Home » Romania » The Brasov Bear Sanctuary Romania (Heartbreaking) Brasov Bears
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Romania has plenty of bears. Half of the European brown bear population lives on the forested hills of this beautiful country. When we talk about saving bears, we’re not talking so much about the wild Romanian bears, as the ones who have had a terrible existence, held captive by private owners and in small Eastern European zoo enclosures until fairly recently. This post is about a bear sanctuary in Romania, near Brasov Transylvania.
Poor Max. The saddest resident of the Brasov Bear Sanctuary, read his tragic story below.
This is where the Libearty Bear Sanctuary comes in, re-homing, rehabilitating, and giving these captive bears a chance of ending their days in a more natural environment.
We had the opportunity to visit these rescued Romania bears at the bear sanctuary near Brasov, their stories will break your heart.
First an introduction. We are travel bloggers, we lived in Romania for 3 years and travel in Romania is one of our favourite things. We hope you find all of our Romania guides, useful, there are plenty more!
Getting to the Libearty Bear Sanctuary from Brasov
To reach the Sanctuary from Brasov we drove through picturesque towns and villages before reaching open countryside and gently rolling hills. Craggy mountains, still capped with snow in June, added a dramatic backdrop.
This is typical Romanian farming territory where cows wear bells, shepherds watch flocks and red tasseled horses pull traditional carts. The bears aren’t far away.
The sanctuary is above the town of Zarnesti.
Parking our truck under an oak tree with magnificent valley views, we joined our tour. We were held up by a train crossing the road and so missed the start of the documentary film introducing the sanctuary and its work.
From the small media centre an English speaking guide showed us around and introduced us to some of the bears.
The Experience of Visiting the Bears
Reality check. Some bears spent their whole lives in cages like this one, barely able to move.
I’m not going to give you too much information, it would spoil your visit. But I will tell you that for us it was a thrill to see Romania’s bears for the first time after living here on and off for a year.
Bears are magnificent animals. So we were both delighted and deeply saddened by our visit.
Some, all, of these bears have had lives full of torture and suffering. The sanctuary does what it can to make the rest of their lives more natural and comfortable.
Is The Brasov Bear Sanctuary Good For Kids?
Yes, the Brasov Bear sanctuary is a very family-friendly, interesting and fun place to take kids. If your kids enjoy wildlife and being outdoors and are interested enough to listen to the guided tour. There’s lots of open space and they may be able to have a run around if they can do so safely.
As always, our Aussie/ British kids learned a lot from our visit and were full of questions about the bears and their stories.
They love our stays in Romania for the freedom, the simplicity and beauty of our village life, the meadows filled with wildflowers and, of course, the Romanian wildlife. What kid wouldn’t get a kick out of wolves and bears?
The European Brown Bear in Romania
European brown bears in Romania are common and can come in quite a range of colours and sizes.
Brown Bear Diet
What do brown bears eat? Well, mostly brown bears don’t eat people. Neither are they designed to live on a diet of corn and scraps thrown by tourists, as the inmate of the cell above endured for 12 long years.
He is now safe at the bear sanctuary near Brasov.
European Brown Bears are omnivores and forage for acorns, plants, fruit, insects, roots and bulbs of plants. When they get hungry enough, they will hunt for meat.
Brown Bear Distribution in Europe and Romania
You can find some rather beautiful animal distribution maps here. You’ll notice that Romanian wildlife isn’t limited to bears, Romania also has wolves and lynx. You can read a post about how our local shepherds protect their flocks from predators in Romania here.
Bear Watching in Romania
You can go bear watching in Romania, but sightings are far from guaranteed. We’ve lived in an area with bears and have never seen one, although somebody was mauled far up the mountain last year.
Lonely Planet gives information on brown bear watching opportunities in Romania. Tours do exist and around Brasov it’s possible to find them feeding from bins at night.
Visiting the Libearty Bear Sanctuary, Near Brasov, Transylvania
Libearty for bears near Brasov.
The bear sanctuary is not far from Brasov, a must-visit town in Transylvania and not too far to drive from Bucharest.
The information below was correct at the time we visited.
Casual visits aren’t allowed, guests must join a group tour at 9, 10 or 11am, there are no further admissions after 11 to give the bears some peace. You need to contact the sanctuary to arrange a visit. Full details are at the end of the page.
All the bears have been rescued from hellish existences, tiny cages, bad food, social deprivation and being used as tourist attractions.
Poor Max will break your heart. Taken from the wild as a cub he was kept chained to a fence outside Peles Castle, Transylvania, for his whole life.
Tourists would come to take photos and his owner would torture and drug him to make him compliant. He is blind and crippled, too damaged to join the other bears in the huge communal enclosures. Read more of Max’s story here.
On arrival bears undergo rehabilitation and males are castrated, there will never be cubs born here. When they are ready the bears are released into massive natural enclosures on land loaned to the sanctuary.
There are 86 bears in the sanctuary on the day we visited, along with 9 wolves, if you’re lucky you’ll catch a glimpse, we did. The wolves are much shyer than the bears and are also rescue animals.
Where to Stay to Visit the Brasov Bear Sanctuary?
Most visitors will come from Brasov. Brasov is a well-established town that caters well to tourists. There are a number of other great tourist attractions and historic cities to visit in this part of Transylvania.
You could also stay in beautiful Sighisoara and reach the bear sanctuary in under 1.5 hours by car. Sibiu is also nearby. For Romania we suggest checking the usual online booking sites, Booking.com works well for Europe. Hotels, apartments and pensiune in Romania tend to be very affordable and standards high in proportion to price.
Libearty Bear Sanctuary Contact
It’s worth knowing that Libearty takes bears internationally, one bear is from Texas USA, others from nearby countries outside Romania. 93 bears have been saved so far.
Contact Email : milioanedeprieteni@gmail.com or the Libearty Bear Sanctuary website.
Tel: +40 268 471 202 or +40 722 533 895
You can support the bears by visiting, your admission fee helps keep the bears. Also by adopting or donating directly.
Thre is also a Bear Sanctuary book, available to buy online. It tells the full story of how and why the sanctuary began, along with beautiful images and the stories that go with the bears.
Thanks for visiting our site and we hope you found our post on the Brasov Bear Sanctuary useful. We like to think we’re a fairly expert travel blog on Romania after spending almost 2 years living in a remote village. WE love Romania and you can find more information on travel to and in Romania, along with snippets of village life, by visiting our Romania Travel Blog page. If you’re staying near Brosov check out our monster guide on things to do in and around Brasov.
We also suggest you take a look at this company to get a quote for all kinds of the more tricky adventure or extended travel insurance.
Try Stayz / VRBO for an alternative way to find rentals on homes/apartments/condos in any country!
About the author
Alyson Long
Alyson Long is a British medical scientist who jumped ship to chase dreams. A former Chief Biomedical Scientist at London's West Middlesex Hospital she started in website creation and travel writing in 2011.
Alyson is a full-time blogger and travel writer, a published author, and owns several websites. World Travel Family is the biggest.
A lifetime of wanderlust and over 6 years of full-time travel, plus a separate 12 month gap year, has given Alyson and the family some travel expert smarts to share with you on this world travel site.
Today Alyson still travels extensively to update this site and continue her mission to visit every country, but she's often at home on her farm in Australia.
4 thoughts on “The Brasov Bear Sanctuary Romania (Heartbreaking) Brasov Bears”
Being a local Romanian living in Brașov, I’m quite used to the presence of bears in the vicinity of the town. However, during the last years, thanks to the efforts of the rangers and foresting authorities, bears tend to stay in the forest, even if their number is high and their habitat is reduced by deforestation.
The sanctuary’s work is stunning, helping abused bears live the life they always dreamed of.
But that’s one thing and seeing the brown bears in the wild is another thing. I’ve been bear watching in Romania a lot of times and almost each time, we’ve seen at least one bear. Of course, nobody can guarantee 100% that you will see bears but at least you get to observe their behavior in the wild, not in enclosed areas.
Romania should really consider brown bears as a national treasure!
That is a nice and honest review of the bear sanctuary and the efforts they make to resque the bears are remarcable. The sanctuary has been around for 20 years and saved hundreds of bears.
The sad news is that Max, the elderly blind bear, has passed away at the age of 22 (according to their website).
Meantime, there is another way to see bears in Romania: in the forest, in their natural environment. There are more companies offering this kind of activities and here are examples of bear watching tours:
Being a local Romanian living in Brașov, I’m quite used to the presence of bears in the vicinity of the town. However, during the last years, thanks to the efforts of the rangers and foresting authorities, bears tend to stay in the forest, even if their number is high and their habitat is reduced by deforestation.
The sanctuary’s work is stunning, helping abused bears live the life they always dreamed of.
But that’s one thing and seeing the brown bears in the wild is another thing. I’ve been bear watching in Romania a lot of times and almost each time, we’ve seen at least one bear. Of course, nobody can guarantee 100% that you will see bears but at least you get to observe their behavior in the wild, not in enclosed areas.
Romania should really consider brown bears as a national treasure!
Yep, love the bears. But in 3 years in Romania we never saw a wild one, only footprints.
That is a nice and honest review of the bear sanctuary and the efforts they make to resque the bears are remarcable. The sanctuary has been around for 20 years and saved hundreds of bears.
The sad news is that Max, the elderly blind bear, has passed away at the age of 22 (according to their website).
Meantime, there is another way to see bears in Romania: in the forest, in their natural environment. There are more companies offering this kind of activities and here are examples of bear watching tours:
Thanks for this post. And especially the part where you remind the world not to support animal abuse in tourism!