Bear sanctuary

Saturday
This morning we visited the Liberty bear sanctuary, located in the hills above Zarnesti. The sanctuary was created because of the need to rescue over 50 bears found suffering in small and rusted cages around the country where they had been kept as pets or as a means of attracting customers to restaurants, petrol stations, etc. The bears were all caught from the wild as cubs and had lived all their lives in confined cages with a poor diet and little or no veterinary care. The bears (currently about 70) now live in large partly forested enclosures, with water holes for them to swim in. Although the bears feed on the vegetation, nuts and berries available in the forest they do need additional food, which is distributed by sanctuary staff every day. You visit the sanctuary with a guided tour - fortunately they do one in English(!) - which are held at limited times of the day, leaving the bears in peace for much of the day.
From the bear sanctuary, we continued on to Prejmer fortified church. The largest fortified church in southeastern Europe, Prejmer was built by Teutonic knights in 1212-1213. The powerful surrounding walls are 40 feet high and 10-15 feet thick. Historical records attest that in its 500 years of existence, the fortress was besieged 50 times, but only captured once. The church is endowed with bastions, drawbridges and a secret, subterranean passage through which food supplies could be transported. Access to the building was through a 100-foot-long arched passage fortified with two sets of gates. Each village family had a designated room for shelter in case of attack. The red-roofed wall accommodated 272 rooms, stacked over four stories and linked by wooden staircases. I have included a picture in the extras.
This still left us a couple of hours to explore Brasov more thoroughly, walking up to the fortress, seeing several churches, and enjoying a lovely shady walk along the defensive wall, past several towers.