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Zabola Estate blog

Between the 19th and the 21st of June 2023, at the Zabola Estate in Transylvania, Romania, LSE IDEAS in cooperation with the Roy Chowdhury – Mikes Foundation have organized a symposium on the ongoing Russia – China partnership and its impact on Europe and the wider world. This event was designed to create a space for debate on the geopolitical actions and…

Transylvania was made famous by Bram Stoker but the region’s real history and medieval villages are much more interesting than Dracula. Machine House Romania. Blood red … Machine House, Transylvania. The full moon draws lines of silver around the gloomy power stations on the plains outside Bucharest. Over the Carpathian mountains, the road twists alarmingly…

A castle in the Carpathian mountains with a turbulent history has been restored by the original family owners. The Zabola Estate’s wrought-iron gates swing open and an avenue of chestnut trees stretches before me. Beyond them lies a serene Transylvanian landscape of rolling hills lakes and gardens surrounding a grand yellow-ochre castle…

In a Europe that is becoming increasingly homogeneous, the mountains, forests and villages of Transylvania in Romania remain the last outpost of a more ancient era. Romanians, Saxons and Hungarians live in a patchwork of simple farming villages, drawing water from wells, living by near-subsistence agriculture and artisanal work.