Every child knows the story of the The Grimm Brothers fairy tale "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". Everyone saw the cartoons also and sometimes played with the characters. But one thing we, as kids, didn't pay much attention was the actual Seven Dwarfs' home, the place where they lived.
But some people in Romania, an Eastern European country, did pay attention and TravelGeni.com, a travel-related website, got a view of a wonderful project being built back there!
If you look to re-create the beloved fairy tale experience in real life, or have your kids re-creating it, now there is a way to do it in real life (not some virtual reality thing).
The name of the castle-like construction (still in the works but it will be finished soon) is “Castelul de Lut Valea Zanelor” (in Romanian) which means “The Clay Castle from the Valley of the Fairies” in English.
TravelGeni.com has talked to the owner and he gave up some details about this project.
The owners - Razvan Vasile and his wife Gabriela - started to build it in 2014 (after selling their own home near the Romanian capital - Bucharest) and now it seems it is close to be finished. The owner being artists (singers) didn't exactly know how to built it so they enrolled the architect Ileana Mavrodin, who specialized in these kind of constructions (this is not her first project).
The castle will have 10 rooms, each of them with separate entrance, for privacy. The construction is built using clay, wood, sand, stone and hay. All mixed together (clay, sand, hay), making it 100% organic built with no modern finish touches like paint, varnish or even air conditioning (heating is done the old way: fire in the pit).
The castle will have 10 rooms, each of them with separate entrance, for privacy. The construction is built using clay, wood, sand, stone and hay. All mixed together (clay, sand, hay), making it 100% organic built with no modern finish touches like paint, varnish or even air conditioning (heating is done the old way: fire in the pit).
There is also a river flowing nearby.
It will even have a restaurant, serving organic local food, and by the end of the year this lodge will be able to welcome its first guests and that will help in recovering the several hundreds dollars owners invested in this project.
The place where this is built is near Fagaras Mountains, which can be seen in the distance. Fagaras Mountains (part of the Carpathian Mountains range) is the home of the second highest peak in Romania: Varfu Negoiu (8,317 feet – 2535 meters).
“Porumbacu de Sus” is the village nearby of this castle and is about 24 miles away (40 km) from the city of Sibiu – a 45 minutes drive. Sibiu is one of the most beautiful cities in Romania.
Fagaras Mountains are also the home of the “best road in the world” – named Transfagarasan – as Jeremy Clarkson said in his show “Top Gear” (2009) – 15 minutes drive east from “Porumbacu de Sus” village.
I only wonder how this place will look after a heavy snow and getting that touch of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". I guess we have to wait until the winter comes.
TravelGeni.com let me use the pictures for this post.
TravelGeni.com let me use the pictures for this post.
More info: valeazanelor.ro
“The Clay Castle from the Valley of the Fairies” (Porumbacu de Sus, Sibiu-Romania)
