Tour 1: 4th day

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 4: Sibiu: Bruckenthal Museum - Sibiu: Astra Museum - Cisnadioara - Medias - Biertan

Click here to see the map and the distances!

In the morning we’ll go to Bruckenthal Museum (situated in baroque styled Bruckental Palace), the oldest art gallery in Romania. Thanks to the Austrian Governor, Samuel von Bruckental (1721-1803), who was a great art lover, the museum displays a very fine collection of paintings, folk art and butterfly collections, not to mention the Bruckental Library, containing more than 280 000 books (well, I suppose we won’t have time to read them all :) ). The local pottery, silverware and furniture collections are also a good reason to visit this museum.

After visiting Bruckental Museum (and believe me, it will take some time!) we’ll go to Dumbrava Sibiului to see the finest Museum of Popular Techniques (or ASTRA Museum) in Romania . This open-air ethnographic museum displays most rural buildings from all over Romania, and you’ll get a glimpse of how the other rural regions of this country look like. Water mills, wind mills, houses, together with some beautiful folk costumes, pottery, they can all be seen in this great open air museum.

Depending on time, we might go to the picturesque village of Cisnadioara. The fortified church from this village is very well preserved.

Well, after visiting most of Sibiu’s attractions, it’s time to have lunch in a nice restaurant in Sibiu and then to move on to Medias, 50 km away, to visit its Evangelical Church, in fact a real citadel, with ramparts and towers.

The most important work of art displayed in here is the church’s altar, dating from 1485, one of the most important piece of medieval art in Transylvania. Well, at the end of the day, we go 20 km away from Medias, in Biertan.

I see Biertan as one hidden small piece of jewelry, and for sure my words can’t describe what I felt when I first went there. The main attraction in Biertan, the fortified church, was built by Saxons during the 15 century. It has an amazing altar, with 28 panels, and is surrounded by 3 layers of walls, the tallest of them being over 12 m tall. I really don’t want to mention more about this village because on the web there’s an excellent web site with a lot of great pictures from this village : www.biertan.ro . We’ll also have dinner in a very attractive restaurant in Biertan, and then we move on to our host, near Sighisoara, 28 km away.