BASKING in the pomp and glory of his stunning, but exhausting, Coronation two weeks ago, King Charles needs a holiday.
And with his immense wealth and royal status, he could unwind anywhere in the world.
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Yet next month Charles will pitch up, as he has done every spring since 1998, at the one place he can truly be himself — a dusty village in the wilds of Romania’s dirt-poor “Dracula country”.
The King — a distant descendant of Romania’s Vlad the Impaler, who inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula — has called the beautiful backwater of Viscri his “second home”.
He loves it so much he has bought at least ten properties in the area — and jokes he has “a stake” in Transylvania.
Journeying to the King’s tranquil retreat and talking to ordinary folk who know him simply as their neighbour spoke volumes about the real Charles yesterday.
Entering the main street at Viscri is like stepping into the 1700s. Gypsy horses and carts rattle along the shingle track, squawking geese squabble, cockerels crow and head-scarfed grannies knit and gossip while farmyard smells fill the air.
Virtually everyone here has met or seen their royal visitor lapping up the sights of the shabby hamlet, where the newest building is from the 19th century.
‘Downed it in one’
Portrait painter Katharine Alecsi, 39, understands the King’s passion for Transylvania as she also fell in love at first sight with Viscri.
She ended her marriage to an Englishman and left her £400,000 one-bed London flat for a ramshackle farmhouse, where she now has four-year-old son Emi with villager Adrian.
She has since taken tea with Charles and gifted him a print of one of her paintings.
Katharine told The Sun: “I was working as a painter in London when I was invited to join other artists on a charity project for Charles in Viscri — and my life changed overnight.
“As soon as I arrived I fell in love with the place and decided to make it my permanent home.
“Now we live in the cool part of the village where all the gypsies stay.”
Katharine, who sells her sometimes surreal works online, joined Charles for tea with a group of artists at another of his Transylvanian retreats — an ancient hillside house in the stunning Zalan Valley.
She said “When I talked to Charles I could tell he was genuinely enchanted by Transylvania, like me, and fascinated by its traditions and its history.
“He is clearly a very kind and sensitive man who has a very deep love of nature, someone who is much more at ease here than in the modern world.
“I gave him a print of one of my works and he seemed genuinely excited to receive it and wanted to know all about it.
“That’s why the Coronation seemed so odd, seeing him with all the trappings of royalty, because that’s not the Charles we see here.
“I watched the Coronation on TV at Charles’s house in Viscri and thought he looked a little stressed and unemotional, not the warm and relaxed man I’ve met. It made me realise why he comes here.”
“We just see a very simple man who clearly wants to get away from all that, to escape.” Viscri factory worker Nicu Gherghiceanu, 73, told how he quaffed homemade “Palinca” schnapps and sour red cherry liqueur with Charles on another of his visits.
His wife Gerda, 69, also invited Charles to sample her selection of homemade jams — and he gave them the royal seal of approval.
The couple, who often see the nature-loving royal strolling around their village, recalled how they were surprised by his warmth at their first meeting eight years ago.
Nicu told The Sun: “I double-distil my schnapps for eight hours and it’s very strong at around 60 per cent proof. Charles seemed to love it.
“I offered him a shot glass when he visited a village fair and he downed it in one then pulled a funny face when the alcohol hit him. It made us laugh.” Retired electrician Gerda said: “I watched the Coronation on TV and was afraid that Charles wouldn’t have time to come back to see us now he’s King.
“It was strange seeing him in all the robes and wearing the crown, because whenever we see him he’s very casually dressed.
“I’m not sure what he’s like when he’s out and about in the UK, but when he’s here he’s always very friendly and is happy to stop and talk to local people.”
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Viscri-born shopkeeper Florin Balica, 62, who runs the Liberoti store and bar on the main street, where the most expensive wine is a £5.20 bottle of white Reisling, has also met Charles.
He said: “I first met him about five years ago and have seen him going on his walks. He does about 6km along the mountain trails outside the village. You wouldn’t think he was anyone important, he’s always very friendly and often stops and talks to people.
“He’s very popular because his love for our way of life has put us on the map and we now see tourists coming.
Few creature comforts
“He also supports us in other ways and even paid for a new sewage system. We have Romania’s biggest septic tank in the village thanks to the King of England!”
When Charles learned Viscri’s sewage system was on the verge of collapse he quietly paid £2million for a new ecological wastewater treatment plant built using reeds plus a new water drainage system.
At Transylvania’s Bran Castle — mythical home of Vlad the Impaler — Marin Bianca, 33, and pals Simona Mouileanu, 34, and 29-year-old Georgeta Voinescue celebrated Charles’s imminent arrival.
Software developer Marin waved a Union Jack and said: “It’s marvellous that Charles is coming back — he’s the King of Transylvania!”
Charles was reported to have first visited the region in 1998 when he was Prince of Wales, but he actually started going as early as 1993, during one of the most difficult periods of his life.
His marriage to Princess Diana had just collapsed — and he found solace in his rural bolthole.
Short annual visits followed as his interest in the wildlife, botany, traditions and local folklore grew until he decided to buy a Viscri property known as The Blue House in 2006. Comprising of powder blue buildings, the property is the biggest in the village and dates back to 1771. It is the polar opposite to royal palaces back home.
Purged of grandeur and opulence, rooms are stark and carpetless, with few creature comforts.
The Blue House was converted into a museum in 2015 and Charles no longer stays there, opting instead for a similarly traditional Transylvanian retreat 90 miles east in the Zalan Valley.
Called HRH Prince Charles Guest House, rooms are rented out to tourists when Charles is not staying there. The property’s website offers bear-tracking trips and botany tours.
The Prince’s Room — where the King will sleep next month — was on offer for a bargain £112-a-night on several dates yesterday. On our visit, we were given a peak inside, which revealed it to be in keeping with the new King’s simple tastes.
An ornate antique oak double bed, matching bedside tables and a writing desk were among the few adornments beneath a crucifix above the bed — presumably to ward off vampires.
The King is expected to stay at the property on June 7.
And he looks certain to continue his love affair with Transylvania for years to come.
He said on his last trip: “It’s the timelessness of it which is so remarkable, almost out of some of those stories one used to read as a child. It’s quite remarkable.
“I have come to know and to love so much about Romania — but there is so much more that I long to explore.”
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