A different kind of village… seen from afar, from Rod, it looks like a crowded settlement on the edge of a mountain peak.
However, as soon as you enter the village the big, modern houses with stone cobbled yards and rich decorations will surely convince you that you are in one of the richest communities of Mărginimea Sibiului. And how could it be any other way? The villagers have always been shepherds and what at first seemed to them like a curse - the lack of pastures - proved to be a blessing in the end.
Locals took their sheep to more auspicious lands and, being good merchants and wise householders, invested the earnings in their village. It is not for nothing that the village is also known as “the village of the millionaire shepherds”. Nowadays shepherding has still remained a basic occupation. If you visit a sheepfold, you will see the shepherdesses, proud women with sunburned cheeks who never cease to prepare telemea and burduf cheese.
For your sheepfold experience to be complete, take a slice of fresh polenta with burduf cheese, enjoy the delicious snack and admire the delightful scenery.
On each Sunday they organize the weekly fair: this is a good opportunity to know the locals with their joys and sorrows and the local traditions. A very special day for the village is September 19th. Each year on this date Poiana turns into a genuine “trade centre for sheep and rams”. Shepherds from the entire country come to this fair to negotiate, sell and buy animals and to prepare their flocks for the transhumance.
Poiana is also the starting point for countless trips to the surrounding mountain slopes. Just like any other village, Poiana, too has its legends, like the one of the bells from the wooden church.
Did you know...?
The telemea cheese is a specialty from Mărginime. They make it by curdling the milk and it is eaten without salt (when fresh) or salted (in winter when it is kept in brine in fir wood barrels).