problem on your hands.

As well as the thumbs-up from upper-class greenies, Turnbull has backing from the Department for Food and Rural Affairs, the Worldwide Fund for Nature, three universities including Oxford Brookes and the telecommunications company Orange. His work is so revered by the Romanian ministry of agriculture that he's been drafted in to advise on national farming strategies.

'You can't visit this place and fail to be spellbound but we can't turn it into a museum just because we in the West think it's charming and beautiful,' Turnbull declares.'We're one of the few projects in the world that marries conservation with economic development because poor people don't care about conservation - they care about having money in their pockets.'

Turnbull, a tough Scotsman, is regarded as a bit of a hero throughout the region. On the advice of Prince Charles, he joined forces with the Slow Food Movement,an international 'eco-gastronomy' organisation focused on reconnecting people with locally produced food and regional cooking. Every year it holds the world's largest food market,highlighting delicacies from across the globe.

Bit of a buzz: Lucy tries her hand at beekeeping

Last summer Turnbull persuaded Transylvanians that this was the perfect opportunity to showcase their jams, pickles, preserves and honey from wildflower meadows.

It was an idea that took people such as Rosey Anghel by surprise.

'We thought everyone in the world made their own jams,' says Rosey, whose house in Viscri was my base for two nights.

I fell for her forestblackberry, rose-petal and bilberry jams, which have more than double the fruit content and none of the sugar and preservatives of British versions. Better still are the sweetpickled peppers I tried in the courtyard of Katarina Schraser in neighbouring Saschiz.

This delightful village is the setting for a forthcoming Hollywood fantasy film and Fundatia is busy making wooden signposts to alert visitors to stunning walks in the forest, via the ruins of a 13th Century fortress desecrated and covered up by the communists in the Fifties.

Now that the local producers believe in Turnbull's business acumen, he's stepping up a gear. 'They're still reeling from the fact that demand now outstrips supply for the thousands of jams and honeys they've been making for Slow Food markets throughout Europe,' he says.

'But now they've seen I was right about selling their produce, they trust me when I tell them people will be fascinated to witness how they live and taste the fruits of their labour by visiting them at home.'

But if you want to immerse yourself in this dreamy Neverland without staying in one of the villages, you can base yourself in Hotel Casa Cu Cerb (where Prince Charles used to stay) in the medieval citadel of Sighisoara. Legend has it that the German children led away by the Pied Piper of Hamelin re-emerged in Sighisoara and it's also home to Casa Dracula, the so-called birthplace of the legendary bloodthirsty Count.

It's easy to while away time visiting churches and defence towers and snooping down the cobbled alleys and corridors of this hilltop settlement. But most spectacular of all are the views from the town's clocktower to the rolling meadows, wooded hills and Carpathian Mountains beyond - the ultimate invitation for exploration.

Getting there

Fundatia Adept (www.fundatia-adept. org) uses Transylvania Uncovered www.beyondthe forest.com or tel 01539 531 258) to handle tour bookings.

A seven-night Saxon village cultural guided tour based at Hotel Casa Cu Cerb in Sighisoara, including meals,costs £905 (based on two people,excluding flights).

A seven-night Saxon village cultural guided tour with two nights at Hotel Casa Cu Cerb and four nights staying with local families, including meals,costs £762 (based on two people,excluding flights).

Stays at the Prince of Wales's Viscri property costs from £925 per week including flights,transfers and cultural tours.

Tours can also be booked on a day basis - transport,guides and food cost £42 a day. Email saschiz@fundatia-adept.org.

British Airways, Tarom and Wizz all operate flights to Bucharest or Targu Mures. Prices vary according to time of booking.