Tour 1: 5th day

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 5 : Sighisoara - Viscri - Villages on Tarnava Valley

Click here to see the map and the distances!

Well, I can’t wait to wake up, open my eyes and see that I’am just near Sighisoara, a town world famous for its best-preserved medieval appearance.

Every foreign guidebook on Romania has many pages covering this subject, and this for a very good reason. The old town is one of the very few medieval towns in Europe still “doing its job”. People live, go to work, make love etc., in houses centuries old. And when I say centuries, imagine that this town is firstly mentioned in the 12 century, under the name “Castrum Sex”, at that time being no more than a small fortress at the upper side of the hill, where we see nowadays “Biserica din Deal” (“The Church on the Hill” dating from 1345!) and “Scoala din Deal” (“School on the Hill”). If asked to name a symbol of this city, it would be with no doubts “The Clock Tower”, where we can visit today the local history museum.

The impressive clock, being more than 350 years old, displays at exact hours figurines representing many characters of the Saxon pantheon. Other things which I don’t miss when I’am in Sighisoara are the “Covered Stairways” (built in 1642), the German cemetery, the Church of the Dominican Monastery (the Sunday service is absolutely amazing, not to mention classical, baroque and folk concerts which take place in here).

Every year, Sighisoara is home to tens of thousands of teenagers, tourists, musicians, wanderers, gypsies, students, and so on. The reason ? The Medieval Festival which takes place every year is a good occasion for the incoming visitors to listen to music (most of it classical, baroque and “medieval”), drink tens of bottles of beer and meet friends from all over the country.

It’s been more than 3 years since I go to this festival, and even if I had good times (very fine meetings with friends, great concerts in “Piata Centrala” or “Piata Boema”, concerts in the streets and so on) and also bad times (no available toilets, although the last year the situation greatly improved, the crowding at the train station) the overall impression is more than excellent. The pictures attached may describe more than I tried to describe in the poor lines above.

We’ll spend the whole morning in Sighisoara (we’ll have plenty of things to see and admire over there), and after we have lunch in a great restaurant in Sighisoara we go on to Viscri, 45 km away from Sighisoara, to visit another piece of “medieval jewelry” that most Romanians haven’t even heard about! What amazes us from the beginning it’s the fact that the place is quite remote from the rest of the “civilization”, such a massive construction being more fit in a city developed under the historical “protection” of such a fortress. Nevertheless, this fortified church is the only Transylvanian Saxon Fortress mentioned in a pictorial guide, “Europe”, written in 1935 by Martin Hürlimann. Another thing worth mentioned here is the fact that “Eminescu Foundation” (sponsored by Prince Charles of Great Britain) has begun preserving the church and old Saxon houses to keep them in good condition for the next generations. Initially inhabited by Szekely (or“secui” as the Romanians call them), their task being to protect the south-east border of the Hungarian Kingdom, this fortress was afterwards inhabited with Saxons, who have improved the fortress’ defensive walls. The tower of the fortress was built in late 13th century and served as a dwelling for the local noble. I’am sure you’ll love this small village, as it is quite remote, thus the local ancient customs being preserved at their best.

Depending on the available time, we might as well pass through other villages close to this one, all of them having ancient Saxon fortified churches: Homorod, Cata, Drauseni, Bunesti. Here in Bunesti, as part of the fortified church, we can see Speckturm (Bacon Tower), still in use as a bacon storage. Back on the main road to Brasov, we’ll pass through Maierus, Rotbav, Feldioara, and we’ll admire from the car the beauty of this ancient Saxon heritage. We’ll have a good dinner in Brasov, then a short walk in the old center, as we’ll go to sleep in a very comfortable pension just near Brasov.