In Transylvania, a Hotel That Offers Beekeeping and Hay Bathing

Outside the tiny town of Simon in Romania’s Carpathian Mountains, an NGO called Foundation Conservation Carpathia is creating a 66,000-acre national park. It’s against that backdrop that the hotelier Bogdan Calulanu opened Matca, a 16-room hotel with 10 private villas. Matca is the Romanian word for “queen bee,” the name a reference to the beekeeping practiced in this honey-producing corner of Transylvania and also to the pastoral serenity of a region that’s barely changed since the Middle Ages.

Reflecting the architectural style of the area’s traditional fortified farms (Transylvania was once the western frontier of the Hungarian Empire and subject to regular raids by the Turks), Matca’s guest rooms are set inside two stone-and-wood farmhouses with interior courtyards. The rooms’ earth-tone color schemes are apparent in natural linen curtains and upholstery, raw oak floors and furniture, undyed wool blankets and reed baskets that contrast with sleek Italian lighting and bathroom fixtures. Stup, the hotel’s restaurant, serves dishes based on the seasonal produce of Transylvania’s small farms, among them mamaliga, a Romanian take on polenta; wild mushrooms; and excellent ewe’s-milk cheeses. The hotel’s Ambrozie spa features a heated indoor pool with spectacular views and offers a range of treatments including phytothermotherapy, a body wrap using fermented hay. Guided hikes, beekeeping lessons and workshop visits with local craftspeople are also available. Rooms from about $523 a night, matcahotel.com.

Covet This

A Candle Maker and Sculptor Couple’s Luminous Collaboration

For Rodrigo Garcia, the founder of the Paris-based candle brand Amen, candlelight reminds him of the first home he ever lived in. “I come from a small town in Flores, Uruguay, and in the countryside there was no electricity until I was around 10 years old,” he says. Years later, while dining outdoors by candlelight one windy evening in Uruguay, Garcia and his partner, the sculptor Katharina Kaminski, were inspired to create a protective vessel for the flame. Amen’s Light Sculptures are the result of the pair’s creative collaboration, a series of cavernous earthen candles available in three of the brand’s signature scents, each with an intended effect: Vetiver is meant to be calming, sandalwood soothing and eucalyptus invigorating. The varying clay finishes of the pieces were inspired by Kaminski’s travels — her visits to the Moroccan desert and the…