luxury property for sale Sibiu, Romania

In a gentle valley, between Copșa Mare and Sighișoara, there is a Saxon settlement created by worthy people who built decent houses, nicely aligned with the main street. Proud, with a pitched roof and stuck together by opaque gates firmly fixed in the masonry, they can be seen from above like those Dutch ceramic houses brought as souvenirs from some Nordic holiday. Between these houses there is a beautifully renovated compound, a handful of buildings surrounding an inner courtyard with short grass and slight bumps reminiscent of childhood weed. The tile roof in a myriad of shades - brick, chocolate, orange, scarlet - is proof of the attention paid to the use of building materials specific to the area, patiently identified and carefully installed to the delight of the eye and the soul. On the street, the façade has a restrained color scheme, but the houses in the courtyard have whitewashed walls to let the sky be reflected in the shutters; however, the houses are modestly elegant, as befits Saxon dwellings. The interior is bright and the cellar, composed of rooms that communicate with each other, takes your breath away - vaulted, made of brick, it is more than generous and full of potential. The property consists of three distinct residential buildings situated on a 3756 sqm plot of land. The main house, built in 1884 and recently completely renovated with great taste and a passion for authenticity, has a footprint of 344 sqm and a total floor area of 527 sqm. The ground floor is fully furnished and equipped with careful attention to preserving and enhancing the building's character. The cellar is spectacular and invites the imagination to consider various uses: a noble wine cellar, a spa area reminiscent of top hotels, or a special relaxation zone. The second building has a footprint of 356 sqm, is entirely on the ground floor, and is currently a blank canvas, allowing the future owner the opportunity to transform it according to their preferences and the intended use of the property. Additionally, there is a separate annex building of 43 sqm currently used as a laundry facility. The area lends itself to rural tourism, as the fortified churches of Copșa Mare, Biertan and Mediaș (whose picturesque center combines Gothic with Renaissance, Neoclassical, Baroque and Secession styles), the tuberoses of Hoghilag (festival in August), Via Transilvanica, the famous Viscri and the beautiful fortress Rupea as well as the medieval fortress Sighișoara and the Bethlen Criș castle are just some of the sights that attract more and more tourists to the area.

Somewhere in Muntenia, on the Doamnei river valley, about halfway between Curtea de Arges and Campulung, in the Domnesti commune, there is a discreet property that, with its exposed brick pillars, brown wooden shutters and large flagstone paving, reminds a little of Tuscan houses. Those that, like this one, grow young trees in oversized pots, have terrace furniture of an essentialized rustic and trellises with red flowers, in our case geraniums. The river stone fence ensures the property has privacy. The house belonged to Dr. Teja Papahagi, an exceptional doctor and outstanding personality of the time, a man with a vast culture, full of initiative and organizational spirit. He gave his heart to the commune he loved and served throughout his life. Teja Papahagi was the son of Pericle Papahagi, born from the Aromanian nobility, but also from the princely lineage of the Bessarabians, being the one who founded, in Domneşti, a modern hospital with city utilities, a cultural society aimed at bringing the princely history back into focus. The street on which the house is located bears his name, and opposite is the hospital where he served his entire career. The house is on one level, having an almost imperceptibly raised foundation and a low roof supported by brick pillars. It is set back from the street and surrounded by ornamental trees and shrubs, contorted, wild, overgrown with ivy and an untamed vegetation that creates an atmosphere of vague solitude and interiorization. The house itself confirms the hypothesis - the libraries and the pieces of art that dominate the rooms determine the intensity of the natral light; there’s need for control because on the shelves there are old books of specialized literature in Aromanian, Romanian and French, plus writings and manuscripts of the owner’s father, the Aromanian linguist, philologist and folklorist Pericle Papahagi, the author of the first thorough studies on the Romanian Megleno group. In fact, the house, built of brick in 1959 to impeccable standards even today, has an office where the globe, carefully chosen decorative ceramics, lighting fixtures, the pipe resting on the leather map, the watercolors on the walls and the collection of rocks are elements that speak of the existence of an intellectual who sometimes slept here, surrounded by his passions. The living room still seems to carry the echo of the last conversations around the jewel-stove, made of tiles spectacularly decorated with lapis lazuli. The bedrooms have a sober air, softened by the carved wood of the furniture pieces such as the mirror or the wardrobe, or by the lively motifs of the fabrics - carpets, curtains, duvets and pillows. The kitchen keeps a wonderful old cooking machine with a hood between the walls paneled in the chocolate wood of the house. From the back terrace of the house one enters a small room full of books, a perfect place where one can retire to read in the summer. In the generous yard behind the house, there are outbuildings built in the same period. The attention to detail is overwhelming and visible right from the entrance - the door is made of wood, with a forged iron model like a broken embroidery, and the door knob is also a small artistic object, everything being perfectly integrated into the concept of the house. Heating is done with terracotta stoves; the property has running water from its own source, sewerage and electricity while street water and gas can be accessed from the street points.

The castle was built during the 17th century by Gyulay Ferencz, an Austrian general, the only child of Hungarian nobleman Gyulay Ignacz. Ferencz built the mansion on the site of a smaller building. The general’s family ruled the town called Mintia, that was renamed Marosnemeti, a term derived from the Hungarian word nemet, that translates to German. Several descendants of the Gyulay family lived at the castle. Historical documents from 1806 state that the Mintia mansion was owned at that time by Gyulay Istvan, followed by Albert and K.R Gyulay. Countess Gyulay of Mintia, who married Ladislau Kuun of Osdola, later inherited the domain together with her brother, Ludovic. In 1848, the Gyulay family took refuge at Cluj and, after the revolution, Ludovic, Ladislau Kuun, his wife Constance, and their children, Irene and Geza, returned to Mintia. Ludovic was the last heir of the Gyulay family. He wrote over 100 journals about the mansion and about Mintia. All of them are preserved at the Cluj-Napoca history museum. Ludovic Gyulay modified the building in 1834, giving it the shape it has today. Ludovic Gyulay never got married and, therefore, never had any heirs. His fortune was inherited by his brother-in-law, Ladislau Kuun, followed by his son, Geza Kuun. Geza studied Hungarian and German literature at the Universities of Budapest and Gottingen, and was a member and vice president of the Budapest Academy of Sciences. He was part of Vienna’s elite social circles, and became friends with the famous composer Franz Liszt – one of the most prominent pianists of all time. It was then that he also met writer Elena Ghica – daughter of Mihai Ghica, niece of Grigore Ghica the 4th, and the first woman to have climbed the Mont Blanc peak, on June 1st 1860. After 1870, Geza Kunn settled at Mintia and married Vilma Kemeny, the daughter of baron Kemeny of Magyar-Gyeno Monosto. His presence here transformed the town into a gathering place for eminent representatives of the cultural and scientific scenes, which included V. Zakrzewski – professor at the Cracovia University, Al. Szilagyi – secretary of the Historical Society, baron Balazs Orban, A. Szecsen –Imperial Court marchal. The beauty of the mansion located on the bank of Mureș River was also admired by the president of the Archeological Society – Solyon Fekete, the director of the Deva History Museum – Teglas Gabor, and by scientist Samuel Brassay – regarded as Transylvania’s last polymath. The immense library of the Mintia Castle and the salon, decorated with family portraits and precious objects, were visited by prefect George Pogany, subprefect Coloman Barcsay, count Coloman Esterhazy – director of the Transylvania Museum, by Otto von Keller – professor at the University of Prague, Zsolt Beothy – professor at the Budapest University, and by Norwegian scientist Conrad Nielsen. Baron Miklos Josika also traveled from Brănişca to Mintia, either on foot, by car, or on horseback. He also traveled by boat on Mureş River in order to admire the park that surrounded the castle. The rare species of plants and trees that embellished the park were mesmerizing. Count Kuun named the trees after the most important Hungarian writers, many of whom had been his friends. One of the trees, for example, bore the name of Attila, in the memory of Attila Gerando. Amid the rose bushes, the visitor could also discover numerous honorary or mortuary shrines. Geza Kuun died in 1905, on April 10th, and was entombed at Cluj. Legend has it that, although the body of count Geza was inhumed at Cluj, his heart was buried in the cemetery of the Mintia Reformed Church, alongside other members of his family and former owners of the castle. The Mintia domain, that comprises the castle and the park, is classed as a historical monument of national and universal importance, class A.