Wonders of Maramures: Breb, the place where old houses come back to life

"I believe that eternity was born in the village," said the Romanian poet, writer and philosopher Lucian Blaga. One of these villages is Breb, in Maramures County, where we arrived thanks to the infotrip "Rediscovering Maramures" organized by the National Association of Tourism Agencies in partnership with the Maramures County Council. In Breb, houses built hundreds of years ago have become immortal, refusing to leave even if the people who built them or their descendants have moved to the city or gone to other countries. Wooden houses with roofs made of shingles, in the Maramures style, have remained in Breb, battered by rain and wind, scorched by the sun or covered in thatch, waiting for a day when they will come to life.

And this life came with the involvement of the Mihai Eminescu Trust Foundation, which took over several houses over 16 years ago, and over time brought several more from other areas that it subjected to an extensive restoration process. Moreover, the British journalist William Blacker bought a house in Breb and later convinced the former Prince Charles, the current King of Great Britain, to visit the village and get involved in supporting the foundation that deals with the restoration of traditional Maramures houses.

The abandoned houses in Breb also came to life when the Vale family, ten years ago, decided to buy the first traditional building in this village, after which they bought eight more, which they restored over time, redecorated them according to local customs, gave each one a name and practically opened a tourist business in the town.

We started getting involved in the acquisition and restoration of traditional houses in Breb 10 years ago, and for 9 years we have actually moved to this locality. We came from Cluj and started with a small house - Casa din Vale, and now we have nine traditional houses. Eight of them are saved, the ninth is being reconstructed. We have preserved the traditional architecture and used wood to be an incentive that we can continue, that we can move forward in this direction. We have everything we need here. It is quiet here, and the people are good. They welcomed us warmly, and when needed, everyone jumps in to help. Here you gain time, you have all the time for yourself, for your family, for your hobbies, for whatever you choose to dedicate your time to", Roxana Vale, a former fashion designer in Cluj-Napoca, told us.

• Fest in Vale - a festival with tradition in Breb

Moreover, for a complete tourist experience, the Vale family also took care of offering unforgettable cultural moments for the guests they host in the traditional houses in Breb. Thus, they organize the annual "Fest in Vale", on a stage set up on one of the lands they own and where the spectators sit on straw bales - two people per bale - as it says on the nearby poster, a festival where several bands played, but also where they screened films that had previously been presented at TIFF. In addition to this festival, in another place belonging to the same family, called the Cultural Garden, a traditional folklore evening with ceteras takes place every week, as well as conferences and gastronomic fairs to which all tourists who are in Breb are invited to participate for free.

Florin Vale, a former sales agent, told us: "Nine years ago when we moved here, I said to myself: "This is great, we buy and bring old houses, tourists come, the place is wonderful, absolutely gorgeous'". However, it seemed to me that something was missing. That's when we decided to organize traditional evenings with ceteras. And they came, I'm not exaggerating, every weekend, during the summer. Then we organized the festival, and for it, in a house located in the immediate vicinity, we set up a Library. Basically, the Library is actually a place where we gather in the evening with our guests and which turns into a kind of backstage during the festival".

The first major cultural event organized by the Vale family in 2025 will take place on April 19. It is about "Târg în Sat - Easter Edition", an event that will take place in the Vale family's Cultural Garden, a place where creativity, sustainability and things made with soul meet. The fair will feature artists, artisans, designers and small producers with handmade objects, local delicacies will be cooked and served, and tourists will also enjoy authentic creations.

On July 12 and 13, the TIFF Caravan will stop in Breb, at Casa din Vale, and in addition to outdoor film screenings, the hosts have also included in the program the organization of creative workshops, a party with a DJ, a picnic and wine tasting, and a pop-up bar.

This year's edition of "Fest în Vale" will take place between August 15 and 17, and the event poster includes famous bands, including Subcarpaţi and the Iza group.

• Number of accommodation units in Breb - increasing

When the Vale family moved to Breb there were very few accommodation units, meaning six or seven guesthouses. After nine years, the number of accommodation units has grown exponentially, reaching 61 guesthouses at the end of last year. And since then, as private investments have increased in number in Breb, the purchase price of land in the area has also increased. The Vale couple told us that, if ten years ago they paid a few thousand euros for their first house and the related land, now a plot of land near their tourist area is being sold for 40,000 euros, which is 15 times more than the price paid in 2015.

• "Restaurant" in Casa lu' Dochia

Another young couple who decided to move from the city to the village of Breb and set up a business in the tourism sector is Andreea and Marius Ceterchi. In 2019, they opened the Casa lu' Dochia restaurant in a traditional building in Breb, a name inspired not by the famous old woman Dochia, but by a housewife from the village who became known for the exceptional quality of the pies she made. In the meantime, the house-restaurant has been modernized and expanded, joining two other traditional houses dating back almost 100 years, houses relocated from the Maramureş town of Budeşti, which have been restored and modernized without removing their authentic elements, such as the thatched roof. Casa lu' Piştău and Casa lu' Stefan completed, along with Casa lu' Dochia, what is today called the Casa Moroşenilor complex in Breb, the two buildings being the ones that inspired those who created the traditional beers PIPA lu' Piştău and Lageru' lu' Stefan, which you can discover at Casa lu' Dochia. Across the street from Casa lu' Dochia, the Ceterchi family also owns a distillery, where they produce the famous Maramures horincă.

Andreea Ceterchi told us: "On April 22nd, it will be six years since we opened the restaurant in the old house. It was only the bottom and half of the building that you see. We dismantled the entire house, reassembled it, renovated it and put a barn behind it. We first came to Breb nine years ago, as tourists. We are from Maramureş, but we had not managed to get to Breb until then, to visit these places. We met with the people from Casa din Vale; my husband was a colleague of Florin Vale at a multinational. The Vale family told us how they got here, how they acquired the land and they suggested we open a restaurant and collaborate. They had accommodation and we had a restaurant. The two cooks we have are from here in the village. We try to use local ingredients as much as possible, except in winter when we preserve what we can, and we buy the rest from elsewhere. Later, we We relocated the two houses, refurbished them and opened them for the first time during the pandemic, in 2020, after the state of emergency was lifted. That year was the most prosperous for us, because Romanians stayed in the country, they did not leave due to sanitary conditions on vacation abroad and preferred to visit Maramures. Since then, we have not faced a decrease in the number of tourists, especially since Breb is experiencing an increase in tourists who want to come to nature and show their children the animals and birds in the village households. We have tourists asking us where they can go with their children so they can see how the cow is milked".

• European funding for the conservation and rehabilitation of houses in Breb

To finance the restoration and conservation of traditional Maramures houses in Breb, local authorities, with the support of county and central authorities, have launched a project through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The project, which provides for the conservation and rehabilitation of 12 wooden households, is expected to be ready by the end of 2025, according to local authorities, although the maximum deadline was April 2026. The project to rehabilitate wooden houses in Breb began in 2023 and aimed to allocate an amount of 60,000 euros for each household over 80 years old included in the rehabilitation program, including the former parish house. The "Vernacular Heritage of Breb Village" project amounts to 5.11 million lei, financed by the PNRR and Maramureş County's own funds. The value of the community contribution to the project is 3.42 million lei. The project financing contract was signed in October 2022.

Ioan Oanea, the mayor of Ocna-Şugatag commune, told us: "With the support of the County Council, in 2023 we started the first project in the country regarding the conservation and rehabilitation of 12 wooden households. It was a project through European funds and the first locality in Romania chosen to implement this project was Breb. It is a very beautiful project, through which 12 homes or households, some of which are just residential houses, others also include annexes, are rehabilitated to be visible to tourists. The project was carried out by the County Council, Ocna-Şugatag City Hall and the Order of Architects, Northwest Branch. Each house had a designer and architect, each house has its own specifics, following the redesign or technical solution it has other elements and each house was financed with 60,000 euros. Some of them reached it, others did not. Now we are waiting for its completion so that those tourists who visit us can see the houses that, at the end of the project, will look like the houses of our grandparents, will preserve those traditional wooden elements. We have many plans for the future. The first project for which we have even completed the acquisition phase is also for Breb and also in terms of tourism. We, the local authorities, thought and submitted a very beautiful project, I would say, through which in the middle of the village of Breb we will hold a so-called folk crafts fair. So, we will make some wooden buildings, specific, with parking lots, everything, where the folk craftsmen - Brebul has a lot of craftsmen, starting with the women who sew the famous Maramures shirts, which you have surely had the opportunity to see - and then we thought of organizing a specific place for them, because otherwise, you see, we have to go visit Ioan Petric (folk craftsman who carves wood) at his home, where he has his workshop. We are preparing a special, traditional place for them, where the craftsmen will come to exhibit their products and hold workshops, to see how they work live. The project is not too big, it is only 100,000 euros, but it is enough because, as I told you, we are making traditional wooden buildings and annexes", the mayor said.

• Ecotourism in Breb

Edit Pop, the manager of the Eco Maramures ecotourism destination, told us that Breb is an authentic village, with 380 households and 931 locals.

Edit Pop specified: "But this village is somewhat very favored from the perspective of its location in an extraordinarily beautiful space. You should know that we have 12 villages in the Eco Maramures destination, but none of them is of such beauty and we cannot find all the ingredients in one place that can make a tourist happy. Here, if a tourist comes to Breb, he can stay for three days in peace. I would allocate three days for a complete experience in Breb, where you can discover real life in the countryside at your own pace, you can see people working in the fields, you can see the animals in the yard, you can see the animals around the village, you can let your children run around, frolic, because it is not on the main road. There are many very beautiful streets, there are wooden houses, traditional architecture that is preserved and is being reborn in this village also thanks to tourism, because these old houses were dismantled from their original places, maybe tens of kilometers away, from other villages, or even the wooden houses here, belonging to the locals, were transformed into authentic accommodation locations, where the tourist can even live, feel, actually experience what it means to live in a wooden house. Because these wooden houses have their own life. They breathe differently, they are cool in the summer, warm in the winter. It is a perfume of the era, it is a perfume of authenticity, of the reality of village life as can be found in very few places at the moment. Each inhabitant of Breb tries to find his place in this tourism story that is developing in the village".

The village of Breb is located at the base of the Gutâi Mountains, being located 25 kilometers from Sighetul Marmaţiei and 52 kilometers from Baia Mare. Together with Hoteni and Sat Şugatag, Breb belongs to the commune of Ocna Şugatag, located 7 kilometers away. The village of Breb is documented under its current name from 1715. On March 20, 1360, it is mentioned under the name Vallis Olahalis or Hodpataka, which would translate as "the village of the brook with sheep". The sheep is a European animal related to the beavers of America. The name breb comes from the word of Indo-European origin, "bhebhrus" whose root means chestnut-shiny. Unfortunately, this species of beaver (breb) was hunted almost to extinction. But this legacy remained in Maramures. The name of the village Breb, considered one of the most beautiful villages in Maramures.