Interview. Count Tibor Kálnoky to put rural Romania on worldwide tourist destination map

Newsroom 09/10/2017 | 11:52

Count Tibor Kálnoky’s passion for restoration and nature connected him to the Prince of Wales himself − it was the Count who indirectly convinced the British heir to the throne that buildings in the village of Valea Zalanului (Covasna) were worth a second chance at life. He now manages Prince Charles’s properties in the area, serves as the Prince’s advisor and trustee of the Prince of Wales Foundation in Romania, as well as running his own tourism business.

 Daniela Oancea

 

What made you come and stay in Romania? You spent most of your youth in the West; was it hard for you to get used to the Romanian ways?

My decision was an emotional one; it was certainly not in order to come and make money. I came to Bucharest in 1997 with a job in the pharmaceutical business and then started renovating houses up in Miclosoara and turning them into guesthouses. Then I quit my job in Bucharest and settled in the village of Kőröspatak (Valea Crişului, Covasna). I’ve lived there ever since with my wife and kids, who studied there until their 9th or 10th grade. However, in the last few years, my kids have been going to school abroad, for their International Baccalaureate Diploma Program. To be honest, my wife is from here and that was of enormous help, in the sense that I was raised in a way that everything was either black or white. You ask a question and receive an answer and you can go with that. Here, in Romania, it is a bit different. You need much more to interpret situations, as there is more grey in each case. However, there are fantastic opportunities for everyone.

 

Was it you who convinced Charles, Prince of Wales, to buy a property in Valea Zalanului (Zalanpatak), Transylvania? When did the two of you meet?

I think it was him. He showed a lot of interest in Romania from the very start. He gave a famous speech in England in 1988 denouncing Ceausescu’s systematization plan. (Thousands of villages were to be literally destroyed and replaced by agro-industrial centers). It was one of the Prince’s early, almost political speeches he gave, and he was one of the very few back then to denounce Ceausescu’s political action. At the end of the 90s, he was invited to make an official visit, he went to see the countryside, and he fell in love with it. He’s been coming back regularly ever since. We met after he started to come to Romania and then later he decided to get a property here. I didn`t need to convince him; he wanted a place of his own in Romania, and when he saw what we had done in Miclosoara, he wanted to share the concept. He purchased a house in Viscri, which has since become the base for his foundation in Romania, and then in Valea Zalanului, for his own use. These are the only two properties His Royal Highness owns outside of Great Britain.

 

Has the Kálnoky Foundation succeeded so far in its objective to protect, restore and promote the multiethnic cultural heritage of Transylvania?

These are ongoing tasks; they never end. I think that one milestone will be the restoration of Miclosoara castle, which was a huge project and has just recently been completed. It was done with the help of EEA grants from Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Romania, and with the foundation’s funds that we had to raise. We have a nice cultural objective now in Miclosoara with the establishment of the Museum of Transylvanian Life at the castle, which will attract a large number of tourists, a broader public. Up to now Miclosoara and Valea Zalanului have attracted well traveled foreigners from abroad, as a niche market. However, through these VIPs, the whole country benefited from a positive image; it was more PR for the country than local tourism. We have been in the foreign press a lot, and we contributed to putting rural Romania on the worldwide tourist destination map. I can say that the repercussions of our activities are larger in terms of Romania`s image than just locally.

 

Was it a Kálnoky who set up Transylvania’s first glassworks in the 16th century and imported craftsmen from Bohemia and Murano, creating a village in the forest? Could this activity be revived?

Yes, that was in Valea Zalanului where the Prince of Wales now has his property. This property belonged to the former overseer of that manufacturing business. It has since ceased to exist; it could now be revived as an artisan workshop but not as a functioning glass factory. We are now supporting some craftsmen in the village, mainly a cheese maker, a carpenter, etc. But the village population is small, about 100 people. You wanted to know if I stayed in Romania throughout the year, and now you see why. We have so many activities: the restoration projects, the guesthouses; we organize riding treks and riding tours. We had a visitor group recently come all the way from Australia, who stayed with us for ten days, and we had five days of riding. They were absolutely in heaven. It’s very rewarding for us when people come from so far away and love the experience. And then we have a social project which is spectacular, and time-consuming – teaching Roma children how to ride and practice equestrian vaulting. We thought about those kids and what they would like to do and we tried with the horses and they happened to be the most talented at equestrian vaulting. It is also very rewarding for us; it sends a very nice message – they achieve things that not everybody can do. You see that little gipsy kid; at first you expect him to beg, but instead he transforms himself into a gymnast, an acrobat, doing things that we could never do, and that makes one think twice.

Our guesthouses in Valea Zalanului were pretty busy this year, though we do not practice mass tourism. Our offer is for the well-travelled individual. Ours is not the typical tourist-pension or hotel, where you get a key and everything is standard, but nothing special. Our offer is more like an experience. People have described the experience as one from an Agatha Christie novel, but hopefully without the murder! It’s more like a 19th century atmosphere. Our visitors tend to be educated, outgoing, open minded, and they get on together and dine together like in a Christie novel. The atmosphere is the same. It’s not about luxury, but more about an authentic experience, of being in a place off the beaten track.

 

How has your role changed in relation to the Prince of Wales and his foundation?

In the first decade of his visits, the Prince of Wales came to Romania just on holiday; then he got more and more involved, deciding to purchase his own property, those in Valea Zalanului and Viscri, and then he also became aware that he could help. That’s why he started to speak publicly about Romania, started to speak to the local press, opened his house as a guesthouse, and finally decided to create his own foundation here – the Prince of Wales’s Foundation in Romania. I am a trustee in his foundation. Its activities in Viscri were developed along with his property in the center of the village, and it has become the seat of his foundation. There are a lot of activities happening there, workshops mainly, training sessions, education, supporting the locals in learning traditional, but also new trades and skills. Every year we have almost a dozen different training courses and workshops for locals and with people from abroad, and it works very well. Everyone is welcome and there are some activities you don’t even have to pay for. Anyone can apply for free participation.

Our concept is simple. We want to make it possible for everyone in the villages to make a living, and to continue their life here, to help stop the exodus from rural Romania. It’s not magic what has to happen to make people stay; they just have to be able to earn higher incomes. For that, we think that tourism is very important; obviously factories are not going to be built in rural places with small populations – so the right type of tourism could help people earn extra income. Most of them make a living from their farm, but it’s not enough. And now that they can go anywhere to work, they can go to Germany or France, where they could make much more money, they have to get extra income to stay. Tourism and crafts and agricultural products of higher quality are all solutions.

 

Tibor Kálnoky

Also a Knight of the Order of St John, he returned to Transylvania after the fall of communism, trying to connect with an 800-year family history. He fell in love with the place, sought restitution of the expropriated family property in Székely and has since dedicated himself to supporting the conservation and revitalization of Transylvania’s natural and cultural heritage.

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