"A great honor": Transylvania is delighted to welcome from Saturday King Charles III, who has chosen this picturesque region of Romania for his first trip abroad since the splendor of the coronation.
Arrived Friday in the capital Bucharest without his wife Camilla, the sovereign quickly took the direction of these places with the timeless atmosphere having won his heart just 25 years ago.
Dan Spataru, who officiates at the town hall of one of Charles' favorite villages, did not expect him to return anytime soon.
"Now that he is king, we thought that the rules of protocol would not allow him to visit us," he told AFP, touched by the arrival of Charles III shortly after the London festivities began. may.
"By this gesture, he shows us his affection," he said.
Charles III will first taste the tranquility of his property in Valea Zalanului, before meeting the inhabitants of Viscri, 100 km away, on Tuesday.
Attracted by its few dirt streets, its horse-drawn carriages and its brightly colored houses, Charles bought his first house there in 2006, which has now been transformed into a small museum dedicated to his passion for botany.
On each visit - the last was in May 2022 - "he is pleasant and open", says Mr. Spataru, who is full of praise. "Like another man, he relaxes here, he likes to walk in nature".
This "intimate link" with Romania, where he feels at home, Charles III described it again on Friday during a reception at the presidential palace in Bucharest.
He prides himself on being a distant relative of a 15th-century prince known as Vlad the Impaler, who inspired the character Count Dracula, and he has, in his own words, "Transylvania in his blood. ".
After his discovery of the region in 1998, this convinced ecologist became an ardent protector of these villages in the heart of Romania founded in the 12th century by Saxon settlers.
Between the ravages of the regime of former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and the negligence of local authorities in this poor and corrupt country, many of them were condemned to disappearance before the mobilization of Charles.
Several heritage rehabilitation projects have emerged under his leadership, accompanied by a boom in tourism.
The king should also take advantage of his visit to Viscri to take stock of the initiatives underway in this hamlet of 400 souls dominated by a fortified church, according to Alexandru Toader, owner of a guest house.
The 37-year-old resident, who has put up posters for the occasion, also hopes to get the king's support to convince local authorities to ban cars from the village.
If he welcomes the arrival of the sovereign, Mr. Toader regrets the strengthening of protective measures. In the past, he recalls, "Charles could roam the streets freely or venture into the green hills to explore all sorts of plant species that have disappeared elsewhere in Europe."
This time, the atmosphere is quite different: Mr. Toader had to answer a host of questions from the Romanian services, in particular on the profile of his customers, who are numerous at this time of year.
"Security has been expanded, it's more formal," also regrets Dan Spataru.
However, there is no question of swapping conviviality for a stuffy welcome.
"It will be a unique moment for our community to receive the king, a sign of recognition of the work carried out during all these years", underlines Caroline Fernolend, president of the Mihai Eminescu Trust foundation dedicated to the protection of the Transylvanian heritage and long placed under the sponsorship of Charles.
And to respond to this honor, the village has bet on simplicity: no big ceremony is planned, no banner is deployed.
"We're not going to dress up, beautify the place, what's the point? The beauty is already there, all around us," she smiles.
03/06/2023 08:13:44 - Valea Z?lanului (Romania) (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
