Brukenthal Palace - Orangery And Garden

Today I'm exited to be the first to pin another location on the map that has never been pinned before. The place is called Avrig, which is a very small town in Sibiu County, Transylvania, Romania. Demographically speaking, this tiny town's inhabitants are mixed, 95.6% Romanians, 2.1% Hungarians, 1.5% Roma and 0.5% Germans, according to the 2011's census. The German name of the town is Freck, while in Hungarian it's called Felek.

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The town is famous for the Brukenthal Palace, which was the summer palace of Samuel von Brukenthal, who was none other than the Habsburg governor of the Grand Principality of Transylvania, and also a personal advisor of Empress Maria Theresa. Samuel von Brukentha had a palace in Sibiu as well, that is functioning as a museum now and there's a school in Avrig that was named after the baron.

The palace was built in 1771 in baroque style. It has been renovated recently and offers accommodation, for tourists who want to spend some time in the residence, but is also a place where you can have a wedding or any other family event.

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How To Get There

The town is situated on the European road 68, the palace is in the middle of the town, the address is str. Gheorghe Lazar no. 39, you can't miss it. It has a big parking lot and parking is for free. However, there's an entrance fee which is around €4 for adults and €2 for kids and pensioners.

To have an idea about how big the property is, here's a map for you, that you can check out on the wall of the palace. There's a QR code that leads you to the website of the palace, where you have all the information you need. As you can see on the map, the property is quite big.

Orangery

The Orangery, that serves now as restaurant and can host different events from conferences to small family gatherings, was once a real orangery. Samuel von Brukenthal built it to grow orange trees and other exotic plants that could not grow in open air as the Transylvanian climate is not suitable for that. The tall windows were needed for the plants to get the necessary light. Today the building looks very stylish, it's the proof of a non existent era.

At the time of our visit, the restaurant was closed due to the covid-19 pandemic but they were serving outside at the terrace.

You could sit down here to enjoy a cold beer, a coffee or to serve a traditional Transylvanian lunch.

The annoying and never ending scene you see wherever you go. Mask under the chin! No comment!

The Menu

The menu deserves special attention as it's rather interesting. In places like this there's always the question of what they are serving and what should we have? Because this is a historical place with 250 years of history, one may expect to find a special menu. I would. So here it is the menu for you.

Unfortunately the menu is only in Romanian, which is a shame as many foreigners are visiting the place each year, so it should be on English and German too at least. Lucky you, I can translate it for you :)

Soups and Snacks

1. Autumn cream soup - The first one is called Autumn cream soup and it says it's made of two type of mushroom grown in the garden of the palace.

2. Beef Soup - Beef soup is traditional in Romania, but this is made based on a recipe found in the cellar of the palace.

3. Tripe Soup - This is also traditional in Romania, that divides people. Some love it, others hate it. I like it but not every soup is good though. The menu says the recipe is from our old Wallachians. Wallachia is a region of Romania, situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. This soup was once the cheapest and was the meal of the poorest, usually drivers were having this soup. Now it's almost the most expensive one.

4. Mushroom Duet - This is a very funny dish. It's basically a mushroom stew served with sour cream and mamaliga, which outside Romania is called cpolenta. You can choose between a smaller and a bigger one, and the menu says it's based on the the lusts of the baron's guests.

5. The guest platter - This is another interesting one as it is for 2 to 4 people and weights almost 1kg, it's 900g, in other words it's huge. It contains Italian, French, Romanian sausages, pepperoni, ham, cheese, vegetables, toast with garlic etc. I'd love to have one one day.

**Salads **

This is where the menu goes really international. You can have Vienna, Munich, Cesar (which is Greek), Nicoise, Greek and Brukenthal. The latter is made of veggies from their own garden.

I love the menu, it really honors the place. I was very glad to see this menue served here. The biggest disappointment that can happen is to go to a place like this and find dishes that have nothing to do with the place or region. Imagine finding hot dog or sushi here, instead of the traditional food. I'm sure you can have those too if you pre-order but the main idea is to serve tradtitional food.

Specialties Of The Empire

Obviously it refers to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. You can choose from Serbian burger, pork chop with polenta, Maria Theresa Viennese schnitzel, Franz Josef Tapelspitz, plateau of Baron Brukenthal, brick chicken from Zagreb. You have most of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's kitchen present here. All these sound very good, I bet these are all wonderful, but the last one, the brick chicken from Zagreb is worth mentioning as it's a chicken marinated with Balkan herbs for 48 hours and then cooked on a hob and pressed with a brick.

The whole menu is like the examples I gave you above. I don't know how much is true of what they say, but it sounds extremely good. The prices are a bit high as they can afford it. There's no other option like this in the area.

Unfortunately this building looked far from what it should be. A good restoration would be needed here.

Events

This is the view from the hill, where the palace is situated. At the time of our visit, there was a mountain bike competition and what you see on the photo above is the award ceremony.

This is a 300 year old establishment, built by a nobleman, a baron, that's why it has all you need in the summer. These stairs take you down from the castle to the garden and the Orangery. At the bottom of the stairs there's a fountain, which was not working at the time of our visit, but I bet it looks nice and refreshes the air, giving the necessary humidity for the plants to remain green.

Opposite to the orangery there was a tent set up with tables and chairs, for a baptism ceremony. The park is big enough for more than one event. You can have your desired privacy here, even if there are other events going on.

Normally there are social events organized here, concerts, fashion shows, sports events etc. I bet this year there was a shortage in these events as most of them were cancelled at the beginning of the year. Let's hope life in the palace can return to normal soon and locals and guests can enjoy both the events and the beauty of the place.

A Place For The People

Transylvania has a rich cultural history. There are many medieval fortresses, palaces, castles, no matter where you go, you find one in your way. The good thing is most of them managed to resist the two world wars and the damages caused by the communist regime. Most of these places are protected and given back to the public. Some are functioning as museums, giving people the opportunity to learn bout history by visiting these places, while others are hosting cultural events that unite people. If you ask me, this is the right path that we have to follow.

This place went through a lot over the 250 years of existence. In 1999 the land was acquired by the Samuel von Brukenthal foundation and now they are running the place.

This is only the first part of my post, the next one will be about the palace and the exhibitions that were held at the time of our visit. Stay tuned as it's going to be interesting.

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