We recorded the material for our next episode of the “Holistic Heritage: On The Road” series while travelling across Romania and Bulgaria! Katarzyna Jagodzińska and John Beauchamp from the Europa Nostra Heritage Hub in Kraków collected the sites and sounds of south-eastern Europe’s heritage with a microphone in hand. Where did their trail lead them?
After visiting Tășuleasa Social and hiking a part of the Via Transilvanica (more about this in another episode: link), their next stop is the charming village of Viscri. This place is known for its fortified church—one of the seven sites in Transylvania inscribed on the UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 1999! Viscri also gained fame thanks to the British royal family when Prince Charles (now King Charles III) bought a house there in 2006 and became an advocate of the region’s rich cultural heritage.
After a short lunch break south of Bucharest, Kasia and John cross the Friendship Bridge into Bulgaria. In Veliko Tarnovo—one of the oldest cities in Bulgaria, proud of its five-thousand-year history—they discover the ruins of the medieval fortress Tsarevets. Driven by hunger, they head to the Pavlikeni market to literally taste Bulgaria.
The next stop on their journey is the mountains near Varna, home to the Madara Rider or Madara Horseman. This monumental rock relief depicts a rider who has witnessed Balkan history for over a thousand years! The relief was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979. After a short stay at Camping Kosmos in Durankulak, they return to Romania towards the Danube Delta and stopped in the coastal town of Tulcea. Only briefly, as their next significant destination is the Humor Monastery in Bukovina. For this place, they cross the Carpathians. In one of the most beautiful historical regions of south-eastern Europe, they explore the monastery with a painted church from the first half of the 16th century, also listed by UNESCO.
But they always want more! On the way back, they visit the National Museum of the Village in Bucharest, where they stroll through Romania’s most famous open-air museum, planning the next “On The Road” episode.