Apafi Manor - The home of the nobles

Apafi Manor - The home of the nobles

Above the small village of Malancrav, right next to the stronghold Evangelical church with beautiful Gothic murals, the Apafi Manor has, since 2007, been receiving guests in its exemplarily restored rooms, becoming a standard for the recovery and protection of local heritage architecture. This is due to the initiative of the Mihai Eminescu Trust which, in 2000, with the help of the local community, took over the decayed building, previously owned by the state during the Communist period, and started an ample process of recovery, involving experts from many fields.

After discovering, in the archives of the Hungarian state, several detailed inventories that marked the changes brought to the Malancrav estate between 1679 and 1778, German architect Jan Hulsemann and contractors Fritz Klutsch and Ernst Linzing brought the manor back to its original 18th century aspect, using traditional techniques and materials. Once the architecture and finishes were restored, British designer David Mlinaric was in charge of the interior design, respecting the same spirit: most of the objects inside the rooms of the manor – weave work, lace work, furniture pieces and ironware – are of local provenience, either originally found inside the manor, or brought from the nearby villages.

The five generous rooms, each with its own bathroom, as well as the kitchen, elegantly combine traditional furniture pieces with more modern ones, using a soft, natural colour scheme. Nevertheless, the library remains the central space of the manor. Here, the decorative frieze was re-painted by two British artists and the interior design includes furniture pieces, books and paintings, most of them donated by Mrs. Ilinca Bossy.

Malancrav, Sibiu, Romania