ROMANIA

Sirnea- a Romanian village from another time

-In the foothills of the mountains of Piatra Craiului there are a lot of hidden treasures of the Romanian village from another time.

The small settlement of Șirnea in Brasov county, located at the foot of the Piatra Craiului Massif, is the first tourist village in Romania. Şirnea is a place where the traditions are part of the daily routine,while the locals are happy to keep them alive and share them with those who come and visit. The first thing that strikes you when you step into Şirnea is the scenery. Situated at an altitude of 1244 meters, the village seems to be detached from a dragon movie or from a documentary on Discovery. Afterwards, tourists are generally captured by the atmosphere of the place, totally different from the modern daily routine, an atmosphere well maintained by the locals, who have the experience of almost 5 decades of rural tourism.

-Sirnea is offering the tourist the specific visual pleasure of mountain regions, but also the recreational comfort of a peaceful, quiet village with hospitable households.

-Currently in Sirnea live together 276 villagers.

-Unlike other mountain villages, Sirnea has its houses far from one another, being built on separate hills.

-The architecture is a weird one, the houses were built hundreds of years ago, defining a very old, traditional environment.

-The roads are also keeping their old aspects, being made out of gravel, composing a bizarre road network, thereby one road ends splitting in more, probably signifying the hotpoints of the other times

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-At Sirnea is organized annually "winter at Sirnea" and  National Ski Contest "Sirnea cup".

Two other feasts were set on track to attract tourists: “The measure of the Milk and the meeting of the village lads” held every June and “Winter at Șirnea” displaying the villagers’ customs and traditions both in summer and in winter and also offering a torch-handed skiing race and sleigh rides.

In the Night of Fairies   ceremony that has become customary in Sirnea, the tourists are invited to collect flowers from the hills in the area and participate in a ritual designed to give flowers magical powers. The Milk Measure is a traditional celebration where all the cows in the village are milked and tourists are served with dairy products, are invited to participate in traditional dances and to learn pastoral games.

Finally Semedru’s Fire is a celebration dedicated to autumn, when tourists are served products specific to the period, and in the evening the villagers gather around a large fire, maintained by the youngsters in the village. The remaining charcoal is taken home by the villagers and buried in the garden to fertilize the vegetables and fruits that are to be planted.

The potential of the area also attracted real estate developers, but not everyone agrees with the idea, the specificity is the authenticity of the village