Sighisoara By Night

In another review I recommended you spend at least one night in Sighisoara.

While the town, and in particular the Citadel, is small and could be “done” in half a day you would miss so much by so doing. This is a place for strolling around. Take your time wander the streets. Sit down, have a coffee or bite to eat and then wander again. Repeat process again.

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Romulus And Remus – In Transylvania

On a walk between the Citadel and the train station I came across this statue of the Capitoline wolf feeding Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of Rome. One face value the existence of this statue here appears somewhat odd.

Holy Trinity Orthodox Church

You can see this striking black and white Neo-Byzantine style Eastern Orthodox church on the northern bank of the Tarnava Mare river in Elisabeth Park from the Citadel (next picture). To visit it, just head for the train station – it’s about half way from the citadel to the station – take the pedestrian bridge across the river.

In Defence Of Sighisoara – Towers

As you may have read in my general review on Sighisoara Citadel, the Citadel dates back to the 12th century when Transylvanian Saxons, were ordered here by the King of Hungary to settle and defend the Carpathian frontier against the steppe peoples. For this and also to keep later would be intruders at bay the fortified settlement of walls and towers was constructed and enhanced over time. In all 14 towers were built. These towers were built by various craft guilds – from which they derived their names.

St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church

A truly modern building in a town where the majority of buildings date from the 15th century and earlier, St Joseph’s was built in 1894, after the demolition of the Franciscan convent (pre-1723 its was Dominican). The Church was designed by a Sighisoara architect Letz and has an organ made by Kerl Einschenk in 1908.

Church of the Dominican Monastery

The Church of the Dominican Monastery, dedicated to St Mary, was constructed in 1298 and formed part of a Dominican monastic settlement until 1556 when the church became the Saxons’ main Lutheran church. The remaining monastery buildings were demolished in 1888 and the current town hall built in their place.

The House With The Stag

Located on the main plaza in the Citadel is a house with a stag head protruding from it– look up to see this agreeable curiosity.

Birthplace of Dracula

It is generally accepted that Bram Stoker’s famous character, Dracula, was based on the historical figure Vlad Tepes (also called Vlad Dracula and Vlad the Impaler).

Vlad was born in this well to do house in Sighisoara (pictures 1 and 2) in November or December 1431.

School On The Hill

How old this school is is a matter of conjecture. Transcripts found by the University of Vienna suggest that around 100 students from the School on the Hill, Sighisoara followed University courses between 1402 and 1520. Official records date from 1522.

Church on the Hill

Reached by means of the Scholars’s Stairs the Gothic-style Biserica din Deal – Church on the Hill, dedicated to St Nicholas, took nearly two hundred years to build on the site of a former Roman basilica. It is arguably the most architecturally significant building in Sighisoara. Its construction started in 1345 and continued, on and off, until 1525.