Baron Samuel von Brukenthal, Habsburg
\ngovernor of Transylvania, lawyer and art collector, lived between 1721 and 1803
\nand is today known mostly as the owner of the building in Sibiu, central Romania,
\nthat houses the first public museum in south-eastern Europe and one of the
\nearliest on the continent. In fact, his extensive collection formed the core of
\nwhat is today known as the Brukenthal Palace museum. <\/p>\n
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But there exists another Brukenthal
\npalace, lesser-known but just as significant from an historical and
\narchitectural point of view, namely the baron’s summer residence in Avrig.
\nLocated 26 km from Sibiu, Avrig lies at the foot of the Fagaras Mountains, in
\nthe Olt River valley. The home town of Gheorghe Lazar, the founder of modern
\neducation in Romania, Avrig was the choice of baron von Brukenthal for building
\na summer residence consisting in a big and comfortable manor house and gardens
\nso beautiful that they were often referred to as the Transylvanian Eden and
\nthe fountain of health. <\/p>\n
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Corina Combei, an event manager at
\nthe Brukenthal Palace in Avrig, tells us more about the history of the place
\nwhere the baron and his family used to spend their summers:<\/p>\n
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Building works on the palace began
\naround 1783, but it took a while to finish the construction of the residence
\nand the gardens. The entire grounds cover 15.5 hectares. The layout reflected
\nthe baron’s exact wishes. The residence consists of three parts, namely the
\nmain building, which stands out for its architecture, and two wings on one
\nlevel. The palace affords a wide panoramic view of the gardens and the river
\nplain in the distance, and the gardens appear to be stretching for miles and
\nmiles, an optical illusion which was very much in tune with the late Baroque
\nstyle. A majestic staircase on different levels, a fountain, various structures
\nand ornaments placed geometrically and the alleys all lead to the gardens,
\nwhich are located 12 metres lower than the palace. To the east of the palace,
\non sloping ground, we find the English garden, which is smaller than the French
\ngarden and is crossed by winding paths, with little nooks where you could catch
\nyour breath and which were signalled at the time by small decorative objects. A
\nDutch garden was initially located in front of the orangerie, where all kinds
\nof fruits and vegetables were grown, as well as exotic plants. It is a well-known
\nfact that the baron was the first to bring pineapples, lemons, coffee and
\nnutmeg to Transylvania. Another peculiar thing about the grounds is that they
\nalso contain an animal farm. The baron had both an orchard and a vegetable
\ngarden and was also breeding animals, his intention being to make the entire
\nestate independent economically.<\/p>\n
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The palace in Avrig has undergone
\nvarious alterations in time. Its interior architecture saw the biggest changes
\nas the palace was transformed into a sanatorium. Its exterior, however, has
\nremained unchanged since the time of baron Samuel von Brukenthal, including the
\norangerie, where we can still find today decorative elements dating from the
\ntime of the baron, Corina Combei explains:<\/p>\n
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The baroque style has been
\npreserved since 1908 as much as possible. In effect, there have been no
\nalterations to its architectural style. But some changes have been made over
\ntime. During the communist period, the palace was turned into a sanatorium and
\na maternity hospital, so the rooms were adapted to meet the new functions.
\nAfter 1990, however, the whole estate went back to its initial concept, that of
\na historical building. We preserve the style of late Baroque, including in the
\ncase of the gardens, and try to keep alive the memory of the place as much as
\npossible and the spirit in which it was built by baron von Brukenthal.<\/p>\n
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After being nationalised when the
\ncommunist party came to power in Romania after WWII, the estate in Avrig was
\nreturned to private hands post-1990, and has since been managed by the Samuel
\nvon Brukenthal Foundation, on behalf of the Evangelical Church Council in
\nAvrig. Currently in urgent need of restoration, the Brukenthal estate in Avrig
\ncould well become a centre for the arts and culture and for landscape art.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The late 18th c. summer residence of baron Samuel von Brukenthal, the Habsburg governor of Transylvania, is open to visitors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":169377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[45548,31646],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-169376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-avrig","tag-brukenthal"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n