Documentary | 20 April 2024

Colin Stafford-Johnson

Beyond the sinister mythology of Dracula’s crumbling castles, there’s something extraordinary about this corner of Romania. Shielded by the arc of the Carpathian Mountains, it is one of Europe’s last true wildernesses. Forests unchanged since the Middle Ages are home to the world’s biggest wolf packs, sanctuary to magnificent lynx and European brown bear. Abandoned medieval villages are resettled by elegant storks, the mythical childbringers of old, while families of mouse-eared bats struggle to raise their fragile young within the ruins of a 500-year old church.