MICLOSOARA, Romania - There is only one count in this remote Transylvanian village of 512 souls nestling in the wilds of the Carpathian Mountains - and it isn't Count Dracula.
Count Tibor Kalnoky, a former veterinarian who grew up in France and Germany, moved back to the ancestral home after the fall of communism in 1989. In the last few years he has created one of Romania's most successful tourist ventures out of his ancestral hunting manor - and has counted Britain's Prince Charles among his guests.
Kalnoky's manor, which opened in 2001, lies deep in southern Transylvania, an area where myth and reality are loosely entwined. But you'll hardly hear a word here about Dracula, the Romanian warlord Vlad the Impaler or Bram Stoker's novels. Instead Kalnoky lures guests with the old world of Transylvanian customs.
Many visitors come from Britain and the United States to feast on tasty fare of pork or chicken stew, mashed potato tinged pink by paprika, home-baked cakes served by women dressed in traditional old Hungarian costume. Dinner is washed down with red Romanian wine and guests are warmed by a roaring log fire in the wine cellar before snuggling into decades-old goose eiderdowns in rooms decorated faithfully in the style of the Szeklers - the ethnic Hungarian minority to which Kalnoky belongs.
Take a hike in the hills and you may come across bears and wolves. Bird lovers can look out for eagles, black storks and woodpeckers. You can also travel in a horse and cart for a mountain picnic, cycle to nearby Transylvanian towns or and visit the Kalnoky family hunting lodge. Just north of Miclosoara, there is the cave where the legendary Pied Piper lured the children of Hamelin.
When visitors return to the manor at sundown for dinner, they are serenaded by Szekler music in the soft green drawing room, with antique furniture and dark wooden floors. It's low-key and relaxing.
Kalnoky is modest about his success and the rave reviews he's received over the past few years for his manor and smaller guest houses, which can host a maximum of 20 people. "It's all very unpretentious," says Kalnoky, sipping caraway brandy that is on tap at every moment for the guests.
Article by Alison Mutler, The Associated Press
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